Stories of Art: dance and the visual arts as one
Coproduced by SE.S.TA Centre for Choreographic Development and Core Dance Studio in collaboration with the National Gallery Prague, the Gallery Without Borders project began in 2020. This year, the participating artists will finally meet in person.
- — DANCE AND THE MOVING BODY AS INSTALATION
- sun 10/10 2021 / 14:00 / Sculpture Garden of the Convent of St Agnes of Bohemia
- — 19TH CENTURY (WO)MAN: A CONTEMPORARY INTERVENTION
- wed 13/10 2021 / 18:00 / Trade Fair Palace, National Gallery Prague / exposition 1796–1918: Art of the Long Century
- — ARTISTS AT WORK: 3–13/10 2021 / both locations Experience the visual arts differently as you encounter choreographers in the midst of creation.
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(Artworks above: Pepa Mařáková, Self-Portrait with Her Father, 1896, collections NGP; Karel Malich, Red Sculpture, 1964 (2013), courtesy of Galerie Zdeněk Sklenář)
The visual and movement arts speak the same language
This October, Gallery Without Borders 2021 will present dance makers from the Czech Republic and the United States for the first time, live and in person. Unconventional performances will transform the Sculpture Garden at the Convent of St. Agnes and the exhibition 1796–1918: Art of the Long Century at the Trade Fair Palace.
Under the leadership of American choreographer, arts activist and mentor Sue Schroeder, selected Czech choreographers and members of Schroeder’s Core Dance ensemble will spend 10 days preparing their performances under the eyes of gallery visitors.
“Instead of taking an approach where an artwork "inspires" my dance making, I prefer to research and study artists‘ intentions. At the same time, I incorporate a number of artistic strategies into my dance process: painting, drawing, diary entries, line drawing, sculpture, etc. The point of departure for most of my work is improvisation and these alternative creative processes stimulate artists to discover new and unique types of movement,” says Schroeder, director and co-founder of Core Dance and the project’s lead artist and mentor.
Forging a new creative team; a live encounter after a year of online creation
In 2020, Sue Schroeder created a virtual process for Gallery Without Borders that engaged artists from the Czech Republic and the United States in group and individual coaching sessions. Artworks from the National Gallery’s permanent exhibition 1796–1918: Art of the Long Century were the foundation of this structure.
The full team participated in a total of five virtual sessions in April and May of 2020, which culminated with performances streamed live from the Czech Republic and the United States. The project involves Czech-based choreographers Eva Urbanová, Barbora Látalová, Zdenka Brungot-Svíteková, Johana Pocková and Roman Zotov-Mikshin. These artists got the chance to collaborate with a celebrated international practitioner and, thanks to the virtual environment, were also able to collaborate with a well-established group of American artists, Walter Apps, Benjamin (Laith) Stevenson, Shawn (Humlao) Evangelista, Iman Siferllah-Grim, working on the same artistic material at the same time.
Schroeder continued to hold online meetings into 2021. These have led to the creation of a new international dance ensemble, with a shared vocabulary and communication methods and the development of choreographic notation (scores) associated with specific artworks, chosen by the dancers from a selection curated by Schroeder.
One passes into the other: a new view on art
Gallery Without Borders is characterised by its departure from traditional understandings of dance. The project encourages fruitful and inspiring conversations about the visual arts and also facilitates a kinaesthetic approach to telling the “story of art.”
As is often the case in her work, Schroeder reflected on the intentions of the exhibition’s curators, Veronika Hulíková and Otto M. Urban. The selection of paintings she curated for the performers was dramaturgically divided into the same units as the exhibition: Man, World and Ideas.
In order to share scores and offer feedback in collective sessions, she introduced Lawrence Halprin’s RSVP Cycles. This method is used for generating individual and collective solutions to problems and to develop creativity.
DANCE AND THE MOVING BODY AS INSTALLATION
In the Sculpture Garden, encounters with works by Czech sculptors transform choreographic scores into an unusual conception of space informed by site-specific aesthetics. Dance guides the visitors‘ gaze across the stage of the entire garden, framed by the convent’s gothic architecture.
