Between Us

Tim Etchells, Tamara Grcic, Žilvinas Kempinas, Søren Lyngsø Knudsen, Isabel Lewis, Sissel Tolaas

In order to set off into the future, you have to know where you’re standing today. In order to place yourself in relation to others, you have to take a clear position. In order to become visible, you have to be findable. By identifying the distance from two positions, triangulation can allow a third to be determined. This technique makes it possible for bats to find their way around using echoes, and it is what keeps self-driving cars in the right lane. Moreover, the shape upon which it is based, the triangle, is one of the most elementary and stable geometric forms, which can be found at virtually every level of our material world, from molecules to architecture.

Taking this imagery further, Between Us brings with Kunsthalle Mainz, tanzmainz and Motion Bank three different partners together in a cooperative venture. When knowledge migrates from one discipline to another, when it is transmitted and translated, not only are new links generated, but the knowledge itself is repositioned and looked at afresh. Between Us is an interdisciplinary project set side by side fine arts, dance, digital dance research and education on issues of knowledge sharing using new digital possibilities. The cooperation is based on a choreography by Finnish choreographer Taneli Törmä, which was developed for Between Us, and whose digital transmission by means of video recording, annotation and motion capture methods is given to international contemporary artists Tim Etchells, Tamara Grcic, Žilvinas Kempinas, Søren Lyngsø Knudsen, Isabel Lewis and Sissel Tolaas serving as the basis for new works. The digitalization of dance also forms the starting point for the study of dance recording and mediation as well as the experimentation with the resulting data in a choreographic coding laboratory. At Kunsthalle Mainz production and exhibition, process and performance, recording and mediation are finally combined. On the one hand it shows and opens the process and the results of a unique cooperation; on the other hand it forms a lively place of experiencing and exploring.

Which concepts can be transferred from one discipline to another, and what is reflected back again? How can choreographic structures and their digitalisation influence the fine arts? What means are required to make this transfer possible, and what kind of language? In three disciplines, three approaches, three aesthetic formats, Between Us explores the transfer and transformation of information. This happens not only at a structural level, but also in terms of content. The project depicts processes of transmission and the permanent reformulation of information, but also what remains when a particular motif passes through various mouths, ears, heads, bodies and genres, and what happens to the separate fields within a framework of interdisciplinary cooperation. Approaching the material via dance grants us particularly striking and direct access. Something happening within a body is continued externally as a movement. Then in a further step it is transferred: seized upon and developed, triggering imitation, reflexes, resistance, or even a counter-movement. In which discipline could we better observe the way a stimulus unfolds than in dance, which derives from human movement? From there it moves on into the scholarly domain and into the fine arts. As in all processes of translation, here too a decisive role is played by individual choice and the emphasis placed on certain aspects. Rhythm, speed, distance, type or sequence of movement and composition are just some of the elements in dance which fine artists can pick up on and transform in their own work.

On the occasion of the exhibition a catalogue will be published.

Related Programme (selection)

April 4, 8:30pm
Artist talk with Tamara Grcic and Stefanie Böttcher (Artistic Director Kunsthalle Mainz)

May 5, 6pm
Choreographic Coding Lab final presentation

May 8, 7pm
ShortCuts#6 with filmmaker James Edmonds

May 22, 6pm
Guided tour with Prof. Florian Jenett (University of Applied Sciences Mainz, Co-Director Motion Bank), Honne Dohrmann (Director tanzmainz) & Stefanie Böttcher (Artistic Director Kunsthalle Mainz)

June 12, 7pm
Fade into You Episode LXXIV
Maya Deren, A Study in Choreography for Camera, 1946
Yvonne Rainer, Trio A, 1978 et. al.