Relationscapes
an exercise on waiting
video dance installation
‘PleAse be assUred that
as sOon as We are
in suCH
positiON
I shall.
be
in touCH with
you '
(John Cage, Notations)
Inspired by a poem composed instantly from social media sources in the period of quarantine in Athens, ‘Relationscapes, an exercise on waiting’ is a video dance performance where the values of instant composition are transformed into dramaturgical parameters and the state of waiting becomes a practice of listening and a condition for the coincidence to happen.
The performer creates a context into which she makes decisions for the set of the space on the shooting time of the performance. Influenced by the New York Movement, the composition of scores constitutes the map of the choreography.
Approaching the dancing body as an archive, and the score-based structure of the choreography as a dynamic form which can generate ‘infinite worlds’, the performer is in a constant negotiation between following the structure (the order of the scores) and messing up the structure. Stimulus from the surrounding environment, the air, the space, the sound, the ground, the dancing body, the compositional mind and objects are there; to affect and be affected, blending into each other.
Concept/Performance Maria Pisiou
Sound Design Niovi Kitsiou
Researcher Mentor Fenia Kotsopoulou
Dramaturgical Advice/ Researcher Mentor Julyen Hamilton
Camera Julyen Hamilton
Editing Maria Pisiou
Production Maria Pisiou, Master in Theatre Practices, ArtEZ, University of Arts
Athens, May 2020
Set of the space for the video dance installation
The video is projected on the ceiling of the performance space. Audience lies down on the floor, watches the video while listening to the soundscape through headphones.
Materials needed for the set of the space
pillows or soft materials( for the audience), a couple of headphones. beamer.
More info about the set of the space and the concept of it you can be found here
Link to Documentation of the Process
Thoughts during editing
Physical stories,
A choreographic journey at the moment of the performance
A choreographic journey through editing.
Frames
Black frames
How can the black frames be choreographed?
How can the silence be danced?
Not a clear story will be told.
Once a story starts to be created, it disappears.
Scattered thoughts landing in a terrace
And waiting,
as a practice of listening,
as a way the body to be released and the senses to be awaken.
And waiting,
as a way the space to be created for the coincidence to happen
April 2020, Athens