Coaching Residency Beatrix Simko at Uferstudios

In the frame of the Creative Crossroad activity, Beatrix Simko was selected by Workshop Foundation to receive a 2 years structural support by the LLB network to work on her latest production "Pardon, ...?"

This support includes a residency at MDT Stockholm and a residency at Uferstudios.

"Pardon, ... ?" (working title) is dealing with three main themes and the full evening performance is going to be realised in many phases. With two of the marked themes I have been working in my previous projects and I would like to deepen them from different aspects and in collaboration with other artists. 

The working title starts with Pardon, .... ? and ends with a question depending on to which theme does it refer to. For example: Pardon, is it your head? , Pardon, can you stand up? and so on. I find it important to address the question. 

The body, the language and the difference of generations are the outgoing point of my themes. Concerning the body the biological evolution of it is in the focus of my body research. I would like to unfold the statement, that how constant is the body as the subject of the collective perception? Whether the ages and the habits change around the body, or the body adapts itself to these changes? In case it adapts, why isn’t it such a dominant shift? I tend to study it from an ethnographic and anthropologic perspective, that which actions affected the change and nowadays what kind of processes influence it. Without reference to the sex, which phases could have the physical body during the ages? These conclusions made from the different ages, how can they be placed in different situations and in performative occasions on stage. 

Residency at Uferstudios Berlin:

Artists involved: Márk Bartha, Daniel Dömölky, Kotka Gudmon, Polett Kasza, Tony De Maeyer, Beatrix Simkó, Karin Kirchhoff

Beatrix Simkó used the Creative Crossroads residency at Uferstudios to develop the first phase of her work “Die Kredenz ist im Keller (geblieben)”, later to be shown at Kampnagel Hamburg in the frame of her Performance Studies final presentation. This was the first step towards creating a full-length performance for 2020. 

Beatrix Simkó worked 9 days in our Studio 1, offering her a wide choice of technical stage equipment and technical support to experiment with, in order to allow the light and stage designer Daniel Dömölky to assemble the element of the set design and program the lighting for the upcoming performance. 

On the choreographic aspect, Beatrix Simkó went into a very concentrated phase of work with her whole cast, seen that two performers of “Die Kredenz…” live in Berlin, as well as her dramaturg, a third performer and the composer were traveling to Berlin, to bring the event together.  

In accordance with Beatrix Simkó, Uferstudios advised Karin Kirchhoff to accompany the research/rehearsal process as a dramaturge/outside eye. As a curator of Tanztage Heilbronn and a professional within the field of dramaturgy, mentorship and cultural policy Karin Kirchhoff holds many connections to decision makers, art directors and curators throughout Europe that might come useful to Beatrix Simkó at a later point. In addition, Karin Kirchhoffs dramaturgical background is well set within the aesthetics of Tanztheater, narrative contemporary dance, and movement dramaturgy, making her a perfect match for the aim Beatrix Simkó had set for her residency. 

Beatrix Simko ended her residency with an informal showing in Uferstudios, that was mainly directed towards peers and professionals from Uferstudios rather than towards a general public (which then occurred 6 weeks later at Kampnagel). The showing was followed by a short feedback session by the peers attending. 

View her experience report in the upper right column.