Sasha Waltz_Gerhard Spangenberg

Sasha Waltz Dialoge 06_Radiale System


World premiere 14.09.2006 
Architecture and Music are fundamental to Sasha Waltz´ choreographic work. With the interdisciplinary »Dialogue«-projects especially she concerns herself with the experimental and improvisational examination of specific locations such as the Jewish Museum Berlin or the Palast der Republik. With »Dialoge 06 – Radiale Systeme« the refurbished former Pumping Station »Radialsystem V« on the banks of the river Spree will be the site for investigation. The interrelation of music and dance plays also a major part in this work. 22 dancers, 24 musicians from Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and musikFabrik, and 8 singers from the Vocalconsort Berlin participate in this production. Improvised old music, new music played on old instruments: the encounter of differing genres is the base paradigm for this new production/performance venue in Berlin. The audience member is invited to survey the building - from outside and viewed from the water - for himself in the course of the performance, and to explore the halls and studios.


http://www.sashawaltz.de/a03.php?w=&ID=34&t=1&spr=en

Radialsystem V_Gerhard Spangenberg

The concept of dialogue plays a key role at RADIALSYSTEM V: the combination of apparently opposed concepts leading to a result that exceeds the sum of its parts is reflected in the architecture of the building - its balanced synthesis of old and new elements, as well as the house's involvement in the interaction of culture and economy. It is also mirrored in the artistic programs of the house, where early music interacts with contemporary dance, classical concerts are combined with new media and visual arts meet with live performance. The basic thought of the concept of dialogue is: openness instead of restriction. The potential of this idea is mirrored in the establishment of RADIALSYSTEM V in the diverse cultural scene of Berlin: within just one year it is well known as a place for innovative art performances of high quality. This success is reflected in the heavy demand of the venues by institutions from politics, economy, science and media to host different events at RADIALSYSTEM V.

The conceptual direction of RADIALSYSTEM V is closely connected to the structure and aesthetics of the building. Particular importance is ascribed to the architecture: It allows the simultaneous use of the facilities by artistic productions, venue hire and gastronomic services.

The building follows the principle 'form follows function', revealing a clear and simple use of space. Using the empty rooms as a starting point, all areas can be used flexibly and can be transformed as needed. For example, the entire building can be quickly turned into a temporary exhibition space, a concert venue or a dance labyrinth, and then quickly be rearranged in order to make room for congresses, trade shows, symposia, media events and receptions.

Starting with the original structure, Gerhard Spangenberg, the architect who took up the reconstruction project in 2004, was confronted with the task of redesigning the building so that the original facade would remain visible. Not only did the two halls have to be modernized, but the war-torn west side also had to be completely redone. Gerhard Spangenberg developed a concept that combined the historical part with a modern addition. The financing of the project was made possible by the investment group TELAMON Vermögensverwaltungsgesellschaft. The west side of Radialsystem V was closed off with a glass extension and to the Spree side of the building a similarly transparent extension was placed over the former boiler room. Similar to the historical part of the building, this modern element was built with limited materials- concrete, steel, and glass- focusing on function and simple elegance. The new addition not only contrasts, completes, and complements the older part in its multifaceted, transparent and closed quality, it also triples the amount of available space for the entire building.

The building represents a successful symbiosis of old and new, and of tradition and modernity, its concept of dialogue serving as an architectural metaphor for the artistic concept of RADIALSYSTEM V.

http://www.radialsystem.de/rebrush/en/rs-radialsystem-v-einleitungstext.php

CQD – DANCING CITIES

An international network of festivals with a programme of contemporary dance shows in urban landscapes. Currently, the CQD network is composed of 32 European, Asiatic and South/Central American Members.

The CQD – DANCING CITIES network was created by the Associació Marató de l’Espectacle in 1997 in Barcelona, Spain. The organization, conscious of the shortage and connection between dance and public, in 1992 created the first site specific dance festival in the city of Barcelona; Dansa al Parc, a festival with one clear intention: to present dance in a seductive space, like the architect Antoni Gaudi’s Parc Guell. 

The association has coordinated the network since its creation and has succeeded to create an international circuit integrates by independent festivals, with a common objective: the promotion of dance in urban landscapes. 

Sasha Waltz_David Chipperfield Architects

Sasha Waltz Dialoge 09 – Neues Museum
New Museum in Berlin.


From March 18 – 29, the Sasha Waltz dance company will perform in the still-empty rooms of Berlin’s New Museum. The event will mark the artistic inauguration of the building following its reconstruction by British architect David Chipperfield. Museum Island is the emblematic symbol of Berlin’s reunited museum landscape. The «Dialoge 09» project is the latest museum presentation by the contemporary dance company, ten years after their now legendary performance at the 1999 opening of the Jewish Museum.


http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4107773,00.html


The makers didn't go to great lengths to be innovative for the sake of being innovative. Instead they just made a beautiful film with beautiful dance and beautiful music set in a beautiful space. You can see the attention to detail in everything: the movements, the costumes, the hair and make-up and the lighting.
The piece was created on the occasion of the reopening of the Neues Museum in Berlin. The dance explores the rooms and the architecture of the museum before the collection moved in. Some sections were filmed during a performance with an audience present. If you had been there during the performance you would probably not have been able to see every section.


http://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/dance/sasha-waltz-dialoge-09-neues-museum

David Chipperfield Architects_Neues Museum


Built between 1841 and 1859 by the architect Friedrich August Stüler, extensive bombing of Berlin during the Second World War left the building in ruins, with entire sections missing completely and others severely damaged. Few attempts at repair were made after the war, and the structure was left exposed to the elements. In 1997, David Chipperfield Architects - with conservation specialist Julian Harrap - won the international competition for the rebuilding of the Neues Museum in Berlin.
On March 5th, after more than ten years of intensive work, the completion of the rebuilt Neues Museum on Berlin's Museum Island will be celebrated in an official ceremony.


