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What does tanzmedial mean and what are the intentions of this particular project?
Birgit Hauska:
We understand it as the interplay and interaction of dance and “movement” with the new media. tanzmedial means: the media exploration of dance. In Germany, we are still operating from a very narrow compartmental thinking: there are the fine arts, there is music, there is film, there is dance. tanzmedial tries to show that such narrow “compartmental” thinking can't suffice today. By presenting the project tanzmedial we want to encourage people to look at dance in a new way and to rethink their perception of it. We are presenting contemporary dance that is based on the classical dance parameters space, time, form and rhythm, but that is, at the same time, integrating media technology which makes possible the creation of new images. Regarding contemporary dance trends and artistic media we have deliberately selected the forms of installation, photography and film from the contemporary dance trends and from the artistic media.
The concept evolved at the end of the international “danse screen” festival 1999, when besides dance films we began to present the first media exhibitions as well as performances and workshops which specifically revolved around the interplay of dance/movement with the new media. We wanted to continue right here and explore the topic on a larger scale with a specific exhibition.
Thomas Thorausch
Yes, it was in the context of “dance screen 99” when Deutsches Tanzarchiv presented young artists from the Kunsthochschule für Medien (among them Stephanie Thiersch) under the title profile Walter Verdin with his installation MOVING as well as under the title profiles - media choreographies. Already at that time, we played with the idea of presenting in a few years selected positions of an art direction in one comprehensive exhibition that integrates the fine arts, dance, film and modern technology.
What is so new and special about tanzmedial?
Birgit Hauska
New is to actually merge these contemporary dance trends and the artistic discourse about movement via a medial form and to exhibit, thematize and present them in a shared context.
Which audiences do you want to address with tanzmedial? And what is it you want to communicate?
Birgit Hauska
As I have already said: We want an exchange on dance that, in the best of all cases, will promote change, but in any case spur on a dialog. We are addressing an audience that is generally interested in art and culture. I personally believe, that the prejudice, that dance is a craft - decorative, apolitical, repeating the eternally old and therefore holding the least position among the arts -, is still occupying people's minds. We would certainly like to move away from this cliché. We want to present audiences with dance on the move in order to communicate that dance is very exciting, imbued with fun and spirit, and can be experienced zestfully and sensuously, and still have to say something.
According to which criteria have you selected the installations?
Birgit Hauska
The criteria for the selections were:
- Quality: all contributions are high-quality international productions.
- Continuity: we have selected artists whose work we have followed for quite some time and with whom we have already cooperated.
- Content and Form: we have placed importance on an equilibrium between content and technological input.
Thomas Thorausch
It was clear right from the beginning that it would be impossible - and not feasible - to present all the existing varieties and forms of the media dialog pertaining to dance and movement “representatively and comprehensively” in one exhibition. We therefore have intentionally focused on the discourse of dance and movement with the “new”, the “other” image of dance that fine artists, film directors, musicians, choreographers, dancers etc. are creating by applying media technology. If you wish tanzmedial is an exhibition of "Images" - just that these were created by using media technology. We were looking for these “new” images - and we found them in exhibitions in Berlin, Paris, Monaco, and Karlsruhe as well as in conversations and direct contacts with the artists.
How can this still new art field be communicated and be brought closer to audiences in an exciting way?
Rita Kramp
First of all through its presentation in which architecture plays an important role. Secondly through the selection of the exhibits of which each individual installation offers the visitor a different view, a new approach so that the variety of this new art direction can be clearly experienced. We are also offering discussions and guided tours on Sundays where each question can be answered specifically and comprehensively. In addition, we are showing Hans Beenhakker's film Time Steps in the public space in 25 German railroad stations. That will certainly draw attention and make people curious.
Which role does the apparently elaborate exhibition architecture play in all this? - And where do we find sensuality in all this technology?
