bucharest
'URBAN CAMPING - creating a trace, leaving a mark' (3rd encounter)
september 23 - october 1, 2022
Goal(s): Investigating the relation between form and content through the lens of (im)materiality; further exploring and creating tools that generate and transmit artistic material through movement and sound
The third RELAY encounter was sustained by the three hosting institutions from Bucharest (UNMB, UNATC and CNDB). Each institution was involved with its own activity and space, making the transitions between locations and activities a format and an embodied practice by itself as well as defining CNDB as a gathering point.
Through a collaborative learning-by-practice and creation process, in this encounter we focused on how artistic information created within specific environments is passed on from one body to another and how it is extended and modified by ‘contamination’. We have used the terms ‘trace’ and ‘mark’ in order to describe the path of artistic information being created, passed on from one body to another, being reshaped and modified and leaving immaterial traces/marks in the bodies that create, transform, receive and pass on.
In the mornings, lectures on various themes (for example “spatial perspectives in music”, “technological perspectives in relation to sound and movement. motion tracking”, “compositional gesture” , “the dual nature of light: wave and particle [grain]”) were offered by Catalin Cretu, Ladislau Csendes, Floriama Cândea, Dan Dediu, Marian Zamfirescu and Lucian Zbârcea at UNMB. The aim of the lectures was to broaden interdisciplinary approaches, teamwork, to propose contacts with related disciplines and to motivate students in new approaches on learning, collaboration and research. The idea was to engage in interactions with experts from artistic as well as scientific areas. The lectures were enriched by a visit to the high power laser at Măgurele to further explore interdisciplinary aspects of (im)materiality.
The afternoons were dedicated to ”the sound of space” - a workshop at UNATC guided by RELAY mentors (Jan Burkhardt, Andreea Duță, Rasmus Ölme, Vera Sander, Konstantinos Tsakirelis). This workshop was designed to continue the principles of RELAY: to explore the theme of (im)materiality, to focus on sustainability during the artistic process, and to explore further collaborative working and co-mentoring practices that had been installed in the Copenhagen encounter. During the first two days the participants were invited to develop their work in ‘unconventional’ site-specific spaces, on UNATC premises. Each group chose a space other than a studio or stage and started to develop movement and sound interactions. For the last two days, the participants collected movement and sound material (or any other kind of material) discovered in their working space and transported and - (re)shaped it - to a theatre space: the CNDB stage. The workshop ended with each group presenting their work/research at CNDB. The goal was to explore the creative possibilities offered by a site-specific space and its impact on the artistic material. Furthermore, artistic material was produced by engaging with what a space has to offer, the connection between space, body and sound explored and artistic material elaborated in one space to another (in this case the stage) ad(o/a)pted.
CNDB offered a workshop guided by Mihai Mihalcea. “body and presence in the contemporary artistic act” addressed aspects of presence that do not separate, but bring together body, energy, thought, state, emotion, in a single unit of time. It allowed a negotiation between the ‘here now’ and the projection of a ‘over ther’e, between the presence and the potential of a future. Exercises were based on a state of mind that allows the body to be called upon to engage, to choose, to focus the world before any verbal reflection comes into play and prepares us for whatever we will think, say and do.
During the first day of the encounter, Max Wallmeier and Maia Means held an online introduction to the ARTwork as they were not able to participate in Bucharest in person. They described the concept, background and methods of the ARTwork. They gave instructions for how the Time Capsule could be activated and how a sculpture could be built during the days of the encounter in Bucharest. The students from Copenhagen had brought the Time Capsule and were asked to perform an “opening” of the materials embedded in the capsule for all other participants present. As a continuation of the opening, all participants were asked to spend time with the materials from Copenhagen and then go for a silent walk with those impressions before starting to activate the capsule making it into a new “sculpture”. Four scores on big papers were brought with the Time Capsule to instruct the building of the sculpture, and the participants were asked to bring materials, traces and actions from their workshops into the sculpture. Since Max Wallmeier and Maia Means couldn’t be present in person to provide guidance and to hold the space, the instructions were hard to follow and the intended activities were not completed. In spite of this, the ARTwork was slowly activated and throughout the days it was filled with objects, texts, drawings and other remnants of the activities that took place. At the end of the period, the sculpture was again condensed into a Time Capsule, ready to be carried to the next encounter in Cologne.
The decision to host the activities of the encounter in all three locations of the partner institutions in Bucharest helped to understand the profile and particularities of each institution. At the same time, the walks between the three art institutions became a format by itself. Walking in groups between the venues became a daily practice for the participants. It served to get an embodied understanding of spatial as well as infrastructural factors of this geographical triangle.
Some members of the Cologne team decided to travel to Bucharest by train. This lengthy journey of thirty hours became a preprocessing project and allowed to create artistic footage and correspondence for the Bucharest encounter.
(Connected) Methods and Tools: Developing and testing artistic materials in working groups; Working site specific; Exploring connection between space and material; Co-Mentoring; Engaging in interactions with experts from artistic and scientific areas
Participants: CNDB Anca Stoica, Ileana Ursu, Mihai Mihalcea, DASPA Aikaterini Dimitrelli, Lisbeth Ravn Riis, Paavali Kärkkäinen, Rasmus Ölme, Stéphanie Evrard, Vilma Ehnberg, HfMT Carl-Noe Struck, Elin Tezel, Emma Stacey, Jan Burkhardt, Vera Sander, SIKINNIS Asimina Michelakou, Emmanuel Kokkinidis, Konstantinos Tsakirelis, UNATC Ada Anghel, Andreea Duță, Tamara Găgeatu, UNMB Agnes Vranceanu, Alexandru Zaharencu, Cătălin Crețu, George Pais, Lavinia Cristescu, Șerban Gabriel Radu
In-between
cross-disciplinary seminar
The seminar “RELAY sound+movement materialities” with both students from music and dance (BA and MA from HfMT and UNMB Bucharest) took place from November 14 - 18, 2022.
In this cross-disciplinary seminar participants from the fields of music and dance in Cologne encountered the following topic:(In)Between - Investigations into a trans-digital practice of blurring. They explored sound and movement-material as well as compositional and choreographic structures focusing on transferability, intertwining, reversibility and principles of handing over in creative procedure. Additionally, they not only questioned the relation between human beings and substance but also between machines and the digital enlargement of humanity.
The lab provided time to both - work and reflect - on the process + findings + strategies of sensing, making, performing and archiving material. During the course of the week, the participants had the opportunity to create, work, resonate, transform with(out) their material(s) (or not) which served as a basis for art making as well as further discussion, deepening and expansion of thoughts.
The seminar also used the “RELAY technique” of “feedforwarding” and “feedbacking”: it (time-shifted) exchanged artistic material with students and teachers from UNMB Bucharest.
In-between
lecture
The Lecture "(Da)Zwischen - Untersuchungen einer transdigitalen Praxis der Unschärfe" on November 16, 2022 was part of the lectures series „Metamorphosen des Menschen – Durchdringungen von Mensch, Natur, Kunst und Technik" at HfMT Cologne.
In this lecture Jan Burkhardt (Dance), Sergej Maingardt (Composition), Vera Sander (Choreography) elaborated on cross-disciplinary methods and strategies fostering working in the in-between (music and dance, analogy and technology, human and non-human).