Tanzquartier Wien

Keynote Lecture
Dries Douibi: The Metaphor of a City

In an essayistic, associative format, Dries Douibi weaves together various topics in relation to the dancing city. He does this in response to a question from Tanzquartier Wien: what is it that we need in our cities so that dance and performance practices can flourish? Through the work of Nacera Belaza, Douibi explores his own history with roots in Algeria. He reflects on domesticity and corona, zooms in on the first dance performance he experienced after the lockdown, wonders where the political manifests itself today, dwells on the infrastructure of the city and what place art could have in it, questions the mechanisms of exclusion and tries to shed a different light on the virus. For aren’t we all ultimately bodies of water connected to each other until our last breath? Douibi is taking you on a poetic philosophical journey from TikTok to The Scorpions, from Brussels to São Paulo, from his own kitchen to the vinyl ballet floor. One question is resonating through all these different pathways: How can dance help us form a community today?

Panel discussion

Panelists
Philipp Gehmacher (Choreographer, dancer and visual artist)
Walter Heun (Cultural manager, dance and theatre producer, artistic director TQW 2009–2017)
Susanne Songi Griem (Object and performance artist)
Charlotte Vandevyver (Deputy director of P.A.R.T.S., Brussels)

Moderation
Christine Standfest (Dramaturg and curator, ImPulsTanz, Vienna)

Q&A after the panel