http://www.e-architect.co.uk/berlin/neues_museum.htm

Sasha Waltz_Zaha Hadid

Sasha Waltz _Continu


World Premiere
20th of June, 2010
Sasha Waltz has consolidated her two major projects for museums to create the full-length choreography »Continu«. In 2009 the choreographer devised the artistic inaugurations for David Chipperfield's Neue Museum Berlin and Zaha Hadid’s MAXXI in Rome. »Continu« exhibits attention between choreographic and pictorial elements, coalescing a essential characteristics of Sasha Waltz’s work in a new way.


http://www.sashawaltz.de/a03.php?w=&ID=8&t=1&spr=en

Zaha Hadid_MAXXI Museum

It took 10 years and 150 million euros to build, but Rome’s MAXXI (Museo nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo – National Museum of 21st Century Art), designed by Zaha Hadid, has finally been opened for the public.
Here we are weaving a dense texture of interior and exterior spaces. It’s an intriguing mixture of permanent, temporary and commercial galleries, irrigating a large urban field with linear display surfaces. It could be a library; there are so many buildings that are not standing next to, but are intertwined and superimposed over one another.
The MAXXI relates to the urban context in which it is inserted by re-proposing the horizontal development of the former military barracks, in opposition to the taller residential buildings that surround the site. The geometric structure of the project is aligned along the two grids that regulate the urban structure of this part of the city.
The reinterpretation of these two geometric structures within the proposal generates the surprising geometric complexity of the campus. Sinuous lines harmonise the overall scheme and facilitate flows across the site, mediating between the two urban axes.
The pedestrian path that crosses the campus follows the soft lines of the museum, slipping under its cantilevered volumes. The interior of the building presents visitors with a glimpse of numerous views and openings that cross the structure: on the one hand protecting its contents between its solid walls, on the other inviting visitors to enter through its large glazed surfaces on the ground floor.
The main idea behind the project is directly related to the objective of creating a building for the presentation of the visual arts. The site is “furrowed” by exhibition spaces, the walls that cross its spaces, their intersections defining interior and exterior space. This system works on three levels, the second of which is the most complex and richest, with it various bridges that connect the building and the galleries. Visitors are invited to dive into a dense, continuous space instead of confronting the compact volume of an isolated building.


Designed as a campus of arts and culture, the multi-disciplinary and multi-functional MAXXI is also a new urban space open to the entire city. The MAXXI’s 27,000 m2 contain – in addition to the two museums – an auditorium, a library and media library, a bookshop, a cafeteria, temporary exhibition spaces, various open spaces for live events, commercial activities, workshops and spaces of study and recreation.


Outside, a pedestrian path follows the shape of the building, slipping under its cantilevered volumes and restoring an urban connection interrupted for almost a century by the former military structure.


http://www.minimalismi.com/2009/11/maxxi-museum-by-zaha-hadid/

Fenestrations by Stephan Koplowitz (site-specific dance)

Carol Brown and Mette Ramsgard Thomsen_SeaUnSea

Dance and architecture have much in common as both are concerned with practices of space. For a dancer, the act of choreography occurs through the unfolding of spaces by means of gesture and embodied movement, whereas for an architect, space is a medium through which form emerges and habitation is constructed. For both, the first space of experience is the space of the body.

SeaUnSea is an interactive dance installation which premiered at Siobhan Davies Studio as part of Dance Umbrella in London, October 2006. SeaUnSea is a collaboration between the authors, choreographer Carol Brown and architect Mette Ramsgard Thomsen, working with programmer Chiron Mottram.

As dance-architecture it explores the practice of live drawing. SeaUnSea is a dance performance taking place on an interactive stage. A camera is mounted above the stage as an interface for a digital environment. As the dancers move across the stage, their movements becomes input for changes within the digital realm.

Brown, C. & Ramsgard Thomsen, M. (2008). Dancing-Drawing Fields of Presence in SeaUnSea. In D. Hannah & O. Harslof (Eds.), Performance Design (229-248). Copenhagen: Museum Tuschulanum Press.

Tony Conrad_Unprojectable: Projection and Perspective

Unprojectable: Projection and Perspective, a new commission in which Conrad addresses the immense space of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall with its central bridge as a stage, exposes us to his most recent exploration of projection and long duration on a major scale. While the audience occupies the floor below, Conrad’s back-projected, larger-than-life silhouette will loom large, swaying in response to the production of sounds which will generate a pressure-filled auditory environment. 

http://www.tate.org.uk/intermediaart/tony_conrad.shtm

Projection and Light

Anthony McCall

British artist Anthony McCall (born 1946) has a cross-disciplinary practice in which film, sculpture, installation, drawing and performance overlap. McCall was a key figure in the avant-garde London Film-makers Co-operative in the 1970s and his earliest films are documents of outdoor performances that were notable for their minimal use of the elements, most notably fire.

Petra Blaisse


Dutch designer Petra Balisse works in a multitude of creative areas, including textile, landscape and exhibition design. She founded Inside Outisde in Amsterdam in 1991.
Since 1999 Blaisse works with a team of five to six people - each specialized in a different field - to collaborate with her on both interior and exterior projects. As a team, Inside Outside has brought the essence of the work to greater strength.

Using curtains to form a connection between the inside and the outside, that can also enhance the movements of the dancers in the environment. The can also be a medium for projection.