TIJTD
THIS IS JUST TO DO
Trans-disciplinary project by Adriana Sa and Isabelle Schad
THIS IS JUST TO DO has developed through an intermedia work process, in which the participant artists have mutually challenged themselves for exploring and crossing the conceptual and technical “borders” underlying their disciplinary formations (sound, movement, visual arts, video).
A collective work-in-progress can assume permanent mutation as a stimulus for exercising one’s artistic response capabilities. It might promote the exploration of artistic and personal tools in depth through the variability of the work’s context.
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The project is developing permanently through a broad collective creation process (itinerary of collective residences attached), which trace and orientation is set by the initiators of the project.
Part 1 (Barcarena, Hamburg, Dresden, Chemnitz, Berlin, NY) was generally dedicated to some practical “definition” of the collective work process, including artists of different nationalities and artistic backgrounds.
Part 2 (Neerpelt, Antwerps, Berlin, Chemnitz) gathered a group of artists who had participated in previous residences. It related to the creation of a piece that should be able to tour adapting itself to each specific performance environment.
Part 3 (Lisbon,) integrates both local adaptations of this piece and improvised events. These last ones might also include the participation of local artists who have been previously external to the project’s development.
The trace of several practical researches has been followed, such as: looking for balance(s) between improvising and structuring – integration of both in the performances; balancing the relationship between personal “domains” – inter-action of different sensibilities; extending, re-inventing and re-assimilating disciplinary and personal tools and experiences; exploring the meanings inherent to any specific working spaces – the site determines different senses – common sensibility towards the space; articulating the “absurd” within a game between tension, irony and seriousness; exploring, in a human and aesthetical way, processes related to identity transfer, fusion and splitting.
This Is Just To Do PART 1
THIS IS JUST TO DO – PHASE 1.1: Barcarena Lugar Comum Collective residency from Sept. 1st to 16th 2000, showings: 15.09. and 16.09 by and with: Adriana Sa (Lisbon, Portugal), Alexandra Bachzetsis (Greece/Zurich, Switzerland), Ella Raidel (Linz, Austria), Erin Macgonigle (N.Y.C., U.S.A.), Isabelle Schad (Berlin, Germany)
THIS IS JUST TO DO – PHASE 1.2: Hamburg Kampnagel Collective residency from Oct. 9th to 22nd 2000, showing: 21. 10 by and with: Adriana Sa (Lisbon, Portugal), Alexandra Bachzetsis (Greece/Zurich, Switzerland), Cristina Moura (Brasil/ Hamburg, Germany), Isabelle Schad (Berlin, Germany), Nuno Bizarro (Lisbon, Portugal), Toshio Kajiwara (Tokyo/NYC, USA)
THIS IS JUST TO SAY – FRAGMENT 1.1: Dresden Kleine Szene, showings: 28. 10. and 29. 10. 2000 Adriana Sa (Lisbon, Portugal), Isabelle Schad (Berlin, Germany)
THIS IS JUST TO SAY – FRAGMENT 1.2: Chemnitz Voxxx, showing: 29. 10. 2000 by and with: Adriana Sa (Lisbon, Portugal), Alexandra Bachzetsis (Greece/Zurich, Switzerland), Isabelle Schad (Berlin, Germany) Guest artists: Rasterartists (Chemnitz, Germany)