Thomas Thorausch
The exhibition tanzmedial will present media art in a new context, in a new form that puts the artist's media image, his media vision as a work of art at center. The installations and projections which we selected for this exhibition will be “embedded” into an exhibition architecture that has been specifically designed for this purpose (by Constanze Gismann and Thomas Thorausch). It frames the “exhibits” like a walkable, polymorphic “matting” that transforms the space into a walkable multimedia experience. For this purpose, a second white floor has been installed in the exhibitions rooms of the SK Stiftung Kultur from which individual polymorphic white elements are “emerging” randomly (not following a clear geometry), structuring the space and, at the same time, serving as projection surfaces. These walls, which surround the room and floor installations, are painted in a grey-blue color in order to enhance the space installation and the individual installations presented within it. The choice of color for the exhibition space is aimed at avoiding the installation of additional lighting in order to draw the attention to the media visions. We intended to create a really fractured room situation in which the visitor must constantly redefine his position and attitude toward the installation or projection.
Birgit Hauska
That exactly was the challenge: to confront the prejudice: media art is not sensuous with the claim: media images of dance can be sensuous! Sensuality is found in very different ways: in the images themselves, in the architecture, and in the materials which are part of the installation, like the white soft sand in Top Shot, the red velvet curtains und the plush table in LaMorsure, but even in the eroticism which the images of the exhibits contain as in Monoloog by Walter Verdin, tat Ort by Stephanie Thiersch or the photographs by Chris Kremberg.
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tanzmedial:film
Which significance does the dance film program have in tanzmedial?
Rita Kramp
The roots of our approach are to bring a new and expanded image of dance to the general public. Our work started out with the presentation of dance films. The medium of film is one of the new technologies that make possible a new form of expression of dance, creating a new image. In this process, the camera does not merely function as an eye, but becomes part of the choreography, takes over the part of a dancer. Expanded by the cutting/editing technology, montage and sound an entirely new image of dance is evolving.
The Video Dance Award was established and funded - as a concrete possibility of promoting in Germany the production of a crossover of dance and film, which up until then existed only sporadically and individually, but not in an institutionalized framework. From the dance films we went on to “dance screen 99”, an expanded presentation of dance in the form of the exhibitions in Deutsches Tanzarchiv or in the Film House Basement. We pick up on the artistically productive elements of our time. However, we do not influence them, but rather look, filter, select and confront our audience with what we found.
Under which aspects have you selected your film program?
Birgit Hauska
There were two aspects in particular: On the one hand, we wanted to focus on films that revolve around one core issue and present them in a new context, films that contain a stylistic as well as a thematic crossover, for instance in relation to art film, sports film, music video. On the other hand, we have been concentrating on two core priorities regarding countries: England and Eastern Europe. Great Britain is leading the development and promotion of dance film, while the dance film scene in Eastern Europe develops only with difficulties. English series such as Body of Water and Capture show very different forms of crossover: feature film, clip, animated film or experimental film.
The film weekend will be festively opened with the announcement of the Award winner of the 4th German Video Dance Award and the performance of the six nominated dance videos. Are there other highlights awaiting us?
Birgit Hauska
I personally think that the content-based programs are the most exciting. Each individual film can be seen in a personal context and under a theme. But the classification of a film under a specific topic opens up quite a different focus, introducing most often “trends”, for instance in the focal topic My Room. It shows how many artists are concerned with the topic dance in private rooms (this is by the way also the theme of Hans Beenhakker's work: the love for dance far from professional stage dance).
It is certainly nice, to see a martial arts classic such as Swordsman included in tanzmedial. The film, a mixture of fantasy and love story, has been seminal for dance film in its breathtaking, virtuoso choreography and montage technique.
Do you think that tanzmedial will inspire more people in Cologne for dance?
Birgit Hauska
Yes! I can only point to the Cologne dance Film Nights that have succeeded. At impossible times more than five-hundred visitors are attending, watching attentively for hour after hour.
During these events you can see how zestful and inspiring dance can be. And the same is true for tanzmedial!
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