Saburo Teshigawara/KARAS (Japonia) i Amareya Theatre & Guests „ Kantor_Tropy: ON A SUNNY DAY”.Na zdjęciu: Saburo Teshigawara i Rihoko Sato. Fot. Aya Sakaguchi..
Another episode of the Kantor_Traces projectis underway at the Gdańsk Shakespeeare Theatre (ul. Bogusławskiego 1). Initiated by Ms. Misako Ueda (Theatre X, Tokyo) and dr Katarzyna Pastuszak, the highlights of the programme include the premiere of Kantor_Traces: ON A SUNNY DAY, choreographed by Saburo Teshigawara/Karas in collaboration with the Amareya Theatre&Guests (29 November, 7 pm). Inspired by the works of Tadeusz Kantor, the piece strives to highlight and reinterpret the ?traces? of this exquisite artist. Saburo Teshigawara reads Kantor through the texts and sensitivity of Bruno Schulz, with whom he has been fascinated for several years. His performance is permeated by rain and ambiguous dampness, which act as a tangent for Teshigawara, Schulz, and Kantor
?Kantor_traces? in a way continues the attempts taken by Kantor, Hijikata, and Schulz. Together with the Japanese artists, we look for our own artistic language to communicate the experience of modern humans ? in COLLAGE, these people carry the burden of history, that of their own and the world that surrounds them; in ON A SUNNY DAY, they are humans taking the form of body-rain? Entities standing between the past, the present, and the future, a window pane dripping with drops of rain, a storm which weeps with rain? Bodies filled with rain, and immersed in history, they communicate the truth of the physical experience and embody the fractions of time which we cannot access directly in our daily lives.(Katarzyna Pastuszak)
One important addition to the project will be the photography exhibition U Schulza – Manekinada [At Schulz’s – Manequinade] presenting photographs by Mariusz Kubielas, who since 2009 has continued a project he had taken up in 2004 together with a group of models-actors, with whom he has staged and photographed scenes at the junction of performance and pantomime, resembling frozen frames from silent films. The poetic, black and white visions on the one hand evoke the inexistent Polish-Jewish-Ukrainian town of Drohobych before World War II, while also reflecting the dynamic of collective actions in the course of a complex creative process.
Following the exhibition vernissage will be the main event of the programme, the premiere of Kantor_Tropy: ON A SUNNY DAY, coproduced by the Amareya Theatre & Guests in collaboration with Saburo Teshigawara. The Gdańsk performance will be followed by presentations in the Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor Cricoteca in Cracow and Theatre X in Tokyo as part of the Tadeusz Kantor GoEnNen Performance Festival 2015(festival director: Misako Ueda).
The event will also include presentations of a documentary on Tadeusz Kantor by Krzysztof Miklaszewski, entitled tadeusz.kantor@europa.pl, and a meeting with Mariusz Kubielas and the artists behind Kantor_Traces, which will conclude the day.
The project is also accompanied by its own publication in the form of a booklet promoting the event and including unique texts and visual materials about the reception of Tadeusz Kantor’s art in Japan and the relationship between Kantor and the world of dance. The booklet has been edited by Nikodem Karolak (Adam Mickiewicz University), Anna Królica (Jagiellonian University), and project coordinator Katarzyna Pastuszak (University of Gdańsk).
Bios of artists and guests of KANTOR_TRACES
SABURO TESHIGAWARA (born in 1953? real name Tsuneyasu Teshigawara) ? an acclaimed Japanese choreographer and dancer, creator of innovative dance performances, skillfully combining dance perfection with the play of light and music. Stage, light and costume designer of all his performances. Teshigawara studied sculpture, classical dance and mime. He has created solo projects since 1981. In 1985 (together with Kei Miyata) he co-founded a contemporary dance company KARAS. The artist created about 40 performances successfully staged in European dance capitals. Since 2006 Teshigawara has taught at St. Paul?s University in Japan. His most widely known choreographies include: Bones in Pages (1991 and 2003), Noiject (1992), Here to Here (1995), I Was Real Documents (1996), Absolute Zero (1998), Luminous (2001). He has been awarded numerous prizes, including one of the main prizes at the International Choreographic Competition at Bagnolet in Paris in 1986 (for Kaze no sentan)Saburo Teshigawara is also the author of choreography for several renowned companies such as: White Cloud under the Heels (parts I and II) for the Frankfurt Ballet (at the invitation of William Forsythe, 1994 and 1995) and Air for the Paris Opera Ballet (2003). Since 2014 Teshigawara works as professor at Tama Art University, department of Scenography Design, Drama and Dance. In the years 2006?2013 he taught at the College of Contemporary Psychology, St. Paul?s (Rikkyo) University in Japan.
