Premiere Divert / IMRC – Close Ups

In the frame of the Creative Crossroad activity, the collective IMRC was selected by Tala Dance Center to receive a 2 years structural support by the LLB network to work on their latest production  "Close Ups / Displacement, Scar, Re-appropriation." (working title).

This support includes a co-production support by Workshop Foundation, residencies at Uferstudios Berlin Veem House in Amsterdam and at Zagreb Dance Center with performance presentations.

Premiere "Close-Ups" at MSU (Museum of contemporary art) Zagreb

CLOSE-UPS
author: Silvia Marchig
performance: Lada Bonacci, Marina Bura, Silvia Marchig
video, graphic design and rehearsal support: Tara Ivanišević
music: Vincenzo Bellini, Aria "Casta Diva" from the opera NORMA, performed by Maria Callas
soundscape: Luka Gamulin
light design: Jason Mulhausen
costume design: Tea Kantoci
artistic leadership of DIVERT: Iva Nerina Sibila
production DIVERT/IMRC 2020.

CLOSE-UPS is the final phase of the project "Displacement /Scar: Reappropriation" co-produced by Creative Crossroads / Life Long Burning (LLB) – Towards a sustainable Eco-System for Contemporary Dance in Europe, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
Co-production partners: Tala Dance Center Zagreb, Uferstudios Berlin, Workshop Foundation Budapest / National Cultural Fund of Hungary (NKA).

CLOSE-UPS is a performance that plays with:
the view of three female bodies on stage
the view of what is familiar
the view of what we call reality
the view of a close-by living being
the view of an aesthetic normative
the view of the exotic other
the view of what immediately is
the view into the past and into the future
the view of what evades interpretation
the view back towards the one who is looking at me

And as we look back, we attempt to extend the reach of our performance, paraphrasing Peggy Phelan: “Like a rackety bridge swaying under too much weight, performance keeps one anchor on the side of the corporeal (the body Real) and one on the side of the psychic Real.“

The Close ups of the title are reflected in the methodology, the gaze that comes so close that it encroaches on the private, yet accepts that it will never fully grasp the narrative, see the whole picture, understand why we are here, nor where we are heading.

CLOSE-UPS elevates our cravings and ecstasies without the need for interpretations that might create some understandable and new reality, allowing the view of the spectator to float unfettered by meaning.
Affirming the abstract potential of the entirety - of the body, the space, the sound and the relations - this is a dance performance that, in certain accents, flirts with possible meanings and interpretations, but consistently returns to the corporeality: the skin, the breath, the movement, that carries a deep, primordial reality in which life and fragility/mortality mean and are the same.

Residency at Uferstudios Berlin:

Artists involved: Helvecia Tomić (performer and Danceability practitioner), Josipa Lukinović (performer and art historian), Tara Ivanišević (performer and new media artist), Silvia Marchig (dancer and choreographer), Iva Nerina Sibila (dancer and artistic director of IMRC), Leon Goličnik(performer) and his personal assistant Jure Slivnik.

IMRC - chosen by Tala, Zagreb as Creative Crossroads Artists -  used the technical residency slot at Uferstudios to develop first steps of their new production, with the working title Close Up / Displacement, Scar, Re-appropriation. The work is to be developed in 2020 as a full-length evening production. 

IMRC was offered Uferstudios Studio 14, our stage studio with 450smq in size, with fully equipped theater technique at their full disposal. Although quite self-organized in terms of technical handling, IMRC was also offered a technician for set up and assistance during the working process, seen that their work concentrated to a strong part on video, live-feed, installed monitors. The collective made wide use of the offers, and spend an intensive working and research period that ultimately led to a showing/performance of their research process. 

