In her retrospective ” WE WE BETTER IN THE FUTURE” Kat Válastur focuses on her last productions which are part of the trilogy “The marginal sculptures of Newtopia,” exploring the encounter between the body and a ritual utopian topology it inhabits. Fragmentation, time lapse, entropy, and virtuality are some of the notions that emerge from her dance works. Highly intense atmospheres are created, challenging the senses and the rules of ordinary perception. The works emerge out of a fictional condition, where the narrative is part of the process either relating to a post-apocalyptic environment or to science-fiction existentialism in the era of the Anthropocene. Besides the performances, the retrospective hosted several videos, a new performance ” Samsa Samsa Samsa” in collaboration with the visual artist Leon Eixenberger, as well as sculptures designed specially for this frame.
OILinity
Ah! Oh! A contemporary ritual
GLAND
Samsa, Samsa, Samsa
The traveler revisits a deconstructed landscape and faces the bones of the past in a new ground and time. Natural elements and objects are reassembled in new ways forming a new use. Structures and bodies are exposed to dimensions and dimensions are elevated to deeper and more complex systems of cosmologies. The beehives structures are used to stimulate the traveler´s cocoon like a charger of transformative power. The meaning of the clock falls into an abstract assemblage of annual growth rings, exceptional fossils are detached from the soil and the food becomes monolithic.
Lang
OILinity
Concept and choreography: Kat Válastur/ Performed by: Nitsan Margaliot, Enrico Ticconi, Marysia Zimpel/ Dramaturgy: Thomas Schaupp/ Lighting Design and Technical Direction: Martin Beeretz/ Sculptures & Sound: Filippos Kavakas/ Set Design: Laila Rosato/ Costume Design: Lydia Sonderegger/ Still Photography: Dorothea Tuch/ PR & Marketing: Björn Frers/ Production Manager: Katja Timmerberg
Ah! Oh! A contemporary ritual
Concept and Choreography: Kat Válastur/ Light designer and construction: Martin Beeretz/ Music and Sound: Lambros Pigounis/ Costumes: Lydia Sonderegger/ Dramaturgy: Thomas Schaupp/ Text: Yiannis Papachristos/ Video: Sandra Merseburger/ Performance: Shahar Levi, Leyla Postalcioglu, Annegret Schalke, Romain Thibaud-Rose, Enrico Ticconi, Marysia Zimpel/ Production management: björn & björn
GLAND
(dimension a) Concept, Choreography and Performance: Kat Válastur/ Set designer: Ulrich Leitner/ Sound: Lambros Pigounis/ Light designer: Martin Beeretz/ Video: Iosif Lycakis/ Costume: Lydia Sonderegger/ Artistic collaboration: Thomas Schaupp, Stephen Zepke, Nikos Flessas/ Assistant: Ania Nowak/ Press and Production: björn & björn
(dimension b) Concept: Kat Válastur in collaboration with Lamb and Lamp/ Texts: Kat Válastur/ Sound: Lambros Pigounis/ Video: Iosif Lykakis/ Copy editing: Kyriacos Carseras/ Web design: Lamb and Lamp A production by Kat Válastur
Samsa, Samsa, Samsa
Installation: Leon Eixenberger, Kat Válastur/ Performed by: Ixchel Hernandez Mentoza, Felix Dompreh
Lang
Concept/ Choreography: Kat Válastur, Sound: Bryan Eubanks, Costumes: Lydia Sonderegger, Lights: Martin Beeretz, Perfomed by: Laura Lozza, Annegret Schalke
Supported within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Presented in the context of [DNA] Departures and Arrivals with support of the EU cultural programme.
Die unheimlichsten Metaphern sind die, von denen man ahnt, dass sie sehr präzise sind, von denen man aber trotzdem nicht weiß, wofür sie stehen…
Die Kunst künftiger Körper, Von Astrid Kaminski (2017), Tanzschreiber
Be aware of the space around you
…Válastur’s works can be seen as starting points to think about our bodies suspended online and offline, performing constantly and not just on a stage.
Renne Carmichael (2017)