Selected sculptures (as reflected by the choreographers)
- — Stanislav Kolibal / Fall II (Eva Urbanová)
- — Aleš Veselý / Oblique Section through Oblique Axis (Roman Zotov-Mikshin & Walter Apps)
- — Aleš Veselý / Hanging Burden (Eva Urbanová & Iman Siferllah-Griffin)
- — Čestmír Suška / Drum (Laith Stevenson)
- — Karel Malich / Black and White Sculpture (Shawny Evans Humlao)
- — Karel Malich / Red Sculpture (Barbora Látalová)
- — Corridor (Zdenka Brungot Sviteková)
Music used in the performances
- — Waltz of Catherine the Great with Her Favourites / Oleg Karavaichuk
- — Incantation / Moses Sumney
- — Equivalent 1 / Loscil
- — Heartbeat / BBC Sound Effects
- — Icarus / PHILDEL
- — Waltz Op. 64 No. 2 in C-Sharp Minor / Frederic Chopin, Anna Fedorova
19TH CENTURY (WO)MAN: A CONTEMPORARY INTERVENTION
As is characteristic of her creative methodology, Sue Schroeder reflected on the intentions of curators Veronika Hulíková and Otto M. Urban while working in the exhibition 1796–1918: Art of the Long Century. The selection of paintings here was dramaturgically grouped into units that correspond to the exhibition’s three chapters: Man, World and Ideas.
Works of art enter into dialogue in the exhibi-tion; their authors could never have met one another, but now these paintings and sculptures meet in a new, interdisciplinary conversation with dance and the world of dancers. While the curators guide the visitors‘ gaze through the selection and placement of works in the exhibition space, the choreog-raphers do so actively and dynamically, here and now, through their movement and performance — their bodies become the visitors’ eyes.
Selected artworks (as reflected by the choreographers)
- — Pepa Mařáková / Self-Portrait with Her Father (Barbora Látalová)
- — Václav Brožík / Portrait of a Lady with Greyhound (Shawny Evans Humlao)
- — Luisa Max-Ehrlerová / Telegram (Eva Urbanová)
- — Karel Myslbek / Accident on the Building Site & Jakub Schikaneder / Vražda v domě / Murder in the House (Zdenka Brungot Sviteková)
- — Auguste Rodin / Martyr (Shawny Evans Humlao & Walter Apps)
- — František Kupka / The Gallien Girl (Johana Pocková)
- — Julius Mařák / Šumava Virgin Forest in the Storm (Johana Pocková)
- — Jan Preisler / Black Lake (Laith Stevenson)
- — Max Pirner / Somnambulant (Roman Zotov-Mikshin)
- — Max Švabinský / The Poor Country (Barbora Látalová & Zdenka Brungot Sviteková)
- — Max Švabinský / Union of Souls & Hanuš Knöchel / On the Seashore (Johana Pocková & Iman Siferllah-Griffin)
- — Otto Gutfreund / Anxiety (Walter Apps)
- — Arnošt Hofbauer / Pilgrim (Eva Urbanová & Iman Siferllah-Griffin)
Music used in the performances (in order as replayed)
- — Heartbeat / Vintage Recording, BBC Sound Effects
- — Má vlast: Vltava / Bedřich Smetana
- — Waltz Op. 64 No. 2 in C-Sharp Minor / Frederic Chopin, Anna Fedorova
- — Soundscore created by Humlao / Shawny Evans
- — A Walk / Tycho (feat. original composition by Jan Čtvrtník)
- — Equivalent 1 / Loscil
- — Waltz of Catherine the Great with Her Favourites / Oleg Karavaichuk
- — Incantation / Moses Sumney
— Free entrance.
— We respect the valid anti-epidemic measures of the government: covid.gov.cz.
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— Find the locations at Google Maps: Veletržní palác, Národní galerie Praha, Dukelských Hrdinů 47, 170 00 Praha 7-Holešovice Klášter sv. Anežky České , Národní galerie Praha, U Milosrdných 17, 110 00 Staré Město
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