Studies on Fantasmical Anatomies

Anne Juren

Studies on Fantasmical Anatomies is an ongoing transdisciplinary artistic research, which encompasses the spectrum of experiences and practices that I have developed as a choreographer, dancer and Feldenkrais practitioner. By drawing on various fields of knowledge – anatomy, psychoanalysis, feminist and queer theories, poetry and somatic practices – the research expands choreography towards disparate discourses, practices and treatments of the body. Based on Feldenkrais’ speculative use of language, imagination and touch, I have developed several body-orientated practices situated at the intersection of the therapeutic and the choreographic, the somatic and the poetic. The research is articulated through three transversal movements. The first movement is the expansion and distortion of the Feldenkrais Method® from its initial somato-therapeutic goals into a poetic and speculative way of addressing the body. Secondly, I propose experiences of diffraction, "blind gaze" and dissociation as a strategy for troubling the dominant regime of vision. The third movement consists of the co-regulation of bodies and dynamic relationships between the individual and the collective. Combining fantasy, the fantasme and phantasmagoria, I invented the word “fantasmical” to emphasize how the ability to imagine may create phantom limbs that are as concrete as pieces of bone. Studies of Fantasmical Anatomies are simultaneously a set of practices, methods and places where the corps fantasmé is tangible.

The different parts of the studio, as presented at MDT

– The Feldenkrais table

– A canvas, serving as a projection surface for the screening of The Studio (2021), a video made for the 100% seminar

– A working table with the notebooks, books and scans used for the Atlas of Fantasmical Anatomies

– Fantasmical Anatomies Library

– A second working table, with my ongoing study of the different bones of a skull as well as the scripts from the Fantasmical Anatomies Lesson

– Whiteboards as indexes

– The Fantasmical Anatomies Boxes

– The Atlas of Fantasmical Anatomies as a floor

– At the back of the bookshelves: screening of Studies on Fantasmical Anatomies (2018), an essay video made for the 80% seminar, presented at MDT in May 2018

– The windows as lightboxes with x-rays of different injuries

– Behind the canvas screen: the exposition of the Fantasmical Anatomies Box: The Lesson on the Skin

– Mattresses with MP3 players, where the public can listen to the audio files of Fantasmical Anatomies Lessons

– An ongoing performance on the floor

Video documentation of Fantasmical Anatomies: installation and video works during the live presentation at MDT.

Fantasmical Anatomies: Installation and Video Works

Studies on Fantasmical Anatomies, 2018, essay video.

The video was made for the 80% seminar, presented at MDT in May 2018.

Please note that the first 3 minutes of the video are only audio.

Detailed view of the Fantasmical Anatomies installation at MDT.

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