COMMA 40, is a week-long project that The Place is running at Bloomberg SPACE from Saturday 19th to Sunday 27th November.
Choreographers of international acclaim, including Rosemary Butcher, Place Prize winner Ben Duke, Darren Ellis, Frauke Requardt, Rosemary Lee, Eva Recacha, Tony Adigun and Avant Garde Dance, Simon Ellis, Igor Urzelai and Moreno Solinas, Freddie Opoku-Addaie, Luca Silvestrini, and Vera Tussing, will transform Bloomberg SPACE with a rolling programme of residencies, making it their own creative space over the course of the exhibition, continuously reinventing itself.
This collaboration marks the end of Bloomberg’s COMMA series, and the beginning of a new incarnation of philanthropic activities in the SPACE, bringing together Bloomberg’s philanthropic passions, commissioning new work and supporting the programmes of cultural institutions globally.
Every day the SPACE is going to look and feel completely different, giving unprecedented insight into the choreographer’s creative processes. It’s free, open every day, and the public definitely doesn’t need to know anything about dance to enjoy what’s going to happen! I’d gladly discuss this with you in more details should you be interested?
Bloomberg SPACE Address: 50 Finsbury Square London EC2A 1HD
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday; 11.00 am – 6.00 pm Entry: free
Details of schedule here: www.bloombergspace.com/
Ongoing video installation: Filipe Alcada, Reassemble
Filipe Alcada’s video installation Reassemble was made in collaboration with choreographer Darren Ellis and dancer Hannah Kidd (Richard Alston Dance Company).
The final component is a repeating installation cycle on two screens featuring dance on film.
Screen 1
Ben Duke?It Needs Horses – Winner of The Place Prize 2011
Frauke Requardt?Electric Hotel
Darren Ellis?2nd Movement
Vera Tussing?You ‘Aint Heard Nothing Yet (edit)
Rosemary Lee?Square Dances
Screen 2
Luca Silvestrini?LOL (lots of love)
Tony Adigun?Trinity
Darren Ellis?1st Movement
Simon Ellis?Tuesday
Rosemary Butcher?Vanishing Point
Sat 19, 11.00am – 6.00pm; Vera Tussing
In Vera Tussing’s Sound Bed, individual audience members are invited to lie on a moving platform. With their eyes closed, and speakers placed at their head and feet, a soundtrack, suggesting a cinematic narrative, begins playing. Simultaneously, the performers gently move the platform and the speakers through the gallery, passing through different ‘sound rooms’ as dance unfolds around you. The movement of the dancers and the speakers creates a live experience, placing the audience member at the epicentre of the installation.
Sun 20 and Mon 21 -Rosemary Butcher
After Kaprow is a performance and video installation, featuring the dialogue between a multi-screen recording of a dancer repeating a series of choreographic strategies, and the same dancer performing the same movements in the gallery space, suggesting transitions between past/present and present/future.
Tue 22, 11.00am– 6.00pm; Ben Duke
Ben Duke plans to use a Kinect camera (a depth perception camera developed for the Xbox) to pick up movement from people walking past on the street and then project their images onto the glass of the gallery wall, so they can be seen from inside and outside. Inside the gallery two dancers will interact with the projected forms. The people walking past may or may not notice that their ‘shadow’ is being projected onto the glass wall beside them, becoming the unknowing generator of a dance moment.
Wed 23; 11.00am – 2.30pm; Rosemary Lee &
Rosemary Lee will work with dancer Ben Ash over the course of a morning to create a short solo set to a Bach composition. Ben is known for his beautifully measured, understated dancing, and Rosemary’s intention is to work very closely with the music and the detail of the movement.
Wed 23, 2.30 – 6.00pm; Tony Adigun & Avant Guarded Dance
Tony Adigun will create a dance work in one day in response to the gallery and the people that usually inhabit it and the area around it. He will be creating new choreography with his six dancers during the day so that audiences can observe the rehearsal process and invites visitors to suggest music, ideas and words as stimulus for the creative process. A performance showcasing the final piece will be performed in the gallery at 5.30pm.
Thu 24
12.00pm and 5.30 pm; Frauke Requardt &Freddie Opoku-Addaie
Freddie Opoku-Addaie and Frauke Requardt will re-create their Place Prize Finals’ work Fidelity Project in the gallery and see how their semi-improvised work will react and grow in a non-theatre setting. Fidelity Project is a danced relationship, with the two performers making split-second choreographic decisions based on guesswork, trust and their memories of physical negotiations.
12.30 – 5.00pm ; Moreno Solinas and Igor Urzelai
Moreno Solinas and Igor Urzelai will be creating a piece responding to the gallery environment, and exploring the concepts of documentation, interaction, and performance.
Using the colour red as a thread throughout the 4-hour installation, the two performers will interact with each other creating a one-off installation love duet, reflecting on the essence of performance based in a gallery setting.
Fri 25
11.00am – 2.30pm; Simon Ellis
Simon Ellis’ Dance Fair consists of several themed dance booths: small dance (one on one dance for an audience member); a social dance (dance with an audience member); a talk booth (a conversation about dance); a lecture booth (one-way presentation); a video booth (featuring a selection of dance on video); a photo booth.
3.00 – 6.00 pm; Luca Silvestrini
Two dancers will put together a dance for the gallery that can be seen from the pavement outside. They will constantly go in and out to check how it looks outside and measure how passers-by and audiences react. The piece is about decision making process and audiences will be part of the ongoing struggle to achieve both the dancers’ goals and the choreographer’s artistic vision. Audiences might be asked to go inside and advise the dancers or to check what it feels like from inside, while involuntary becoming part of the show.
Sat 26
Performances at 1.00; 3.00; 5.00pm; Darren Ellis
Darren Ellis presents his 25 minute solo After Effects throughout the day, interacting with a light and sound installation within a modified acoustic drum kit. After the performance gallery visitors can interact (play) with the installation. After Effects is accompanied by Side Effects, a collection of set, costumes, design and film from Darren’s previous works. This allows visitors to view elements up close and place themselves within the works.
Sun 27
11.30- 6 pm; Eva Recacha
Eva Recacha will collaborate with visual artist Alejandro Ospina on a seven hour choreographic marathon entitled Bitácora’s Book (Spanish for binnacle, the captain’s book recording the journey of a ship). Recacha’s durational performance will become the inspiration for a mural painting, created live in the gallery by Ospina, recording the performance. The dialogue between the two artists will experiment with the idea of narration, turning Bloomberg SPACE into a Bitacora’s book.
