Choreographic Convention - In Other Words: A Future

Between species extinction and frequent calamities of nature, the disastrous impacts of our changing climate bear a final opportunity to rethink our relations on every level: with each other, with non-human life, with the cities that we have built an the soil that we, so often mindlessly, walk on.

Under the title In Other Words: A Future, the seventh installment of the Choreographic Convention offers a space of encounter, with each other as well as with a crisis which consistently challenges the professed boundlessness of language and expression; what structural societal changes ar necessary in order to measure up to its extent? And what are the artistic practices and aesthetics that will emerge, are even perhaps forced to emerge?

Choreographic Convention VII is a collaborative effort by two partner organizations of Life Long Burning, danceWEB and Workshop Foundation Budapest, and aims to center the connection between Budapest and Vienna as well as their exchange of ideas and approaches concerning a crisis that knows no borders. To emphasize this artistic and discursive encounter and make a tangible institutional step towards an eco-friendly mode of production, the two sections of the convention will be linked by a joint train ride.

We invite you to join the contributing artists and experts in making the trip – for free and with a surprise artistic programm – from Budapest to the kick-off event of the Austrian part of In Other Words: A Future at ImPulsTanz.

WSF considered the Convention as a special occasion that could offer a platform for professionals with very different backgrounds to meet, to step out from their own “everyday bubble”, to explore and bring closer the realities of each other – and hence bring different expertise into one room. With this in mind we invited experts, practitioners, creative thinkers, artists from different sectors to think together and share their ideas, expertise, experience on how to create a more sustainable future. In the format of international working groups participants were offered the opportunity to work around topics related to sustainability from different aspects.

Workshop Foundation launched an open call through which one could apply either for leading a group or for taking part in one.

WSF received a total of 50 answers to the call, with 15 applications as group leader and 35 as participants. This was already a good reflection of the importance of such occasions, opportunities. upon selection of the group leaders a main criteria was to have diverse topics, and to involve professionals from the dance and other fields as well. Eventually the groups were formed around the following topics:

​​“Sustainability of the human body” – group led by the Hungarian dance artist, performer and choreographer Anna Biczók

​​“Sustainable planning as a choreographic practice” – group led by the Budapest-based choreographer, performer and dance teacher Gyula Cserepes

​​“Sustainable cities – what does it really mean?” – group led by Lilla Bartuszek, a Hungarian lawyer and the Secretary-General of the non-profit initiative V4SDG – Visegrad for Sustainability

“Social sustainability in connection with elderly and dementia care” – group led by ​​Orsolya Mátyus, an architect and co-founder of WeCare architecture.

On the 8th July the Convention’s open programl kicked-off in Budapest with a one-day program, including a keynote speech, panel and group discussions, presentations and artistic program.

The program included:

9:30 – 10:00 Registration

10:00 – 11:00 Welcome and keynote speech by Yasmine Ostendorf, the founder of the Green Art Lab Alliance

11:00 – 17:30 Sharings, presentations by working groups based upon their joint work for 4 days prior (4-7 July) followed by Q&A sessions

11:00 - 12:15 Orsolya Mátyus, an architect and co-founder of WeCare architecture: “Social sustainability in connection with elderly and dementia care”

​​12:30 - 13:45 Gyula Cserepes, Budapest-based choreographer, performer and dance teacher: ​​“Sustainable planning as a choreographic practice”

14:45 - 16:00 Lilla Bartuszek, Hungarian lawyer and the founder of the Sustainable Cities project: “Sustainable cities – what does it really mean?”

16:15 - 17:30 Anna Biczók, Hungarian dance artist, performer and choreographer: “Sustainability of the human body”

18:00 – 19:30 Group discussion with Endre Papp

21:00 Zsuzsa Rózsavölgyi: “Antropodeny“ (performance)

In order to symbolize the connection between the two partners, we made the travel from Budapest to Vienna part of the program. On 9th of July 2022 the program started with a train ride from Budapest to Vienna offered free of charge in a private carriage, with a special programme designed for the train. The ride was a special mental journey as well, which provided a unique moment to improve the passengers’ well-being – an aspect connected to the sustainability of our body and mind. Participants could choose from a variety of activities, offered to them on a “well-being menu”.

VIENNA – 9-17 July

09.07.

18:30 Vienna Opening with Dr Brigitte Bierlein, former Austria chancellor and president of danceWEB association – at Volkstheater

19:00 Stefan Kaegi (Rimini Protokoll) in Collaboration with Judith Zagury and Nathalie Küttel (Shanjulab)
"Temple du présent. Solo pour octopus: Film" – at Volkstheater

09.-17.07. Speculative Fiction (screening), a presentation of works dealing with the interconnectedness of human and non- human life forms and reframing the concept of utopia beyond modern definition (a cooperation between ImPulsTanz and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna) – at Exhibit Gallery, Academy o Fine Arts Vienna

10.07. What's Done / Undone, panel discussions with artists and experts on (non-)human bodies as places of desire, new ways of artistic production in the face of the climate crisis and sustainable strategies of global and urban cohabitation – at MQ - Libelle
11:00 Reception
11:30–13:00 Places of Desire with Anna Biczók, Anne Juren and Perel
13:30–15:00 Burning Down the House with Claudia Bosse, Tobias Herzberg, Gyula Cserepes, Lisa Hinterreithner and Frank Willens
16:00–17:30 Crisis and Cohabitation with Lilla Bartuszek, Katalin Erdödi, Orsolya Mátyus, Florian Schlederer, Rita Süveges & Anna Zilahi (xtro realm)

11.07. https://www.impulstanz.com/en/performances/pid1468/Claudia Bosse: "ORACLE and SACRIFICE oder die evakuierung der gegenwart" (performance) – at Odeon Theat

13.07. Dig Up Productions / Elisabeth Tambwe: "Salon Souterrain: Bodies in Transformation" (performance) – at MQ Libelle

16. & 18.07. Sergiu Matis: "Hopeless." (performance) – at Odeon Theater

17.07. Barbara Frischmuth & Esther Kinsky: "Die Sprache zu Tage" (reading & talk in German) – at MQ - Libelle

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Gallery pics of the Budapest edition by Tea Kantoci