Dance residency at TATWERK and in Volkspark Hasenheide
The residency program UNKNOWN GEOGRAPHIES focuses on somatic and choreographic practices in conversation with public space and urban ecology. During the residency, the working locations will be both Volkspark Hasenheide and the studio at TATWERK, enabling an in-depth exploration of the bodily dimensions of urban space. The curatorial focus of UNKNOWN GEOGRAPHIES lies on somatic and choreographic practices that connect environment, community, and neighborhood with posthumanist perspectives and inclusive concepts of agency. We are seeking research projects that are both ecologically sustainable and socially just, and that value and promote the diversity of human and non-human experiences and forms of expression.
The first artists group to be selected is the elsewhere ensemble, formed by Órla Fiona Wittke, John Shades and Adamou Bance, with their research: zoning out (wt)
A typical European inner city park is divided into zones. Volkspark Hasenheide has many thereof. Usually established by people each zone is charged with a set of rules or customs the individuals entering them need to navigate through. Not everyone has access to every zone, they are exclusive. We want to explore the zones of Volkspark Hasenheide and the thresholds connecting them. Can we overcome them – as humans with bodies and sensual experiences – through movement and choreography? Can we construct a utopian concept of a park beyond space and time that expands like the universe – a place that is never static, where zones don’t matter, only connection and collaboration flowing freely? We are melting with people, animals, flowers, mycelia, trees, dirt, roots, microbiomes, cigarette butts and discarded plastic, the pollen on the bee’s legs, the feeling of summer and the memories of a stranger we never met.
The second artist to be selected is Sanscha, with their Working Title: Weathering Bodies
Weathering Bodies explores climate resilience and queer embodiment through somatic practices shaped by Hasenheide park. Volkspark Hasenheide is a space in which climate adaptation measures make visible how the environment is shaped, regulated and protected – and for whom. Against the backdrop of a strengthening social conservatism, I ask how adaptation, protection and resilience manifest somatically: in posture, movement, withdrawal, visibility or resistance. The queer body is understood as a sensitive system that – much like an urban ecosystem – responds to pressure, scarcity and shifts. What strategies do bodies develop to remain capable of action under changed climatic, social and political conditions?
Graphics by Aurora Kellermann based on a Vector file by vecteezy.com.
Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion of the State of Berlin.