KAF - BERLIN

2008-01-25T19:07:00.000+01:00

What follows is a real email exchange between Steve Paxton and Carlos Oliveira.

Thu, 5 Apr 2007 18:46:55 -0500

Boris Charmatz has given me only your email. Please tell me more.

your email dancer,

Steve Paxton

Fri, 6 Apr 2007 11:23:01 +0100

What do you want to know about?

Carlos

Sat, 7 Apr 2007 08:59:20 -0500

Hello Carlos,

Learning your name is a big step forward. Please send me a little of your history, your present moment, and what future you hope for? I am an improvisational dancer very interested in movement of the human body, so I am most interested in how you move. But that may be impossible to learn by email.

steve

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 15:53:33 +0100

Carlos is the Portuguese Version of Karl in German or Carl in English.

Here in Portugal everybody I’ve met in the dance frame knows your work specially regarding contact improvisation. I've done some workshops on it mostly with Ana Borges, a Portuguese choreographer, and read about your work on the 60s and 70s. What follows is a little bit of me.

Till my eighteens I’ve always been involved in amateur theatre activities. Acting, production and creation have always been occupations for my spare times. Meanwhile, in 1998, I’ve finished high school and went to Lisbon, to study Environmental Engineering. I accomplished, in 2003, a MA having done, at the same time, several independent studies, such as: ecological balance studies, landscape form analysis and environmental impact assessments. After graduation, I’ve made a professional training program, which consisted in satellite imagery analysis towards qualitative and quantitative determination of green areas.

After this, I reoriented my activities towards the practice of performance arts. During 2004, I traveled through Portugal and done workshops on performance art, experimental theatre and contemporary dance. I’ve also engaged myself in a new circus project with a juggler. The performance was scarcely presented due to an invitation to coordinate, during 2005, the theatre department on the National Institute for Leisure (INATEL). On this position I’ve organized and produced several kinds of activities, such as: editing of new texts for performance, direction of two theatre festivals: one for the stage and one for the street, administration of a theatre library, and coordination of a national plan for theatre support.

Then, in the end of 2005, Giacomo Scalisi, Belém’s Cultural Centre (CCB) Theatre Consultant, proposed me a co-production for an artistic residence with the objective of creating a new circus performance to première in November 2006. I’ve created a youth association with the objective of helping young artists on production, creation and promotion of their works, so that, legally, it would be possible to co-product with CCB.

For the performance itself, we’ve worked closely with Madalena Vitorino because it was of our interest to develop body movement as far as it would be possible. The performance is now touring through Portugal.

Meanwhile, as director of the youth association, I’ve engaged myself in grouping young artists whose work can, somehow, come together. At this moment we have activities on music, dance, theatre and new circus, both on production and creation, as well as on education.

Now, I need to engage myself in an intense and profound investigation on performance. As I’ve been working, through 2006, with choreographer João Fiadeiro on his Real Time Composition Method, I realized the richness of the body as a place of work, and I want to focus myself on the cultural body: the body that reveals itself just by being. In this sense I want to develop my work in several directions: 1) social art, as in performance for layman: recreational play and formation of teachers; 2) science of performance: investigation on theoretical aspects of ethics and aesthetics, as well as choreology; 3) the practice of art: making my own artistic path; 4) pedagogy: training of professional performers.

Also I need, on an academic level, to obtain some higher education so that my professional activities come to be done in a more consistent manner. I have to gain an artistic direction, even if it is to administrate arts, which I want to do in Portugal, and this is something that I expect from the course. The possibility of participating in a process that aims to produce new relations between body and knowledge, to develop critical approaches on culture, reflections on pedagogical systems as ways to transmit information, discussions on communication itself; this is something that I need to proceed on working with performance arts.

That is it.

Carlos

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 15:56:42 +0100

Have Boris sent you the imaginary email exchange between the two of us i wrote this last week?

Carlos

Sun, 8 Apr 2007 08:33:05 -0500

No. Boris sent me only your email address. He is making a situation where we have to make our own connection.

Maybe I should introduce myself. I am a dancer who is interested in physical systems, that is, how practice affects the body of the dancer. I am interested in performing improvisational dance, which I now take to mean being interested in how movement comes to the mind of the dancer through natural and man-made systems... and so I'm very curious about what makes dancers want to move, to dance as a form of art. Because when I think about it, I realize that all art forms rely on movement, but no other uses the artist as a medium.

I live on a farm, in the country in Vermont, where I have a studio. I grow my own food, spend my time composting and cutting hay, growing vegetables, and eating. I think about dance as I do so.

Regards,

Steve

Sun, 8 Apr 2007 10:15:55 -0500

Great letter. I have the idea that the direction you mention at the end of the letter is finally a personal growth. This is because I am working on the premise that the material of the live performer is sensations of the body, so to grow in performance is to find and organize the sensations one has to obtain a performance, and seek new experiences of the body, to gather new material. These two stratagems, to find or to organize the sensations, are possible through the opening of awareness with, possibly, study of movement disciplines, which take one beyond development, as it happened to occur. (For instance, juggling.)