THIS IS JUST TO DO – PHASE 1.3: Berlin Mimecentrum Collective residency from Nov. 11th to 26th 2000, showings: 25. 11. and 26. 11. by and with: Adriana Sa (Lisbon, Portugal), Ella Raidel (Linz, Austria), Isabelle Schad (Berlin, Germany) Jochen Roller (Hamburg, Germany)
THIS IS JUST TO DO – PHASE 1.4: New York O.R.T. Collective residency from Dec. 21st to Jan. 08th 2001, showing: 07. 01. by and with: Adriana Sa (Lisbon, Portugal), Alexandra Bachzetsis (Greece/Zurich, Switzerland), Bainbridge (N.Y.C., USA), David Linton (N.Y.C., USA), Erin Mcgonigle (N.Y.C., USA), Isabelle Schad (Berlin, Germany) Ludger Lamers (Berlin, Germany), Melissa Lockwood (N.Y.C., USA), Toshio Kajiwara (Tokyo/NYC, USA)
PART 2
THIS IS JUST TO DO – PHASE 2.1: Neerpelt & Antwerpen Dommelhof Collective residency from Jan. 22nd to Feb. 18th 2001 Isabelle Schad | Good Work Productions
Monty Collective residency from Feb. 19th to Mar. 3rd 2001 Showings PREMIERE OF “THE PIECE”: 01 – 03. 03. 2001 by and with: Adriana Sa (Lisbon, Portugal), Alexandra Bachzetsis (Greece/Zurich, Switzerland), Ella Raidel (Linz, Austria), Erin Mcgonigle (N.Y.C., USA), Isabelle Schad (Berlin, Germany) Ludger Lamers (Lisbon, Portugal), Toshio Kajiwara (Tokyo/NYC, USA)
THIS IS JUST TO DO – PHASE 2.2: Berlin & Chemnitz March 2001: showings in Dock 11 and Voxxx by and with: Adriana Sa (Lisbon, Portugal), Alexandra Bachzetsis (Greece/Zurich, Switzerland), Ella Raidel (Linz, Austria), Erin Mcgonigle (N.Y.C., USA), Isabelle Schad (Berlin, Germany) Ludger Lamers (Lisbon, Portugal), Toshio Kajiwara (Tokyo/NYC, USA)
PART 3
THIS IS JUST TO DO – PHASE 3.1: Lisbon & Barcarena CAM – Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Collective residency from May 7th to 23rd 2001, showings 24, 25, 26. 05. 2001 Lugar Comum, showing 01. 06. 2001 (inserted in the “Intermedia Meetings”) by and with: Adriana Sa (Lisbon, Portugal), Alexandra Bachzetsis (Greece/Zurich, Switzerland), Ella Raidel (Linz, Austria), Isabelle Schad (Berlin, Germany) Ludger Lamers (Lisbon, Portugal), Toshio Kajiwara (N.Y.C., USA) Guest artists: Manuel Mota e Margarida Garcia (Lisbon, Portugal)
THIS IS JUST TO DO – PHASE 3.2: Lisbon ZDB Gallery Preparation Dec. 17th – 20th 2002, showing Dec. 21st Adriana Sa (Portugal), Isabelle Schad (Germany), Guest artists: Emidio Buchinho, Hugo Barbosa, Manuel Mota, Marco Franco, Margarida Garcia, Nuno Guimares, Sofia Gonçalves (Portugal) and Mathilde Lapostolle (France/Portugal)
THIS IS JUST TO DO – PHASE 3.3: Brussel KVS / Bottelarij 10th April 2002 by and with: Adriana Sa (Lisbon, Portugal), Alexandra Bachzetsis (Greece/Zurich, Switzerland), Ella Raidel (Linz, Austria), Isabelle Schad (Berlin, Germany) Ludger Lamers (Lisbon, Portugal), Toshio Kajiwara (N.Y.C., USA)
THIS IS JUST TO DO – PHASE 3.4: Kortrijk Dans@Tack Pand DeSmedt – De Jaegere 12th 13th April 2002 by and with: Adriana Sa (Lisbon, Portugal), Alexandra Bachzetsis (Greece/Zurich, Switzerland), Ella Raidel (Linz, Austria), Isabelle Schad (Berlin, Germany) Ludger Lamers (Lisbon, Portugal), Toshio Kajiwara (N.Y.C., USA)
Participating artists
Alexandra Bachzetsis (Greece/Zurich, Switzerland)
Benton Bainbridge (N.Y.C., USA)
Hugo Barbosa (Portugal)
Nuno Bizarro (Paris, France)
Emidio Buchinho (Portugal)
Marco Franco (Portugal)
Margarida Garcia (Lisbon, Portugal)
Sofia Gonçalves (Portugal)
Nuno Guimarès (Portugal)
Toshio Kajiwara (Tokyo/NYC, USA)
Ludger Lamers (Berlin, Germany)
Mathilde Lapostolle (France/Portugal)
David Linton (N.Y.C., USA)
Melissa Lockwood (N.Y.C., USA)
Erin Macgonigle (N.Y.C., U.S.A.)
