Documentary Choreography
A lecture by Arkadi Zaides (choreographer) within the frame of “New School - Pilot Project for the Preservation of Contemporary Dance and the Performing Arts”
1 OCTOBER 2022 - 14:00 CET
SOMETHING GREAT - KÜNSTLERHAUS
Schloss Mentin (Am Schloss 2)
19376 Ruhner Berge OT Mentin
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Germany
This event will be held in English followed by lecture “The art of midwifery” by deufert&phlischke
ABOUT
In the last decade choreographer Arkadi Zaides has been exploring what he would like to call ‘Documentary Choreography’. ‘Documentary Choreography’ integrates documents (interviews, testimonies, video materials, existing archival information, and others) in the choreographic work. It strives to weave these types of factual information with embodied practices in order to question social and political realities within which this type of work is produced. Moreover, it aims at transgressing the often-safe space of the artistic field and intervening through the process of creation and exposure of the artistic work in the actual political realm.
In this talk, Zaides will focus on three of his recent projects: Archive (2014), Talos (2017) and Necropolis (2021). Archive embarked from the artist's research at the archives of B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, Talos takes as its starting point an EU funded project that assembled and tested an innovative robotic system for protecting the EU borders, while Necropolis embarked on investigating the most detailed archive to date documenting migrants’ and asylum seekers’ deaths taking place on the way to Europe. Analyzing the methodologies developed to engage with these documents, Zaides will unfold his key reflections on the notion of Documentary Choreography.
In the last decade choreographer Arkadi Zaides has been exploring what he would like to call ‘Documentary Choreography’. ‘Documentary Choreography’ integrates documents (interviews, testimonies, video materials, existing archival information, and others) in the choreographic work. It strives to weave these types of factual information with embodied practices in order to question social and political realities within which this type of work is produced. Moreover, it aims at transgressing the often-safe space of the artistic field and intervening through the process of creation and exposure of the artistic work in the actual political realm.
In this talk, Zaides will focus on three of his recent projects: Archive (2014), Talos (2017) and Necropolis (2021). Archive embarked from the artist's research at the archives of B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, Talos takes as its starting point an EU funded project that assembled and tested an innovative robotic system for protecting the EU borders, while Necropolis embarked on investigating the most detailed archive to date documenting migrants’ and asylum seekers’ deaths taking place on the way to Europe. Analyzing the methodologies developed to engage with these documents, Zaides will unfold his key reflections on the notion of Documentary Choreography.
BIOGRAPHY
Arkadi Zaides is an independent choreographer and visual artist from Israel and of Bielorussian origin, currently based in France. He performed in several companies such as the Batsheva Dance Company and the Yasmeen Godder Dance Group in Israel before embarking on an independent career in 2004. He obtained a master's degree at the AHK Academy of Theater and Dance in Amsterdam (NL). He is currently obtaining his practice-based PhD degree at Antwerp University. He is a member of CORPoREAL research group at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp and a member of S:PAM (Studies in Performing Arts & Media) in the Ghent University. His performances and installations have been presented in numerous dance and theater festivals, museums, and galleries across Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Over the years he has curated projects such as New Dance Project (2010-2011) with choreographer Anat Danieli, Moves Without Borders (2012-2015) in cooperation with Goethe Institute Tel Aviv, and Violence of Inscriptions (2015-2018) at HAU with the scholar, curator, and dramaturge Sandra Noeth. The latter gathered artists, thinkers, and human-rights activists to negotiate the role of the body in producing, maintaining, legitimizing, representing, and aestheticizing structural violence. He is a recipient of numerous prizes, among them a prize for demonstrating engagement in human-rights issues, awarded to Zaides by The Emile Zola Chair for Interdisciplinary Human Rights Dialogue (IL).
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Arkadi Zaides © Joeri Thiry / STUK Kunstencentrum
CREDITS
A project by Something Great supported by Diehl + Ritter / Tanzpakt Reconnect funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media) within the frame of the program Neustart Kultur.
