Never Look Back / Ein Orpheus Festival

Kooperation von der Universität der Künste Berlin (Studiengang »Bühnenbild« Prof.
Janina Audick) und »Institut Kunst« (Prof. Mathilde ter Heijne), der Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch sowie dem Hochschulübergreifenden Zentrum Tanz Berlin (Studiengang »Choreographie« Prof. Wanda Golonka) mit der Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

Der Mythos vom Sänger Orpheus ist einer der ersten Opernstoffe überhaupt und fordert Musiktheaterschaffende bis heute zu immer neuen Bearbeitungen und Sichtweisen heraus. Mit dem Orpheus-Festival lädt die Staatsoper Unter den Linden Studierende der Berliner Kunsthochschulen dazu ein, aus Themen und Motiven des Orpheus-Geschichte Performances und installative Formate zu entwickeln. Die Arbeiten werden mit wechselndem Rahmenprogramm im Alten Orchesterprobensaal gezeigt. So rundet das Orpheus-Festival das Programm der BAROCKTAGE 2020, bei denen auf der großen Bühne »Orfeo«-Vertonungen von Claudio Monteverdi, Christoph Willibald Gluck und Carl Heinrich Graun im Zentrum stehen, aus einer zeitgenössischen Perspektive ab.

Vorstellungstermine
13/14/15.November 2020
20/21/22.November 2020
19.30 Uhr

Fremde Wesen

WS 20/21 Workshops mit Fanni Halmburger und Sebastian Bark von She She Pop

In diesem Kurs geht es um performative Selbstportraits (individuelle wie kollektive) und um die künstlerische Strategie der Entfremdung. Wir stellen uns selbst und gegenseitig Aufgaben, die uns aus alltäglichen Kommunikationsmustern und der gewohnten Perspektive herausbringen. Und wir entwickeln verschiedene Rahmungen, in denen das eigene, vertraute Material ‘fremd’ erscheinen kann – und damit verhandelbar und politisch. Wir arbeiten zunächst an Einzel- und Gruppenportraits und im zweiten Schritt an Performances mit ‘fremden’ Gästen, die wir außerhalb unserer bekannten Kreise suchen und zu uns einladen in gemeinsame Doppel-(Selbst)Portraits.

Rundgang Steinplatz Public Screening

SS 2020 Brick Wall Paper Trail is the title of the video that participants of the class ter Heijne developed together with Diana Arce for the alternative Rundgang.

The course curriculum of the UdK is a source for an empiric approach to answer these questions: What access do students have to instructors of color?
What opportunities do students have to select courses that include the perspectives and ideas of BIPOC?

Seen By #14: Imprinted Matter / Reading Room

The fourteenth part of the exhibition Seen By #14: Imprinted Matter, curated by Nina Prader, will be, due to the Covid-19 Lockdown, digital and can be viewed virtually.

The exhibition in the format of an analogue reading room wanted to attempt to make public space intimate and open and raises questions of representation, in reference to the Art Library and the UdK research project “Intersectional Matter”.

“Seen By” is an exhibition cooperation between the Art Library of the National Museums in Berlin and the UdK Berlin in the Museum of Photography.

Touching Without Touch & Conditioning Creative Processes

SS 2020 / A 5-day workshop program by Dafna Maimon

Dafna Maimon will focus on our own creative (performative) process. As a starting point she set up a program and exercises that may birth an ongoing creative process as the main goal. She will use our time together to unleash things in ourselves, reflect and harness our creativity as opposed to immediately creating results to be placed in the outside world.

Dafna: “In this current moment of social distancing and lockdowns, I’m interested in the kinds of intimacy we experience with ourselves. As so many forms of distraction/ways of being have been taken away from us (or replaced by new forms), in a sense, our “performing” in the world is currently limited to very few eyes. We are mostly seen only by ourselves, family, partners, pets, roommates, or from the waist up on computer and phone screens. At least, in my case, I have found that this new form of existence has brought about a lot of new daily life movements/gestures/and even noises, that seem to be unusually ‘free’ or dare I say, ‘authentic’; almost akin to a child’s not-very-self-conscious behavior. So, I’m proposing that together, we engage in a research of being “intimate” with ourselves, and track these gestures, sensations, thoughts and movements into a score that could be performed, or given as instructions for a small audience over an online video conferencing platform. For our scoring process we will utilize the principles of the RSVP cycles, a scoring methodology developed by Anna and Lawrence Halprin. We will also involve the idea of the “greek choir”, and utilize our group/audience as active participants helping to bring the score to life. In this way the “final performance” of the score will also be collaborative and engage with the idea of social choreography in a moment where we can’t physically be close to one another.”

 

Performing for (or with?) the camera

SS2020 / Workshop by Juliane Zelwies

While the concept of the fourth wall has been (and still is) a commonly accepted convention traditionally used in theatre, film and television, visual artists have early on broken these traditions by performing specifically for the (video) camera. The proliferation of the smart phone and the possibility of self distribution through the internet added yet another dimension to the use of the medium, that is to say also a new group of users as well as a new audience.

 In this course, I will provide an insight into a few examples in which the 4th wall has been intentionally demolished or subverted, starting with a few historical accounts in film to present use in visual arts as well as other fields (e.g. music, politics or advertisement). 

Furthermore, I would like to discuss with the workshop participants the role and possibilities of videos in different contexts, what kind of camerawork might support or undermine a given situation and how these questions might be relevant for one’s own practice. At last, I am inviting everyone to participate in a series of short performative exercises for (or with) the camera.

Tinnitus und Geräusche – Voice Training 

SS 2020 / Workshop by Yuko Matsuyama 松山祐子

Have you ever listened to your own voice?  What and how can we learn by listening your own voice? Let’s use this cocooning period to start listening and maintain our own voices. The first part of the course is devoted to individual perception of the voice in our bodies. Training begins with conditioning workouts and breathing exercises for effective vocalization. We will then concentrate on feeling the vibration, rather than hearing the sound, learning to recognize the resonance in the body. We will then apply this new understanding to both speaking and singing voice, exploring the awareness of the relationship of the body to itself and the space around it. Your journey with your own voice and movement takes time and is never a straight line.

© Jana Müller, Kino Babylon, 26.03.2020

Mutations

SS2020  / a Workshop by Jana Müller

Jana Müller will take up the current virus situation as a method for photographic communication and will offer a small experiment for a mutual exchange. She will give some pictures as a starting point in the digital classroom. Now a kind of performative (photographic) chain reaction to these images could take place with all participants, which multiplies itself over and over again. The approach is reminiscent of the children’s game “Telephone“, in which information is passed on, but in the end, the message and meaning seem to have been mutated. The personal experiences and the handling of the “isolation”, as well as the knowledge of the individual different teaching units, could each influence the reactions. Lively participation from all could make the overall picture very beautiful and atmospheric, as well as a reflection on the unusual semester. The digital classroom would have to be formulated as a platform, whether in the class website or something else.

For a first reflection on the Mutations experiment, questions arise: When and how does photography become performative? How important is the camera? These questions surely also lead to “Is it possible for Internet (art) to become a successful intervention that really works interactively for doers and users?” We will examine these questions using selected examples.