Bodily Skills Performance Skills «Postures of Attention» 2024

Bodily Skills Performance Skills «Postures of Attention»

Performance art - as an art of (real) action - mostly ephemeral and usually not re-performable, also manifests itself in specific actions that focus on a different kind of attention than that of mere rehearsing, performing, posing or staging: special situations that require special postures of attention.

In "Postures of attention", we will gain insights into various physical practices that bring body awareness, physical presence and mental alertness into play. Based on their experiences, the students will be invited to develop a performance proposal.

Choreographer Chris Leuenberger and performance artist Benjamin Sunarjo share a strong interest in breathing and its inherent performative qualities of sound and movement production. Through simple experiments, we will look at the connective, creative and performative potential of breath. These exercises also explore the social, political and philosophical dimensions of breath.

Jacqueline Preibisch will give us an insight into the "way of the bow", Japanese archery "Kyudo". Originating from martial archery, "Kyudo" is today above all one of the numerous martial arts in which qualities are sought in which body, mind and technique merge into a unity.

In the middle of the week, we will explore the practice of Gregory Stauffer, a multidisciplinary artist who experiments in situ with the perceptive body as an intuitive and relational subject.

With insights into another martial art, that of "Aikido", we take up (attacking) forces and redirect them: Aikido is an emphatically defensive modern Japanese martial art, into which Renata Jocić gives us an insight: "Enter through the form, and step out of the form".

The week ends with a personal time of reflection, preparation and sharing performances.