Atomic 5.1

Atomic 5.1
Performance (20 min)

Le Fresnoy: Studio National des Arts Contemporains
9 Juin, 2010 - 20h, 21h

“Strobos” means whirlwind in ancient Greek and scope and comes from “skopeïn”, which means to observe. The 5 stroboscopic lamps (Martin Atomic 3000’s) used in the performance are placed in a circular formation making reference to this etymology. By placing the lights at different angles, but aiming at a same object or direction, a change of position (or a movement) is perceived even when there is no real movement. It is the opposite of the stroboscopic effect in which a movement caught in a flash of light seems still or frozen. This arrangement and the choreographic research play with real movement (the dancer who moves) and fictional movements (the alternating light and the angle of light). The sound produced by the lamps, amplified and modulated, becomes a subtle musical score.

The performer, caught in this whirling light, resembles an animated figure, recalling the first animated films, but also current 3-D imagery - the angled light produces an unexpected sensation of depth. The set-up is a sort of ‘live-image making machine’, using a simple technology, intimately linked to the history of cinema.

Concept, performance & light programming: Ula Sickle / Concept & sound design: Yann Leguay / Pure data: Jean-Marie Boyer / Dramaturgy : Shila Anaraki / Body double: Ramona Nagabczynska, Elisabeth Schilling & Artémise Ploegaerts / Technical assistance : Marc Defrise / Production: Le Fresnoy / Residencies: Teatr Nowy (Warsaw), WorkSpaceBrussels & Les Brigittines (Brussels) / With the support of Les Brigittines & Teatr Nowy

Looping the Loop @ Galerie Anita Beckers

The video Installation Looping the Loop: From African Dance to American Hip Hop and back Again as part of the exhibition Performance // Frame @ Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt



PERFORMANCE // FRAME
Galerie Anita Beckers
Frankenalle 74, Frankfurt
04.09.2009 - 30.10.2009

15 years after the symposium “LIFE IS ART ENOUGH - Performance and expanded art forms. One approach” – organized by Anita Beckers in collaboration with the Institute Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt - we would like to pick up the thread again in the gallery and through selected positions question the current situation of Performance as an artistic medium. In a moment when the art market regenerates, artists whose work deals with one's own body and is commercially difficult, seem to trigger new critical discourses.

For the season start, Performance // Frame tries to pick up some thematic directions within Performance art and confront positions from the 70s with younger artists.


Participating artists: Victor Alimpiev | Maria Jose Arjona | Karolin Back & Mira Bussemer | Kathryn Cornelius | Dennis Feser | Patrycja German | Nilbar Güres | Séverine Hubard | Jürgen Klauke | Vollrad Kutscher | Bjørn Melhus | Julia Oschatz | Johanna Reich | Ulrike Rosenbach | Amparo Sard | Ula Sickle | Annegret Soltau | Sebastian Stumpf | Herbert Weber | Eva Weingärtner | Paul Wiersbinski | Elizabeth Wurst

Looping the Loop

Looping the Loop:
From African Dance to American Hop Hop and Back Again
Video Installation
In collaboration w/ Dinozord & Petna Ndaliko Katondolo

Le Fresnoy / Studio National des Arts Contemporains
June 12th - July 30th

In Looping the Loop Dinozord, a young Hip Hop dancer from Kinshasa (DR Congo) traces the roots of this trans-historical and trans-national dance form, looking to traditional African dance as well as to forms of entertainment dance from Broadway and Hollywood to MTV.

Presented as an installation, the life-size video projection is displayed next to a still image taken from a film by Congolese filmmaker Petna Katondolo, who’s reportages on life in Goma (East DRC) for Metropolis TV (NL), are a source of inspiration for this project. The image and the ambient sound that accompany it, were taken during a dance competition he organized in October 2008. Simultaneous with a regional conflict backed by international players over the area’s natural resources, the dance competition was attended by thousands of local spectators as well as refugees displaced by the war.

Looping the Loop is a new video installation produced by Le Fresnoy (2009) Concept: Ula Sickle / In collaboration with: Dinozord & Petna Ndaliko Katondolo / Sound design: Yann Leguay / Camera: Vincent Pinckaers