“The possibility of participating in a process that aims to produce new relations between body and knowledge, to develop critical approaches on culture, reflections on pedagogical systems as ways to transmit information, discussions on communication itself; this is something that I need to proceed on working with performance arts.”

I am tempted to say, 'me too'. The new relations between body and knowledge are popping up all the time, especially in the new brain imaging. Of course before we can digest that material, we should have some idea of the context, both anatomically and historically. That could be in itself a life study. Where do you look for ideas about this? I have taken a lot from Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, who has spent her life elaborating on anatomy and development. The life sciences have been chugging along, and given us new materials, which redraw the body's definition. By existing they critique the existing culture, and point to new pedagogical systems. Maybe my question would be, how long is the period between stimulus by life sciences or the arts, and response by the culture?

Steve

Sun, 8 Apr 2007 19:58:29 +0100

The main characteristic of these times we're living is the possible concurrence of all previous times in the present. It is as if the history timeline had been compressed in the present, making possible to live and work on any kind of registered knowledge. One can invoke knowledge quality and its genealogy to counter-argument this thought. But there's no need to it, because it is possible to work with two different kinds of quality knowledge without making an evaluation of them, but simply observing what happens when they come together. So, it's a question of combination, and nowadays it is possible to combine everything. At least on art: because of its freedom.

With this premise it is not a question of "how long is the period between stimulus by life sciences or the arts, and response by the culture", but a question of how is each individual dealing with knowledge and constructing his culture? Hence, what is the available knowledge for each individual?

To grow is to discover and organize. To produce knowledge is to discover and organize. Thus, to grow is to produce knowledge. The artist is the one who receives information from nature and, with his subjectivity, reproduces his own way of understanding this same information in his work. Hence, the artwork is just a natures' reflection on/through (the mirror is also a window) the artists' eyes. Without a doubt, art is an application of knowledge. What makes it different from any other kind of knowledge application is its "dépense" economy. There's no kind of profit in it.

This premise makes me want to work with whatever is an "out of any economical system" manifestation. Peoples' psychology and culture are, to me, right now territories where i find the most interesting material to work on. As a counterpoint, i also find that every possible reference collected in these materials can be used to give them a context regarding the exterior world. This way, a connection remains between what is subjective and what is objective, between what is interior and what is exterior.

For specific body knowledge I take a lot from traditional Chinese martial practices in general, and Qigong In particular. This is an ancient Chinese health care system that integrates physical postures, breathing techniques and focused intention. It as to do with body energy: its awareness and control.

Carlos

Mon, 9 Apr 2007 19:20:25 -0500

That is, knowledge quality and its genealogy? Is this the time to invoke it?

Steve

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 14:07:06 +0100

It is not. I already said it.

One can take whatever information one can reach and deal with it without any preconceptions, meaning, in a completely free way. This is what is in the origin of cultural crisis. Because culture is made of information and the way generations deal with it. Now, regarding artistic processes, what are the possible methods to combine and process information? What kinds of information can be combined? How to work this information? With which kind of aesthetics? The answer to these questions relies on the individual or in the group of individuals, and their subjective approach to knowledge. To culturally react on knowledge, first, it is necessary to act upon knowledge. The length of action and reaction, in this process, vary between individuals regarding their involvement in the production of new knowledge.

Carlos

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:51:22 -0500

I think you are talking about practice. What to practice? That is, a sort of active vessel into which to pour all the information, aesthetics. BUT, the practice is nonverbal. It is like a naturalist observing water. Maybe the question is, how to practice without forcing the practice into the shapes of others, the previous generations, and the knowledge. How to experience with no prejudice. Maybe possible? What about breath, for instance?

Steve

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 23:23:13 +0100

Knowledge is, for itself, a prejudice. To contain practice in the range of senses is to forget knowledge. But this is still an experience. There's always a struggle between you and yourself, because it is not possible for you to eradicate completely your cultural being. The naturalist knows what he's observing. There's a certain quantity of knowledge in the act of observing water. Even in the act of breading (when you make it the object of your attention). Is there an exact quantity of knowledge, so that is possible to act without forcing into other shapes? Without wanting? Just using what is strictly necessary. There's a need of letting you go. But how much can you let yourself go? Isn't it doomed to be a non 100% exercise?

I'm writing this and remembering my experience with contact-improvisation. There's always a fluctuation between different states of mind and body, and this is what determines its efficiency, because sometimes you must react and you do it with something you carry within you: a cultural inheritance. Is it possible to determine exactly what is genetic from what is cultural? I think not. And what's the point? In this sense the remaining question is: what is the possible ground zero? The "Tabula Rasa"?

Carlos

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:48:28 -0500

Ah Carlos, you work so hard on these constructs. Reading them, I get the picture that you are going for the absolutes, even doubting that they are possible.

