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| Ana Pi and Ibon Salvador |
The Residency - creating the conditions for performance in public space
The residency begins with a 15 day workshop for a heterogeneous group of 15 people from various artistic and socio-cultural backgrounds, aged between 12 and 60. This group is selected in a previous application process by means of the web and ideally should include members of the artistic community and other interested parties from local and other regions.
The workshop takes place partially inside a dance studio and partially in a public space. It focuses on proposing specific tools (rules, tasks, games) for group movement improvisations and real time compositions in public spaces.
The performance investigates time and space patterns/codes of social behaviour, producing individual and collective actions/movements/compositions that will appear and disappear amongst the pedestrians, interfering with the habitual codes of public behaviour.
Part of the daily training takes place on the streets, where it turns into performance actions. The participants will be able to follow rules and previously rehearsed diagrams of movement and create a “instantaneous collective composition” interacting with pedestrians, architecture and unforeseen momentary situations. The rehearsed movements recall ordinary actions, daily urban gestures, the pace of time of pedestrians in such a way that the performers mix with the “occupants” of the square, confusing the distinction between who is “acting” and who is “living”.
There are five ways the public can experience this work:
1. By watching the performance live amongst the passers by, becoming part of the action and therefore the performance.
2. By watching the performance live from an aerial viewpoint - the terrace of an adjacent building or an apartment window. In this case the spectators have a panoramic view of the presentation and can appreciate the designs traced by the performers amongst passers-by. With the help of binoculars they can choose how to frame the performance.
3. By watching images of the performance by means of a closed circuit television system (CCTV) projected live in a nearby gallery/space. In other words, the street performance is registered by 4 cameras installed at the performance site and connected to a control panel. From there the images are transmitted to the gallery/space and projected on a screen in real time. The projection lasts for the duration of the performance, approximately one hour.
4. By watching images of the performance streamed live on the web.
5. By watching a continuous video installation of the performance set up in the same gallery/space as the live projection. This installation consists of a projection in which pre-recorded CCTV images of the performance alternate with images of the daily movement of the performance area (public square or street). The spectator is encouraged to discover the choreographic potential of reality and increase his/her perception of the possibilities of what defines dance. The question - “which is dance, which is reality?” is raised here by means of a play on the intentionally (con)fused images of the performance and the “spontaneous choreography” in public spaces.
Authors
This project is a continuation of research developed by Dani Lima, Paola Barreto and David Cole in their recent works, which investigate the possible connections between life/art and reality/fiction.
