PSR Performing (Non) Public Spaces

PERFORMING (NON) PUBLIC SPACE

When bodies no longer experience the scene as a physical situation, we make room for imaginary choreography. We write the movement using sound, we are in action through our voices, the thought becomes visual language, the word becomes our choreographic platform. What is a non-public space? Can you take me to a non-public space?

Performing (non) public space suggests the approach of a new paradigm of choreographic art, involving professionals in the field of contemporary dance and the public in a process of rediscovering the potential of performing arts.

In the context in which the access to cultural products in the public space (especially theaters, museums and cinemas) is still in a precarious state - as an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase of social discrepancies - the project proposes to the invited artists an artistic investigation on non-public space, as a potential complementary alternative to conventional spaces, thus reaching new audiences.

How we benefit from time and space in the non-public sphere, and how the artistic product can be accessed and integrated in this dimension are questions that the project artists approach in the creative process and of choreographic expression.

Performing arts are, by their nature, difficult to store in a certain time and space and thus difficult to reproduce in a time or space alternative to the one in which they were originally produced. The project proposes a new interpretation of dance through alternative forms of production and dissemination. For this, the choreographer artists approach new production methods, developing the dramaturgies of the written word, exploring the sound choreography, using the digital environment as a means of choreographic expression.

The distribution of the artistic product is designed to facilitate the viewer's access from the non-public space, generating a personal, authentic and individual approach to the choreographic material.

Like choreographic notations, a set of simple rules and instructions addressed to the viewer creates the framework for the individual reproduction (in the non-public space) of the artistic product in a subjective manner. The spectator has the option to consume or participate in a global choreography and to own the choreographic product. The non-public space thus becomes an immersive space in which, like a game, the spectator can become a participant in an imaginary collective choreography. Addressing the enhancement of choreographic practices regardless of time and space constraints, the project supports artistic investigations and thus choreographic production and research in an artistic creation laboratory, developed between September-October 2021, at WASP Working Art Space and Production and online, via the Zoom platform.

The participating artists: Flavia Giurgiu, Jasmina Al-Qaisi, Judith State, Diana Spiridon thus generate collective processes of practices and mutual knowledge, held online between November 1-8.

The results of this research are presented publicly on November 8, 9, 10, on the Telegram platform, by registration in the public group Performing (non) public space.

On November 10 from 15:00, on the account www.facebook.com/Asociatia4Culture, there will be a dialogue with artists Roel Heremans (Belgium), Jasmina Al-Qaisi (Romania / Germany) and Mária Júdová (Slovakia), in which there will be presented their current personal practices, in relation to the project theme.

The PERFORMING (NON) PUBLIC SPACE project proposes the exploration of an under-activated potential of the performing arts: the expansion of the stage in the non-public space where the spectator becomes a performer and the public at the same time. It is a way to facilitate the safe access of the general public to the performing arts, as well as to reinvent and adapt to the changes caused by the pandemic.

The project preparations started in July 2021 and the artistic activities took place offline and online, between September and November 2021, with the participation of artists Flavia Giurgiu, Jasmina Al-Qaisi, Judith State, Diana Spiridon and the artistic direction of Andreea Capitanescu, curator and cultural manager. The research results were presented publicly in the form of an interactive multimedia performance, on November 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, on the Telegram platform, within the public group Performing (non) public space. The artists' creations were presented in the form of a collaborative video, sound and text performance, still available online on the Telegram platform, on the website 4culture.ro and waspmagazine.com, distributed and promoted on Facebook until November 15, 2021.

Also, on November 10, 2021, at 15:00, took place a moderated dialogue by the curator Andreea Căpitănescu, with invited artists Roel Heremans (Belgium), Jasmina Al-Qaisi (Romania / Germany) and Mária Júdová (Slovakia) on account www.facebook.com/Asociatia4Culture in which their current personal artistic practices were presented, in relation to the theme of the project. The artists' lectures, developed especially for the “Performing (non) public space” project, addressed issues related to the adaptation of performative artistic discourse in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic, interdisciplinary dialogue and the use of new media technologies.

The results of the PSR “Performing (non) public space” project includes:

- The performance organized on Telegram, with 52 members daily, for 5 days.

- The Facebook Livestream of the Webinar-dialogue was accessed by over 24,000 users in the first 2 days and over 80,000 views until November 15, 2021.

- The project included a team consisting in artists, collaborators in the management, graphics and communication / PR team.

Through the group "Performing (non) public space" within the Telegram platform, the project has created a collective process of artistic manifestation, which will be expanded in the future, through new contributions of the team of artists, by inviting new collaborators and therefor expanding the existing audience.

In addition, the project will be developed in 2022 in the form of a performative installation, which will include both digital creations and live performances.

Concept and artistic direction: Andreea Căpitănescu.
Artists: Flavia Giurgiu, Jasmina Al-Qaisi, Judith State, Diana Spiridon.

Andreea Căpitănescu is a curator, cultural manager and artist. Andreea was part of the Europalia Romania festival team, as curator of the Performing Arts program, she’s artistic director of eXplore festival, co-organizer of the European project Life Long Burning and since 2012 co-founder and curator of the contemporary art space WASP Working Art Space and Production. With a professional training in contemporary dance, project management and doctoral research in visual arts, she is interested in experimenting with new multidisciplinary frameworks, with a potential catalyst for artistic and theoretical exchange, which modifies and influences the creative processes and proposes new authentic, personal versions. The feminist artistic space and the relationship with the environment (landscape, architecture), represent two of her major interests that are found in numerous recently developed personal projects.

Flavia Giurgiu is a theater, dance and performing art artist, currently based in Bucharest. Her activity is constant and complex, both in theaters and in museums and independent cultural spaces, where she collaborates with directors, choreographers and contemporary artists of national and international renown. She is the author of her own performances and signs the choreography and stage movement for the shows she works on. With studies in acting and contemporary dance, her artistic pursuits focus on the various possibilities of existing and functioning in the contemporary performative space.

Jasmina Al-Qaisi is a writer for voice and paper. She appears sometimes in other forms: as a walking scientist, the schnelle musikalische Hilfe service, or as the only agent for the Self-Entitled-Self-Entitlement-Office. She often makes waves on various radios and is a member of the sound interested artist group Research and Waves.

After graduating from the choreography high school in Bucharest, Diana Spiridon continued her studies at the CODARTS Dance Academy - University of Arts in Rotterdam. She has worked with various Romanian artists and choreographers, and in 2013 she was part of the project "An immaterial retrospective of the Venice Biennale" created by Alexandra Pirici and Manuel Pelmuș, presented at the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art. She continues to experience the performative space and the film area.

Judith State is a performer and choreographer, with a basic background in classical dance and a bachelor's degree in foreign languages. She likes to search and manifest through movement, acting and voice music, and in recent years she has been working intensively with these means of expression in dance and theater performances and film. In 2020-2022 she is invited as a Creative Crossroads artist within the Life Long Burning network, and in 2020 she received the GOPO award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Monsters, directed by Marius Olteanu).

Project co-financed by the Capital City Hall through ARCUB within the Bucharest - Open City 2021 Program.

Production 4Culture Association, co-production WASP STUDIOS.

Co-funded by the European Union Creative Europe Programme, under Life Long Burning – Performance Situation Room.

The content of this material does not necessarily represent the official position of the Bucharest City Hall or ARCUB.

Media partners: Radio România Cultural, Modernism, Revista Arta, Zeppelin, Feeder, IQads, România Pozitivă.