Czas na nas! [Its Our Time!] September with the Body/Mind Festival

– Why is it time for the Body/Mind Festival? It is simple ? we aim to show something that cannot be seen, but must be experienced, says Edyta Kozak, director of one of Poland?s landmark dance and performance festival. Those in attendance will be treated to premiere presentations and a number of accompanying events. It is time for Body/Mind! 

The 16^th edition of the Body/Mind Festival, whose lead themes are time and its diverse aspects, is under way. The autumn instalment will see several premieres and a bunch of accompanying events.

Back to the past, and the visions of the future

We shall begin with the past and explorations of memory in the oeuvre of the British-American dancer Ruth Childs, whose Polish premiere will feature a reconstruction of three solo pieces created in the 1960s by her aunt Lucinda Childs, a postmodern dance legend and founder of the Judson Dance Theater. Ruth breathes new stage life into Pastime, Carnation and Museum Piece, which she in a way inherited from, and began her work with them with, her aunt. Today, in the era of ubiquitous deconstructions, remixes, inspirations and borrowings, Childs?s project will be a unique Chance to revisit the historical originals created by an exquisite artist half a century ago, says Edyta Kozak, founder of the Body/Mind Festival. The Polish premiere will take place on 29 September at the main stage of STUDIO teatrgaleria (tickets for the show are available at PLN 30-50).

On the following night, Ramona Nagabczyńska ? dancer, choreographer and co-founder of the Centre in Motion ? will present the sole Polish premiere in this year?s edition of the festival, titled More. Morus/Więcej. This dance piece for two dancers was created as part of the first season of the Performing Europe 2020 project. With regard to our guiding theme of time, Ramona has made great strides in exploring the notion. She contemplates various visions of the future, identity, and the body in the ever-changing world dominated by new technologies, adds Edyta Kozak.

Nagabczyńska puts the limitations and capacities of the body to test, turning to such stylistic measures as the collage, B-horror movies, beatbox, while establishing repetition, reflection, and symmetry as her main creative strategy. The piece will premiere at the Body/Mind Festival on 30 September (STUDIO teatrgaleria in Warsaw), followed by a repeat performance on 1 October (tickets for both performances can be purchased at PLN 30-50). 

Dancing through life

On the two subsequent nights (3 and 5 October, 7 pm), young Polish and Hungarian dance artists will reflect on time in dance and performative arts, translating their ruminations into their own practice.

Delivered as a joint piece, Exchange: Change is a project of a trio of artists from Poland (Aleksandra Bożek-Muszyńska, Aniela Kokosza and Urszula Zerek) and their Hungarian counterparts (Anna Biczók, Luca D?m?t?r and Lior Lazarot), who will present pieces created during their artistic residencies. The premiere presentation of Exchange: Change will take place at the Centre for Contemporary Art ? Ujazdowski Castle (tickets are available at PLN 30).

The issue of the future, in particular with reference to growing old while trying to maintain one?s longevity, is a focal point in the piece of the DANCE ON ENSEMBLE, a group of dancers aged over 40, perceived as ?dance pensioners?. Their mission is to spark off global change thanks to which choreographies created for (and in collaboration with) mature, experienced dancers will become the norm, rather than an exception to the rule. Inspired by the sentence Here and gone!, used by the American legend of postmodern dance, Deborah Hay, their piece Water between three hands, directed by the Lebanese director Rabih Mroué, makes an ample use of their rich stage experience and impressions. The presentation of the piece at the Body/Mind Festival will be the Polish premiere of Mroué debut with this German dance company. The piece will be presented on 6 October at the main stage of Studio teatrgaleria (tickets can be purchased at PLN 30-50).

About dance, uninterruptedly

The festival audience will also be offered a brilliant performance lecture by the independent Catalan curator Alexandra Laudo, whose An intellectual history of the clock explores the social construct of time and the ways in which it is measured and experienced. Laudo?s lecture (6 October) will conclude the cycle of this year?s Body/Mind stage presentations, Chile also preceding the TODAY TOMORROW conference (premiere at the small stage of STUDIO teatr galeria, tickets at PLN 30-50).

Laudo?s presentation will open the 24-hour conference on performance and chronopolitics TODAY TOMORROW, organised on 7 October at the Warsaw branch of Goethe. In the course of the conference, theorists, artists, curators, and journalists will sum up the festival, trying to determine what has de facto happened with time today, announces Edyta Kozak. TODAY TOMORROW will not be a standard conference, however, as its programme is comprised of lectures, performances, discussions, and artistic pieces, including the screening of a Marek Formanek?s video-installation Standard Time. The conference is open to members of the audience, free of charge, upon prior registration at www.evenea.pl.

A return to Pina Bausch

One unique highlight of the festival will come in the form of a dance performance co-created by festival participants, and based on a famous passage from Pina Bausch. Launched by the Pina Bausch Foundation, the Nelken-Line project has enabled Bausch?s enthusiasts around the Word to perform her choreography Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter from Nelken (Carnations). The presentation of the project will take place on 30 September at Plac Defilad, in front of STUDIO teatrgaleria. Those interested in joining the performance may enrol at www.evenea.pl

Accompanying events

Also available during the festival will be Kiosk w Ruchu [Kiosk in Motion], an interactive artistic installation at the foyer of STUDIO  teatrgaleria in Warsaw. The full schedule of Kiosk can be accessed at. 2017.cialoumysl.pl, admission is free. Finally, the Autumn instalment of the Festival will be accompanied by Thomas Thorausch?s film essays on dance and time. Free presentations of the essays will take place at the Warsaw seat of Goethe-Institut on 9-10 October.

Body/Mind Festival

Artistic Director: Edyta Kozak

Organiser: Body/Mind Foundation

Co-organiser: Nowy Teatr in Warsaw, STUDIO teatrgaleria

Partners: network apap ? advancing performing arts project, Hungarian Institute for Culture in Warsaw, Centre for Contemporary Culture ? Ujazdowski Castle, SÍN Arts and Culture Centre in Budapest.

Partner of the festival and Today Tomorrow conference: Goethe-Institut

Media patrons: Aktivist, Didaskalia, E-teatr.pl, Notes na 6 Tygodni, Radio Dla Ciebie, taniecPOLSKA.pl, Teatrdlawas.pl, TVP Kultura, Uroda Życia.

The Body/Mind Festival is co-financed by the Capital City of Warsaw, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and the EU programme ?Creative Europe?.

Still more dance

The October instalment of the festival will also enable the audience to snoop on Christina Ciupke at work during her residency organised as part of the first season of the ?Performing Europe 2020? project, whose Polish edition has been supervised by the Body/Mind Foundation. The German choreographer, in collaboration with the dramaturge Igor Dobricic, will invite the audience to follow the work of a dancer. Working within a space open to viewers, he performer will create a choreography based on Water Motor by the contemporary dance legend Trisha Brown. In To dance Ciupke dwells on the notion of dance in the future. Admission is free (3-6 October, Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN).

More information at: www.cialoumysl.pl under the PERFORMING EUROPE bookmark.

PERFORMING EUROPE Project, season 1

Curatorr: Edyta Kozak

Organiser: Body/Mind Foundation

Co-organised by: Nowy Teatr, Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN ?

Media patrons: TVP Kultura, Radio Dla Ciebie, Aktivist, Taniecpolska.pl, Warszawa.pl, Mowianamiescie.pl

Implemented by the Body/Mind Foundation as part of the PERFORMING EUROPE 2020 project co-financed by the EU programme Creative Europe ? apap (Advancing Performing Arts Project), the Capital City of Warsaw, and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.