Choreography in an Exhibition
French Dancer and Choreographer Xavier Le Roy Is New Valeska Gert Visiting Professor at Freie Universität Berlin / Initial Public Event on May 7, 2014
№ 147/2014 from May 02, 2014
The French dancer and composer Xavier Le Roy is a visiting professor of dance and performance at Freie Universität Berlin during the current summer semester. In an initial event on May 7, 2014, at 6 p.m., in the lecture hall of the Institute of Theater Studies, the artist will give a first impression of his current work and discuss it with the professor of theater studies, Gabriele Brandstetter. Xavier Le Roy will be working with students in the master's degree program in dance studies at Freie Universität Berlin on an exhibition project entitled "Exhibition as Choreography / Choreography as Exhibition." The results will be on display on June 3 and 4, 2014, between 3 and 6 p.m. in the Radialsystem in Berlin. The events are open to the public, and there is no admission fee.
Xavier Le Roy first studied molecular biology and has been working as a dancer and choreographer since 1991. He is known for his choreographic experiments with body shapes and the conditions surrounding the perception of dance. Le Roy was an artist in residence in Podewil in Berlin. He also worked as an associated artist in the Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier and was an artist in residence fellow of the MIT program in art, culture, and technology in Cambridge (USA). Currently he is an artist in residence at the Théâtre de la Cité Universitaire in Paris.
With solo works such as Self Unfinished (1998) and Product of Circumstances (1999), Xavier Le Roy introduced new perspectives to the art of choreography. His recent works create situations in which the relationships between spectators, visitors, and performers are explored along with the emergence of subjectivities. These works include, for example, the solo Le Sacre du Printemps (2007) and the group piece low pieces (2011), as well as his work for exhibitions spaces such as production (2011), untitled (2012), and Retrospective (2012-2014).
In recent years there have been many discussions about the connection between exhibition and choreography. One of the best known examples is the "documenta" in Kassel in 2012: the exhibition concept was described by the curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev as choreography.
What does this development mean for work in choreography? What formats are created when dance is produced in the context of contemporary art? How does dance change the perspective of the spectator in the social and public space of museums? Le Roy and the students at Freie Universität will address these and similar issues.
The Valeska Gert Visiting Professorship is made possible through collaboration between Freie Universität Berlin, the German Academic Exchange Service, and the Academy of Arts. Each semester an artist from the field of dance and performance is invited to Freie Universität to create a platform for dialog between students and artists, where they can gain mutual insight into the respective working methods and to stimulate discussions about differences as well as overlapping between artistic work and academic research.
Time and Place
Introductory Event
- Wednesday, May 7, 6 p.m.
- Institute of Theater Studies, Grunewaldstr. 35, 12165 Berlin, Lecture Hall; subway station: Dahlem Dorf (U3) or Rathaus Steglitz (U9); Bus X 83
Final Presentation
- Tuesday, June 3 and Wednesday, June 4, 2014, between 3 and 6 p.m.
- Radialsystem, Holzmarktstraße 33, 10243 Berlin; S-Bahn station: Ostbahnhof (S3, S5, S7, S75)
Further Information
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Isa Wortelkamp, Institute of Theater Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Tel.: +49 30 83850348; Email: isa.wortelkamp@fu-berlin.de
Link to the Homepage
www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de/fachbereich/gastprof/gert/index.html