IMRC visited Uferstudios at a time, in which a handful of other international residencies are placed at Uferstudios. That gave all artists the opportunity to spend their working time in an environment of concentrated research atmosphere and networking offers. A first organized exchange meeting with lunch put them into contact, allowed them to present their research field and build curiosity and trust to also follow eachothers work during the period given and follow actual proceedings in an mutual exchange within the studios. The other artists present at Uferstudios included Nicole Neidert (Sweden), Geoffrey Watson (Australia), Annick Schadeck & Luc Spada (Luxemburg)., Markéta Stránská (Czech Republic), Caroline Hartmann (Germany). The latter two were chosen resident artists of another partner network Uferstudios is part of, named Making a Difference (MAD). MAD strives towards the active involvement of artists with physical and sensorial disabilities within the professional field of dance, fostering especially the idea of advancing the artists with disabilities into leading, decision making roles as choreographers, teachers etc. Obviously the input and exchange between IMRC – with long time experience as a mixed-abled company – , the extraordinary experience o Markéta Stránská within the field, and the newcomer Carolin Hartman was very fruitful for everybody, and gave full-stage to issues around art with or without disabilities at the feedback talk, without limiting it to its restrictions but showing on the wide ability and perspective shift this allows. All in all it was a great win win for both network projects co-hosted by Uferstudios to synchronize these events and artists. 

IMRC ended their residency with a collective showing/performance on corporealities, identities, inclusive and subversive performing practices through dance, performance and video, and it was astonishing to see how far they got within this residency period, leading towards an almost 2 hour event of amazing density, depth and diversity. The showing ended with a feedback talk between artists and visitors, some of which also involved in the board and dissemination of the network MAD and thus very experienced in reflecting and accompanying mixed abled performance art. 

Hosting a big collective with partially special needs is a challenge within a network project of this scale. Although Uferstudios is fully accessible for people with physical disabilities, the organization of travel, accommodation, transports needs an extra effort, which we were willing to give and are also happy to have encountered: it shows how little this segment is still developed and how much more effort the cultural exchange sector still would need to implement if the will of inclusion is truly honest.
View the artists' experience report in the upper right column.

Residency at Zagreb Dance Center with performance presentations on October 24 and 25, 2019:

Along with authors - Silvija Marchig, Iva Nerina Sibila and a new media artist, Tara Ivanišević - eminent dance artists Ognjen Vučinić (that collaborated with us on the Bella Ciaodance performance and was nominated for the Croatian Actor Reward for his role), and Gregor Kamnikar, a recognized expert for improvisation from Slovenia, that signed his work on this project as Urban Kmet, also collaborated with us on this project.

Permanent members of the IMRC Dance Collective, Leon Goličnik, Helvecia Tomić, Mia Kevo, Josipa Lukinović, also participated and we are extremely happy that Marina Bura also joined us. She is a handicapped dancer in wheelchairs with great potential.

This project is a result of a co-authorship and intermedia approach, with a focus on developing new and experimental strategies where choreography, media and performance are concerned. Furthermore, it explores new formats and manners of presentation to the audience with an emphasis on the project and the inclusive nature of our work. It has been directly built on the methodologies and concepts developed in Berlin. However, here those elements are more crystallized and radicalized.

As we are continuing to work on these materials, these performances were announced and staged as “an intermedia performing setting that arises from authorships of various authors”, in order to emphasise the process and experimental format. The duration of this program was 75 minutes. It was well-received and the audience was wide and versatile and the reviews were extremely interesting.

Like all other programs of the Inclusive Dance Collective – the IMRC - these programs were also very important for the Croatian performing arts scene and culture in general since it is a unique project dedicated to the inclusion of people with special needs – physical and intellectual – in the dance community. Specifically, since eminent artists like Ognjen Vučinić and Gregor Kamnikar were collaborators on this project, “Otklon / ožiljak: preuzimanje” enriched our artistic and performing competence. A new media video by Tara Ivanišević directed our work towards the format of installations, as well as new media interactions and this is an entirely new aspect of the Croatian inclusive art scene.

Our audience is versatile and we take pride in that. Furthermore, we are proud to be gradually developing our audience. People that came to see this performance were the audience from the Zagreb Dance Center, dance students and attendees of dance courses, as well as the public interested in new media and video and visual performances, as well as people that attend the inclusive workshops that we systematically develop.