BodyTalks

Next week, BodyTalks - Video Art and Cinedans in Public Space will open in Maastricht.
From September 30th until October 23rd, Viewmaster Maastricht and Cinedans Amsterdam present the exhibition BodyTalks – Video Art & Cinedans in Public Space in the inner city of Maastricht. From shop windows, vacant business premises and residences, 23 video and Cinedans films will be on show every evening on the streets of Maastricht.











Trailer:
 



 In BodyTalks, two different art disciplines working with physical expression or imagery are brought together for the first time: video art and short experimental dance films (Cinedans productions). From windows in the Brusselsestraat and Grote Gracht, and inside 4 art institutions nearby, 23 video projections and installations in total will be on show. Every night, from September 30th until October 23rd. In a line, starting at the beginning of the Brusselsestraat via the Grote Gracht to the Markt: an area with a lot of traffic and a lot of urban diversity.
The selected art works, from established artists as well as young talent, picture a diverse image of the power and scope of non verbal communication and dance. In BodyTalks, performers make silent yet pervasive ‘utterances’ about themes such as man / woman relationships and political-social topicalities. Other themes include the search for one’s own identity or how we, in our contemporary visual culture with its omnipresent webcams, security camera’s and YouTube, can make ourselves (or the other) visible to the world.
These video works and short dance films are rarely shown outside the walls of an art institution or a theatre, yet thanks to their very specific content, they can easily been shown in the urban landscape. The street is the place where every person is conscious of his own physicality and where they are aware of the signals from others. This is where the projections can evoke different meanings and they enter into a direct one-on-one relationship with the onlooker or passerby on the street.

Marina Abramovic

Marina Abramović invites us to dance with her in Mambo; Peter Bogers reacts with Unleashed Content to the contemporary YouTube culture where physical ‘achievements’ prevail and everyone claims his or hers ‘15 minutes of fame’ on the internet. Elodie Pong turns passers-by and spectators into voyeurs at a special pole dance performance. While Yves Ackermann presents a contemporary dance version of a classical death scene from a cowboy film, Amirali Navaii dances himself to ‘freedom’ from an oppressive city.



Artists and film makers are: Marina Abramović (RS), Yves Ackermann (FR), Francis Alÿs (BE), Tammuz Binshtock (IL), Matthijs Blonk (NL), Peter Bogers (NL), Michal Butink (NL), Compagnie Collateral (CH), Stéphanie Decourteille (CA), Rineke Dijkstra (NL), Coa Fei (CN), Euripidis Laskaridis (GR), Amirali Navaii (IR), Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay (CA), Lucia Nimcova (SK), Elodie Pong (CH), Fernando Sánchez Castillo (ES), Zhou Tao (CN), Hiroaki Umeda (UY), Kris Verdonck (BE).

 The exhibition is a sequel to For Real – 28 Utopian Projections in Public Space that was on show in October 2010 in Maastricht and Hasselt. See: www.for-real.eu Check out my blog post about For Real: http://brankopopovic.blogspot.com/2010/10/for-real-28-utopian-projections-in.html