Cristina Moura (Brasil/ Hamburg, Germany)
Manuel Mota (Lisbon, Portugal)
Bruno Pocheron (Berlin, Germany)
Ella Raidel (Linz, Austria)
Jochen Roller (Hamburg, Germany)
Adriana Sá (Lisbon, Portugal)
Isabelle Schad (Berlin, Germany)
A Memorable ’This is just to do/Part 2’ in the Monty
Do you know that bunker feeling in the arts? Artists who go underground to do radical things. The public who comes to watch gets the feeling that they are experiencing something special. Those who weren’t there can hear stories for years about ’the good old days in the cold, dark bunker’. That is the atmosphere of ’This is just to do/Part 2’, tonight in the Monty.
Do you also know that stuff about ’work in progress’, that ’the process is more important that the result’ and the artistic slander of result orientated thinking? Do you sometimes have the feeling that the blah-blah has to cover or justify the lack of quality and unfinishedness?
Well, that is not ’This is just to do/Part 2’. It is a work where the process was so important that the result stands head and shoulders above the usual.
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Luckily. They’ve made one of the few (real) multi-media performances where the whole doesn’t get suffocated under the parts. Even though the collective is quite broad, there is no overkill with the input, strengthening the different media instead of making each other superfluous. The arts which take part are : dance performance and visual art, with sound installations, video projections, light creation and visual installations.
What the performance is really about is hard to say. What is sure is that the artists are playing with fetishes, image-culture and life in the big city as a context. The two female dancers play with their icon-status through high heels, a Bugs Bunny mask, wigs, breasts and movements that make one think of manequins. Also, the male performer captures his own sexuality in a comparison with Bugs Bunny, via an installation with white boxes. These boxes also serve as temporary screens for video projections, such as a film of a carjacking (speeded up, repeated, forwards and backwards). Later, the performers imitate the movements from the film. This is not really revolutionary. The Woostergroup did it first. But this collective isn’t trying to open anyones eyes to some kind of human condition.
But at the same time they do say something about that condition. About our habit for stimulus, for example via the noise-soundscape, which works on you agressively, but which you get used to. Or the flickering of lights under the stage, through which you realize that you had forgotten them. There are also the live video recordings, visual work which makes the body a stackable building material. At the end, the stage empties, and a lonesome bunny remains behind, a lost rabbit in a stone desert. The ladies and gentlemen of the collective looked proud and relieved at the bow. With right.
Clara van den Broek, de Morgen, March 3rd, 2001
Co-production
European CoDaCo Fund (European Community); Ultima Vez (Brussels); Monty (Antwerpen); Lugar Comum (Oeiras); Funda’‹o Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisboa); Instituto Portugues das Artes e Espectaculos (Lisboa)
Supports for the previous residencies and showings
Mime Centrum (Berlin); Kampnagel (Hamburg); ORT (Nova-Iorque); CC Dommelhof (Neerpelt); Monty (Antwerpen); Lugar Comum – Fabrica da Polvora (Oeiras), Dock 11 (Berlin), Kulturamt Prenzlauerberg (Berlin); Fundacao Luso-Americana (Lisboa), Voxxx (Chemnitz), TANZherbst Dresden (Dresden)
Agradecimentos
Wim Vandekeybus, Kristien de Coster and the team of Ultima Vez, and the team of Monty, Isabelle Lhoas, Sofia Bustorff, Franziska Luethy, Heiko Schramm, Ana Portela, Gil Mendo
NOTE 1
After one or two centuries of increasing overload in urban life, one might recognize certain human physical / mental / emotional adaptations towards dealing with overlapping stimuli. We can perceive the poem of subtlety within noise. The natural harmony got out of random mix. The human behind the machine, the punctuation of the less expected.
