Residency Sergiu Matis – Extinction Room – Hopeless

In the frame of the LLB activity Dance Hub, 4Culture selected the artist Sergiu Matis for a residency at ICI–CCN de Montpellier to work on the latest production "Extinction Room – Hopeless".

SERGIU MATIS – choreographer and dancer

MILA PAVIČEVIĆ - dramaturge

Introduction
Folk dance elements have entered my work recently as I was trying to understand and subvert populist aesthetics. Traditional culture is way too often instrumentalised by identitarian politics, so I started re-dancing the folklore I’ve learnt in school, not only as an exercise in autoethnography, but rather to put it in the context of my performance practice, which is informed usually by leftist theory. 

Thus the question of identity reappeared in my performance making. Also, lately, I kept being reminded that I’m Romanian. Till recently I thought I was beyond that sort of identification, based on nationality. I thought I was European or even crazier: citizen of the world! I wanted to be part of the core culture, but I did arrive in the middle of it from the periphery. 

In the next project, which will start with the residency in Montpellier, I want to shift my attention towards the periphery of my thinking, in performance making. Here periphery means though the core of my roots. Together with other cultural workers that come from the global periphery, like myself, we want to meet the local periphery, which, for instance in Berlin’s case can vary from radical leftist quarters to rather right wing neighborhoods. This might be the case throughout most of the European cities. In the first phase of the process I would like to look at the possible link between urban peripheral architecture phenomenas and the rise of populism. I’m interested in the periphery of dialectics, where the global meets the local and where the brought epopees meet the autochthons’’ epics.  

The location of every Internet connected device in the world. Another way to observe the core countries, technology, connectivity — "global networks" and the periphery … 

CV Sergiu Matis

Born in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, studied dance at Liceul de Coregrafie in his hometown (1991-2000) and then at Akademie des Tanzes Mannheim as a scholarship- holder of the Tanzstiftung Birgit Keil. Starts his professional career at Tanztheater Nürnberg where amongst others he worked with Daniela Kurz, Stijn Celis, Jo Strømgren, Catherine Guerin, Rodolfo Leoni, Russell Maliphant, Lionel Hoche, Jo Kanamori, Rui Horta, Javier de Frutos, Andre Gingras, Jorma Elo.

Workshops: William Nadylam (Peter Brook Company), Julien Hamilton, Susan Klein, Jeremy Nelson, Sergej Pristas, Joao Fiadeiro. Since 2008 he as been living in Berlin and working with Colette Sadler-Stammer Productions, Yossi Berg, Oded Graf, Philip Bergmann, Daniel Kok, Jeeae Lim and joined the Company Sasha Waltz & Guests for several productions ( Dialoge: Neues Museum - 2009, MAXXI - 2009, Kolkata -2013; Continu - 2010; Métamorphoses - 2011; Matsukaze -2011; Carmen, Education Project -2012; Sacre - 2013.)

Graduated the Masters Programme, Solo Dance Authorship at HZT/ UdK Berlin in February 2014 received the Life Long Burning Grant, and was a scholarship holder of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Academic Foundation). He also collaborated as choreographer, working with actors in several theatre productions, with directors as Jonas Knecht (Hochschule für Schauspielkunst "Ernst Busch" Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, "Alles Nur Aus Liebe", Choreographie 2012; "Die Fledermaus" Operette für vier Schauspieler und zwei DJs von Anita Augustin, Choreographie, 2012- Theater Chur, Sophiensaele Berlin, Rote Fabrik Zürich; "Pinocchio", Choreographie, 2012- Theater Aachen), Kay Dietrich ("Der Kleine Wassermann" Theaterstück für Kinder ab 4, Choreographie, 2012- FEZ Berlin), Thomas Sutter ("Spaghettihochzeit" für Kinder ab 9, Choreographie, 2013- Atze Musiktheater Berlin. Nominiert für den IKARUS 2014 als herausragende Berliner Theaterinszenierung für Kinder.)

Teaching workshops and dance training classes at Tanzfabrik Berlin, HZT/UdK Berlin, eXplore Dance Festival Bucharest, "Carmen" Education Programme of Berliner Philarmoniker and Sasha Waltz & Guests, Seoul International Dance Competition, Nihon University College of Art- Tokyo, Miyako Kato Dance Space Tokyo.

Own creations: Human Nature (2001- Akademie des Tanzes Mannheim), 89.Grenzenlos (2005-Staatstheater Nürnberg), Ending-dong (2008- Staatstheater Nürnberg), "All of a sudden" (2010- Festsaal Künstlerhaus Nürnberg). His work doom room was premiered at Herbstfestival at Tanzfabrik Berlin in 2011,created during residencies at Radialsystem Berlin, Kinitiras Studio Athens and LaborGras Berlin, presented at eXplore dance festival in Bucharest. Duet, collaboration with Romanian composer Vlaicu Golcea, produced by Moving Romania Festival, Potsdam 2011 at Fabrik Potsdam, presented at Theatre Festival Timisoara (RO), International Festival dance.movement.theatre Gheorgheni (RO), eXplore Dance Festival Bucharest, National Dance Center Bucharest, Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Antistatic Festival Sofia.

Speech was a research project around text and movement, during the E-motional artist residency in Ireland at DanceHouse Dublin and The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick, between February 16 – March 18, 2012.

Monologue a short piece presented in the frame of 6 times 10 during the Tanznacht 2012, Berlin.

Keep It Real was created as a final presentation (Thesis) during the Solo Dance Authorship Masters

Programme at HZT/ UdK Berlin 2013. It was presented at eXplore dance festival in Bucharest, and

at Radialsystem V Berlin in 2015.

Fake- the real deal, Tanznacht Berlin 2014.

Petrushka, Postremise Chur, Switzerland 2014.

Explicit Content, Tanzfabrik / Uferstudios Berlin, 2015. Impulstanz / Vienna. eXplore dance festival in Bucharest

Simuliert National Dance Centre Bucharest and German State Theatre Timisoara, 2015.

All That Mattered - collaboration with Madalina Dan, Perfoming Arts Festival Timisoara /

Tanzfabrik Berlin 2015.

Deleted Scenes Tanzfabrik / Uferstudios Berlin, 2016.

Hamlet Theater Sankt Gallen, September 2016.

Fractured Eden. Out of Space, together with Sonar Quartet, at Akademie der Künste Berlin, October 2016.

MILA PAVICEVIC

Mila Pavicevic is a dramaturge, a writer and a cultural worker. She grew up in Dubrovnik (Croatia) and is currently based in Berlin.

She works mainly in the field of dance and choreography in collaboration with different artists. So far, she published several collections of poetry and a short stories collection “Ice girl and other fairytales.” Her works have been translated and published in Europe and in South America. She has received several prizes; in 2009 for the book “Ice girl and other fairy tales” she received European Union Prize for Literature. Her critical texts are published in different publications. She is a member of Centre for Drama Art.

View the experience report in the upper right column.