Pina-Odori: Sit down and Smile

2022-2023 | The project is an intercultural encounter based on the artistic overlap of Pina Bausch’s “Kontakthof” and the Japanese Bon-Odori dance. For this purpose, we will rehearse a corresponding dance piece with a group of elderly people at Atelier Furusato in Japan and perform it next summer at a public venue in Onishi/ Fujioka.

このプロジェクトは、ピナ・バウシュの「コンタックトフ」と日本の盆踊りとの芸術的な重なりをもとにした異文化間の出会いです。そのために、日本のアトリエふるさとで高齢者グループと対応するダンス作品をリハーサルし、来年の夏、尾西・藤岡の公共の場で上演します。

For several years now as an artist, I have been developing wearable sculptures made of paper in my artistic work, often based on Japanese designs. For Pina-Odori, I will design performative clothing for about seven people and realise it at Atelier Furusato.

私はアーティストとして数年前から、和柄をベースにした紙製のウェアラブルスカルプチャーを芸術作品の中で展開しています。今回の「Pina-Odori」では、7人程度のパフォーマティブな服をデザインし、アトリエ・ふるさとで実現します。

My interest in Pina Bausch‘s piece is partly due to its depiction of mimetic processes by which we as spectators internalise this piece. The exaggerated display of perfect body control confronts the audience with the automatism of non-verbal behaviour patterns and gestures that reflect the social code in the everyday world. The focus is on the staging and rhythmic performance of body-based scenes and movements and their approach. However, the mostly cross-gender gestures often fail. The bodies perform the movements directed at each other, but they do not reach their counterparts. The spectator also senses the intention and at the same time experiences the failure of its realisation. Thus, men and women have to keep repeating their game, even though they know, like Sisyphus, that there are no successful encounters.

>> First performance tests with paper clothing

Partly funded by