2.5.07

suggestion from florent...

Dear all,

I've just got a mail from Florent suggesting that we could set up some questions as follow so we could think how to make this blog a real tool for us...
each one could answer the following questions for instance... or maybe you have other in mind...

It could be a good starting point...

Here it goes:

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THIS BLOG FOR YOU?

HOW COULD WE USE THIS BLOG FOR OUR COLLECTIVE WORK ?

HOW COULD THIS BLOG BE USED FOR YOUR PERSONAL WORK?

WHAT KIND OF SECTIONS WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE HERE? ( Personal texts - Quotation text - Idea for improving the project etc... - Glimpse on other artists etc....)


I decided also to post here some excerpts of your motivations letters when you applied to participate in this project... maybe it could be also good help on finding ways to reply to this questions Florent suggests and also for you to know the motivations of the other participants, when they decided to apply to this project.


"I am very interested in exchanging knowledge and practice with the artists that live and/or work in cultural and political contexts that are not central European contexts. I am particularly interested in the exchange of reflexion on the artistic practice and the context around that practice and how this influences the working process and product itself. Reciprocally, how the artistic practice and the context of its production influences the cultural and political context it is based in. Your initiative sounds like a place where this is happening on a very intensive level. I am a dancer and choreographer but have worked increasingly interdisciplinary. I move between dance and performance and have explored the issue of sensing and understanding live and digital presence for several years now. I explored it through the relationship between intimacy and distance in the space re-configured by technology in three projects in the past two years. Through those projects, I have also developed a language of movement that is a fusion of dance, sound, image and (in some of them) text. In the next phase of my artistic research, I would like to expand the possibilitiesof working with the body. I want to further develop the strategies I so far used to create a space for the performers, to place them in the movement of the body itself. I think your exchange platform can provide me with a very good ground for this, in dialogue with all the other international participants." (Andrea Bozic)


"My artistic experiences are aroused by a deep interest in anthropology, philosophy, visual art and performance stressing out the interplay among the various expressive forms. But I’m not used to consider myself neither a visual artist, a dancer, an actor, nor a specific performer. I am a person that tries to put himself in different states and dimensions leading to the art work; I’m open to different kinds of experiences and possibilities. I’ve always been interested in finding new process of work and, expecially now, I believe in the collaboration with persons that are not strictly related to my artistic languages. I’m interested in discovering new bodily concepts, trying to give different, personal looks and condiderations to life. I’m convinced that “we’re not our body”, in the sense that the body is just an organic-object, a medium of my desires, which expresses an identity. We are constantly changing and our identity too, to the point where it becomes necessary to consider the alterity of it. I’m interested in the “diversity”, in what it means to be “out of society”, an outsider, where I don’t conceive art only as pacifier, nor space and form consolatory. On my opinion, an artist should display the taboos of his epoch, what the society repress because different from the concept of “normal”. I believe the role of the artist always witness the research to overtake the limits, limits of genus, sex, culture, story, bodily, emotional limits. I’m also interested in analyzing the borders between craziness and normality, in what - and if - separates art from life. One of my deepest concern is to find the channels that meet the diversity in all of its colours, to explore the existance, its fragility. All these principles are included in the concept of what I consider art, in the creative process, even when the body is “dancing”, still or moving, leading to a deeper and autentic necessity, to be due from a inner “intellingences” of the body". (Andrea Fagarazzi)


"As a french artist I tend most of the time to take a look abroad in several countries. It is a necessity, because dance territory is so small it is spread is several little spots all around the world. But it is also the matter of my work itself, even even though I'm not using it as a theme, for meeting other artists (experienced or not) is the motor of the creation which is modified unwillingly.So I don't consider myself as a french artist, and neither as a dance artist, because the territory is broader than that.Meeting people that came from a different background is always fruitfull because it allows you to get rid of what is too obvious, and became meaningless. But it also strengthens what is reacting in an unexpected way in a different context I hope that this ecounter would allow me to share my personal projects, I am working on and confront them to new eyes, and also would be the starting point of an unexpected collaboration, that could generate an future artistic project". (Florent Delval)


"Depuis mon retour de la formation exerce au CCN de Montpellier en 2002 j’ai eu rarement l’occasion de partager des temps forts avec des chorégraphes et danseurs du « Nord ». Les quelques stages, ou master class auxquels j’ai eu la possibilité de participer m’ont toujours laissé sur ma faim par leur durée trop courte alors que je me rendais justement compte à quel point j’avais encore besoin de vivre des expériences nouvelles, découvrir des techniques différentes, de me confronter aux critiques, à la réflexion et l’analyse d’autres personnes.
Au Maroc je me sens isolée du monde de la danse bien que je danse tous les jours. Les nombreux voyages en Afrique ne comblent malheureusement pas l’écart que je ressens par rapport à la création et la créativité qui existe en Europe. Mon impression de stagnation et de saturation grandit de plus en plus malgré l’évolution que nous commençons à constater dans notre continent.J’ai besoin de nourrir mes connaissances, de m’améliorer, de me construire plus solidement pour pouvoir à mon tour contribuer efficacement au développement de la danse en Afrique". (Hind Benali)


"I'm interested on the idea of encounter. To participate in your project means the possibility to develop from the cultural perspective the creation in dance." Idoia Zabaleta


"Living and working in Palestine, where dance is a hobby, a talent or just a side volunteer-based activity, I believe that it is crucial to further develop Palestinian dance in a professional setting. I view dance not as art for the sake of art but as a valuable, even indispensable, means of communication that carries a message. Social activism, resisting oppression, supporting progressive change are all domains where Palestinian dance has been nourished. It is also my own way of reflecting on my thoughts, ideas and identity. I have been dancing with El-Funoun, Palestine’s leading dance company, for nineteen years, and I’ve been a choreographer as well for the past six years.I wish to explore the complex relationship between roots and contemporariness in an atmosphere that can offer me an opportunity to learn, to share, to experiment and to build my skills in dance.I plan through my work not only as an artist but also as an assistant director of El-Funoun that I would work on building a network between Palestinians and international dancers, dance companies and centers for future exchange of ideas and programs. I believe that your program will provide a very positive environment in which I may creatively examine ways to approach my choreographic goals and work on the development of dance." Noora Baker


"As for my motivation letter I don't usually have much to say and certainly not due to lack of reason or motive but rather due to the obvious need for such encounters for artists in general and female artists from North Africa/Middle East/Mediterranean.It is quite essential that one would be able to go out every now and then to either give visibility to the work that does not find much space within as well as share experiences and meet other artists thatare working in the region and outside as well.It is the only way to insure continuity,artistic development as well as adding to experiences that are later shared with locals which is another role one wants and needs to play in a place like Cairo,Egypt and for an art form such as Contemporary Dance that is still in its growing phase and needs to be well presented and as much as possible avoid mis-representation that can play a damaging role for something that is still growing and has a huge potential." (Karima Mansour)


"This is a great opportunity to be able to work with dancers from different places of the Mediteranean Region. In my dance career I’m in a place in which I dance improvisation as performing mode and as well use improvisation as a compositional tool. I feel this state of mind is leading me to a fertile and productive ground. With my participation in this meeting I will be refreshing my knowledge on creating work through working with other dancers and choreographers as well as having a great opportunity for trying out ideas in an available atmosphere which will already surve for artistic and cultural exchange." (Talin B.)


Looking forward for your replies...

Rui