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NUrope X:II

art, recent work, teaching, time-out

sketchbook pages; graphite pencil on paper, ca 30 x 20 cms each

As the “China goes Europe” oasis proceeds, a number of European artists, curators, academics and business people share their views on China. Nomad and artist Stella Fajerson adequately asks for the complementary perspective, but the Chinese persons involved are mainly invited to give their view on how Europeans could understand the Chinese mind – not their own European experiences.

Looking back, this appears as a want. Maybe this oasis serves just to prepare a common ground. Maybe it takes another one to actually address the theme.

The most significant experience to me was a short exchange on the subject of modesty and self-confidence.

modesty – self-confidence

catch-up

art, recent work, time-out

from Graz

From teaching and workshops in the city of Södertälje in mid-March, to Graz where the tenth oasis of NUrope took place. Back in Sweden just in time for spring’s arrival by Easter, then another short visit to Åbo/Turku.

NUrope X was dedicated to the theme of China goes Europe; lectures, workshops, encounters, walking and talking… and this is some of what I saw in the city of Graz.

The recent weeks, or months, have brought on a marked change, as a larger portion of my working time becomes tuned in the communicative field. Surprisingly (or not), this adds importance to the hours spent in the atelier.


along the road

art, beauty, time-out

Today, the atmospherical sea is all white, as if coagulated light, and full of movement.

Snow is knee-high in the fields, sometimes up to the thigh. A little less in the woods. In settled areas, it turns the cars, roadsigns and railings – the very streets – into organic sculpture, emphasizing the spatiality of all things.

I need not borrow the eyes of Goethe or Wittgenstein. But I would have enjoyed their company in this surrounding whiteness.

By the way, I am now – to my great surprise and joy – coordinator at the Nomadic University for Art, Philosophy and Enterprise in Europe. Whatever artistic faculties I possess, I will bring them into the process.

brief stay in Turku

beauty, time-out

Going on a one-day trip to Åbo/Turku to see Bengt and Kim for a good day’s work. I walk along the Aura river from the harbour, pass the castle following the old Castle street to the marketplace and cathedral square.

Weather has been less cold for a while now, at times even damp; since days, hoarfrost is building on any surface that isn’t covered with snow. Trees like birds ruffled up in down covering, sheltered in darkness.

In Kim’s company, I experience the city by ear. It becomes an instrument, resounding people’s feet and voices, cars and church-bells and doors opening and shutting; all sounds muffled, all corners softened by the snow.

Pina Bausch 1940 – 2009

art, beauty, time-out

In Venice, a truly magnificent thunderstorm passed by during the night between Friday and Saturday; sounding like canonades, turning electricity off, and – lights out – pouring rain over the city for hours.

Saturday night – June 27th – at the dance biennale, the Compagnia dell’Accademia Nazionale di Danza di Roma performed a show at Teatro Piccolo Arsenale.
The first piece was announced beforehand as an homage by Pina Bausch to the company: a short solo, elaborated from Bausch’s choreography Nefes (‘Breath’), by Cristiana Morganti of Wupperthal Tanztheater;

sudden spotlights on; and a red-dressed woman dancing like a flame of joy, all alone in the large scene space, never a moment of hesitation or doubt until, too soon, conclusion; dance ending as abruptly as its beginning.

After a short pause, the second piece, Da ora in poi by Jacopo Godani;

the whole company on stage, men and women alike all dressed in dark, and again this softness and staccato, blending into hermaphroditic beauty; Hermes and Aphrodite; flow; transmission of movement taking priority over manifestation of individualities; and, at a certain moment, all sitting low on scene floor; some movement upwards, spotlights flashlighting the high-up ceiling and a hundred fingertips tapping like raindrops, then dark again; last night’s thunder and rain recreated within the Arsenale building; soon transforming to a movement like walking underwater; then transforming again…

On Thursday, June 25th, German choreographer and dancer Pina Bausch was diagnosed with cancer. On Tuesday, June 30th, she passed away.

NUrope at the Supermarket!

art, curating, time-out

pic25547

The Nomadic University for Art, Philosophy and Enterprise in Europe will stage a mirage at the Supermarket Art Fair – the artist-run international exposition of new art in Stockholm.

The event takes place at Clarion Hotel Stockholm, Feb. 13th – 15th, admission fee is 100 SEK. More than 50 exhibitors from Stockholm, Berlin, Umeå, Reykjavik, Warsaw, Helsinki, Bucharest, Eskilstuna, the Hague, Turku, Gothenburg, Moscow… art, encounters, seminars, actions, networking.

I’ll be there. You are welcome, too. http://www.supermarketartfair.com/

journey to Stockholm

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Aspudden 2 Hornstull T-centralen 3 T-centralen 2 T-centralen 1

Stockholm underground Aspudden – T-Centralen

Again, this time-and-space issue. I’m going to the Stockholm Concert Hall, to attend a rehearsal. Before, I have been working with dancers and eurythmists; making drawings from performances as well as cooperating in workshops. While sitting on the train, I recall the work we did at the Steiner seminar in January.

(see Archives: space and time drawings I – III)

Trying to catch sight of what’s going on in an orchestra at work – that will be something different, though.