Encounters #2
Encounters is a series of long-durational dance performances situated in workspaces. #1 took place as a 50h livestream performance in a large empty factory space. In #2, the office space will be subject to physical scrutiny. Encounters is part of the same artistic development which was established with Negotiations (2018) and continues Alexander Gottfarb’s artistic (and non-artistic) questioning of the relation between choreography and art making and the Post-Fordist capitalist society. Gottfarb is looking for and building tactics on how to be with each other. Here, the choreographic craft is being used as a tool, helping us build and explore the boundaries of sustainable relations between dancers, the audience and our environment.
In Encounters #2, the voice is introduced to Gottfarb’s otherwise physical practice, which is based on repetition and transformation of movements and expressions. The dancers inhabit the office environment of TQW, they place their “work” in spaces normally filled with desks, books and computers, where bodies are seated and the sound of typing can be heard. In this durational proposal, performers repeat gestures and utterances, songs and words, creating an ongoing dance concert in a state of flux. Gottfarb and his team invite audience members to take their time, to choose their perspective and create their own dramaturgy of the evening.
graduated from the Stockholm Ballet Academy in 2003. The Swedish artist lives in Vienna. As a dancer he has worked for choreographers like Elio Gervasi, Iztok Kovač, Chris Haring/Liquid Loft and Björn Säfsten among others. He is a founding member of The Loose Collective. In 2009 he created the association Archipelago together with Anna Maria Nowak and is since then creating his own works. Alexander Gottfarb’s interest in examining politically (Political Movements, 2010) or religiously (Moved by Faith, 2011) motivated forms of movement was already evident in his early pieces. His latest creation Encounters #1 was a 50 hours long live-streamed dance performance with eleven dancers taking place in December 2020. The dancer and choreographer uses repetition and transformation, discipline and exhaustion in his work.
Credits
Concept, production development Alexander Gottfarb Choreography, performance Alexander Gottfarb, Katharina Illnar, Nanina Kotlowsky, Raúl Maia, Anna Maria Nowak, Charlotta Ruth Dramaturgy Guy Cools Music Stephan Sperlich Voice coaching Clélia Colonna Costume Karin Pauer Production mollusca productions Administration, accounting smART.at — Encounters #2 is an Archipelago production, co-produced by Tanzquartier Wien. With kind support from the Municipal Department of Cultural Affairs, Vienna, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport and Arbeitsplatz Wien..
Six slots are available per day at hourly intervals