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In September and October 2015, the ZAMEK Culture Centre will host the autumn edition of its performance programme From a frog?s perspective  curated by Anna Królica. The programme will include performances by artists from Germany. On Saturday, 19 September (8 pm), Antonia Baehr will present her solo performance Abecedarium Bestiarium, a tale of extinct animal species based on an alphabetic pattern where D stands for the dodo, T for the Tasmanian tiger, S for Steller?s sea cow, etc. Similarly to the 16th century Persian miniatures, Baehr?s animal portraits imitate poetry rather than nature. This type of poetic mimicry is conveyed through animal metaphors, where one similarity or affinity reveals itself in others; the countless animal metaphors manifest themselves through still more metaphors, as if in a veritable hall of mirrors. 

 

Baehr (as the artist confesses during the performance, her surname derives from the bear in Berlin?s crest) comes forward with uncomfortable correspondences and undermines the fundamental categories of oppositions, such as human-animal, man-woman, alive-dead. Curious combinations and disjunctions are set in motion, as boundaries become vague. The transgression effected by Antonia Baehr is a humorous and endless act of disclosure and hiding. The more the artist undresses on stage, the more she seems to put on a mask of another extinct animal, in a spectacle of skins in which  eyes become nipples, and nipples replace eyes. The skin of Antonia Baehr is an element of her stage costume, highlighting the faces of letters, scores and other things through mediated play and intercourse; she opens up the realms of desire which go beyond the categories of gender.  

 

German dance critics deemed Antonia Baehr?s Abecedarium Bestriarium to be one of the most intriguing performances produced in Germany in 2012-2014. The show has been presented at the Tanz Plattform Deutschland.

 

?In Abecedarium Bestiarium,  Antonia Baehr brings back the species of animals which became extinct at the turn of the centuries. Although it is intended to arouse nostalgic reflection on the world which is no more, a world already gone, its foremost aim is an intellectual commentary stating that the presence of those animals was associated with a particular order of the world and particular lifestyle. The animals were a kind of symbols of the era, of certain quality of life and social structure. The tale about animals is also a pretext to recall and speak about the people she holds dear?, explains Anna Królica, curator of the performing part of the programme ?From a frog?s perspective?. 

 

concept, production and performance: Antonia Baehr

artistic collaboration: Valérie Castan 

lighting: Sylvie Garot, Luc Jenny

sound: Manuel Coursin, Eric Yvelin, Carola Caggiano

costumes: Patty Eggerickx, Steffi Weismann, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Werner Hirsch

video recording: Angela Anderson

production: Alexandra Wellensiek

production: make up productions (Berlin). 

co-production: Centre chorégraphique national de Montpellier Languedoc Roussillon ? in the framework of the project Jardin d?Europe, with support of the European Commission and ]domaines[ (Montpellier), HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), PACT Zollverein (Essen), steirischer herbst (Graz), Tanzquartier (Vienna), Les Subsistances (Lyon)..

This project is co-produced by NXTSTP, with support of the Culture Programme of the European Union

 

Co-production

 

 

Logo Goethe Institut (miniaturka)

 

 

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The performing part of the autumn edition of the From a Frog?s Perspective programme will be supplemented by accompanying events, admission to which is free. Additionally, the Grand Hall of the Zamek Culture Centre will continue to host the educational exhibition Animal City, co-prepared by the Polish Society for Nature Protection SALAMANDRA and the ?Gazeta Wyborcza? daily.

 

Detailed information on October events:

 

Martin Nachbar (Germany): Animal dances         

Religia a zwierzęta [Religion and animals] ? a panel with Olga Tokarczuk

 

Tickets:

PLN 15 (discount tickets), PLN 20 (full price tickets)

Ticket reservation:
(+48) 61 6465 260
kasa@ckzamek.pl
every day from 10 am to 9 pm

 

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More on the programme

Curator?s text by Anna Królica 

 

In cooperation with:

 

Logo Polskie Towarzystwo Przyrody SALAMANDRA (miniaturka)

 

Under the patronage of:

 

Belka patroni medialni programu performatywnego ?Z perspektywy żaby? (miniaturka)

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