KATARZYNA PASTUSZAK PhD (b. 1980) ? dancer, artistic director, theatre researcher, translator. In the years 2009?2014 curator of the Gdańsk Dance Festival (Klub Żak). In 2003 she co-founded the Amareya Theatre. In 2015 she was nominated for the prestigious Splendor Gedanensis award for the performance Nomadka [Nomadic Woman] which she directed. Winner of a prestigious Młoda Polska 2015 scholarship awarded for the Kantor_Clues project. Author of the book Ankoku butô Hijikaty Tatsumiego ? teatr ciała-w-kryzysie [Hijikata Tatsumi?s Ankoku but? ? the Theatre of the body-in-crisis] published by Universitas in 2014. Pastuszak performed in all group productions of the Amareya Theatre in the years 2003?2015 as well as in projects with international artists including: The Power of Nature with a Greenland storyteller Louise Fontain (2013, Norway), Dream Regime with Gekidan Kaitaisha and Mandala życia i śmierci [Mandala of Life and Death] directed by Atsushi Takenouchi (2005). Nomadic Woman directed by K. Pastuszak was performed at the 11th International Dance and Theatre Festival at Theatre X in Tokyo, at Sisimiut Kulturhus in Greenland and at the National Theatre of Greenland in Nuuk. The Amareya Theatre headed by Pastuszak was recommended by the jurors of the Polish Dance Platform 2014 to be featured in their Wizytówka Artysty [Artist’s Auto-Presentation] series.
List of events organised as part of the project on 29 November 2015:
29 October 2015 – Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre
6 pm – exhibition of Mariusz Kubielas’s Photographs ?At Schulz’s?
7 pm ? premiere of the performance “Kantor_Traces: ON A SUNNY DAY” chor. Saburo Teshigawara/Karas
8 pm ? presentation of the film ?tadeusz.kantor@europa.pl? dir. K. Miklaszewski
9 pm ? meeting with artists participating in the ?Kantor_Traces? project and Mariusz Kubielas
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Organisers and co-producers: Młoda Polska, City of Gdańsk, Adam Mickiwicz Institute (culture.pl), Agency for Cultural Affairs, Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre, Jewish Community in Gdańsk, Admirał Hotel, Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor ? Cricoteka, Theatre X (Tokyo) ? Misako Ueda, Polish Institute (Tokyo), Ewa Popiołek (President of the Board) ? The Commerce sp. z o.o.
Partners: Admirał Hotel, Gdańsk Archipelago of Culture, Arthur?s Manor, Winda Club, City of Gdańsk, Theatre X (Tokyo) ? Misako Ueda, Jewish Community in Gdańsk, ?Młoda Polska? Scholarship, Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor ? Cricoteka, Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre, Polish Institute (Tokyo), Adam Mickiewicz Institute (culture.pl)
Media Patrons: TVP Kultura, Trojmiasto.pl, taniecPOLSKA[pl], Japonia ? online, Radio Gdańsk, Wrota Pomorza, Kultura Enter, Gazeta Wyborcza
The exhibition of Mariusz Kubielas?s photographs has been organised by:
The Commerce Ltd. – Ewa Popiołek (President of the Board
Kantor_Traces is supported by the ?Młoda Polska 2015? scholarship programme of the Ministry of Culture and National Education, the City of Gdańsk, and the grant of the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan awarded for the fiscal year 2015.