Illusions as reality’s multiples exist in a fascinating place for creation. This place integrates a wide range of perceptions and insights.
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NOTE 2
Assuming the artistic making as a performative procedure itself implies playing with the extent to which this more or less private process gets explicit; either if performing publicly either if working under more private circumstances.
Anyway it can be a personal exposure within a game between control over what happens and acceptance-integration of the “external” Í a deal with randomness.
Working in collaboration seems to emphasise the demand for openness and tuning, immediate-instinctive reaction regarding the circumstances. It happens within a single output dialogue. Beyond a neural awareness of the whole, this work process requires that fragile balance between one’s individuality and one’s production in conjunction; a balance worked out as unity without losing the creative tension, i.e., the specific differences.One gets occasionally provided with intensive living together fragments. It could reach a collapse through the excess of fragmentation, it is always happening although it is never inescapable. Recordings of collaborations are tools of undeniable reality. If one tries to avoid honesty one gets betrayed by the work.
NOTE 3
Receptivity, emotions, physic, impulses and intuitions (the body) are raw material. The performative affirmation of the self is also its representation. Every act and movement is stretched through this significance – it acquires the force of a ritual.
The work process balances non-linearity and randomness with intuitive control, it creates and simultaneously follows the moment. Stimuli and emotions populate the work’s environmental density. The body generates them while it simultaneously remains unprotected when they return in their “visibility”: this feedback takes one to unexplainable liminalities. It is a permanent game between perception, challenge and reaction, a mirror game.
How real is each reality?
Adriana Sa (2000)
THIS IS JUST TO DO@CENTRO DE ARTE MODERNA
SHOWING BY AND WITH:
adriana sa – (Lisboa, Portugal)
alexandra bachzetsis – (Grécia/Zurich, Switzerland)
ella raidel – (Linz, Austria)
erin macgonigle – (New York)
Isabelle Schad – (Berlin)
ludger lamers – (Lisboa/Berlin)
toshio kajiwara – (New York)
“This is just to do” has developed through an intermedia work process, in which the participant artists have mutually challenged themselves for exploring and crossing the conceptual and technical “borders” underlying their disciplinary formations.
This work-in-progress has assumed the form of several collective residencies in four countries (PORT, BE ,GER and USA), joining a nucleus of artists of different nationalities and disciplines (sound, movement, electronics, visual arts, video).
Beyond the group working now at Gulbenkian, the project has benefited from the contribution of other artists who participated in previous residences: Benton Bainbridge (USA), Cristina Moura (Brasil), Claudia Serpa Soares (Portugal), David Linton (USA), Jochen Roller (Alemanha), Melissa Lockwood (USA), and Nuno Bizarro (Portugal).
This is a project conceived by Adriana Sa and Isabelle Schad who tried to orientate consequently the progression of all collective residen*s, considering their own very different professional backgrounds; and, in fact, assuming the work as a group creation. The result is truly collective, since it is all about a collaboration system articulating personal approaches and individual artistic interests within a structural unity.
One has followed the way of practical researches, such as: balance between improvising and structuring; exchange, re-invention and re-assimilation of disciplinary and personal tools and experiences; exploration of the signifies inherent to the specific working spaces/sites; articulation of the “absurd” within a game between tension, irony and seriousness; aesthetical exploration of processes related to identity transferring, fusion and splitting.
Production
Adriana Sa & Isabelle Schad, Slow-up (Brussels)