Of course you won't find the Tabula Rasa using theory. This only gives Tabula Theorum. Some meditations skirt - not avoid, but slip by - this problem by accepting the tabula as it is. Like not paying attention to a TV set playing in the room. It changes, it is not going to stop, so one can step back and witness that.

Any way, I read your questions invoking totality with little alarm bells going off.

“…doomed to be a non 100% exercise? ... what is the possible ground zero? The "tabula rasa"”.

As exercise, which do you prefer? A non-100% exercise, or a 0% exercise? Where did you learn about tabula rasa? They used to be the state attributed to new-borns, but I think they has been discredited in the research into infant psychology and the arguments about nature and nurture. Babies are pre-determined to some degree. So no rasa. Part of this predetermination seems to be toward cultural norms. I just have to ask you, what is wrong with being in part a cultural being? The naturalist inevitably 'knows' what water is. He is a naturalist, though, because he tries to put the previous knowledge aside and attempts to understand the nature of water. He tries to see 'it,' not himself. He tries. You only state that he will be prejudiced and thus incapable of pure understanding. I ask you, what if separate bits of knowledge, different points of view, are the best humans are ordinarily capable of? What if the various bits of water knowledge add up to something more complex than any one mind is able to experience? What if adding just one factor - say water's molecular attraction - to the views of the fisherman, the swimmer, the gardener, the dancer (composed mostly of water), is the point of the job?

The subjective/objective polarity is a philosophical morass. It ignores the possibility that we interact with the world both physically and with the mind. That is, we are part of our environment. We affect it, it affects us. One thing. That is instead of a tabula rasa, better metaphor might be a mirror. Anyway, important to realize that these are just metaphors, a long journey from blank experience.

When you say about CI, "sometimes you must react and you do it with something you carry within you: a cultural inheritance. Is it possible to determine exactly what is genetic from what is cultural?" Are you overlooking the reflexes? They are reactions, which do not arise in the brain, and may or may not be culturally influenced. That is, they may be influenced and even corrected. That is the reflexive contraction in fear of falling may be turned into an extension into rolling. But while admitting reflexes can be influenced, I argue that it is only the affect of the reflex, which changes. The reflex may manifest as either contraction or projection. The contraction or projection is the cultural part. The reflex is an impulse. I have come to assume that the point in all this is to do with the imperfect relativity of the senses. That is, I am attracted to the idea that the senses are imperfect and relative. You seem to be distressed. What to you make of the senses?

Kurt Vonnegut has died. Rest in peace, or so it goes.

Steve

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:28:15 +0100

Tough in the exercise there's a subject and an object what seems to be the important variable is the moment itself. As if in each moment, both the subject and the object, are to be new to each other. Like experimenting something for the first time, with out prejudice. The exercise development turns out to be unknown. But the neutral subject approach towards the object opens the range of possibilities for it, and only an openness of mind and body can deal with the impossible and the infinite within the neutral. This kind of approach is to be made through ones' senses, as they are the most effective tools to work on the object discovery. I have been working the weight of a stone in my body, discovering through my senses how does this strange object affects my movement. The interesting part for me was to find out the power relations between the two bodies. It is stone who is in control of my movement, when the premise is to keep it in balance.

Carlos

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 08:02:42 -0500

As two language-based creatures corresponding about dance by email, we have gone rather far, thanks to your very good English and the philosophical nature of your mind. After reading and enjoying the language you developed below, I have to point out that not only is it based in metaphor, it is a language-based metaphor. Which is cool, but of course self-referential.

Our time together is short, so I will skip to the chase. Pick your metaphors carefully. You start this letter with subject and object. Such a viewpoint is blind to gravity, which is a great equalizer, and which would somewhat erase the distinction between you and the stone.

Some thinkers hold that metaphor is so natural to the mind that we can't think without them, while others hold that such development is only one kind of intelligence. Intelligence, as in military-speak, as when we say, 'gathering intelligence about the weapons'. Yes, as you point out, the senses. Intelligence in other words not as an attribute, but as objectified, out there, possibly camouflaged, interlaced, intrinsic and essential.

I ask you, what is a membrane?

With that leap, regards,

Steve

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:15:34 +0100

Membrane is a layer. It can be more or less tangible, more or less permeable, but always works as a frontier between two diferent things: objects, ideas, senses, etc.

Membrane is a filter. It can work as a wall, as an open road, or as everything in the middle.

Membrane is a communication mediator. Every possible exchange between two aspects of life is done through it.

Membrane is a concept. What we think of it comes from a lack of unity between us and everything else. In this sense membrane is ”solitude". An isolation tool.

Carlos

And so it goes…

Photos of 31/08/07

2007-09-01T12:25:00.000+02:00

Stairs ... cleaning-up party

Mediathek ... KAF feedback session

Nuno ... wanting to be taller ... or

Hermann ... not being tall enough

Farewell ... serious Frenchmen

Program of 31/08/07

2007-08-31T00:04:00.000+02:00

4.00pm

'Future archive' structure for discussing/building the
FESTIVAL OF 2027

open feedback session for KAF

cleaning-up party

all day

exhibitions in Mediathek

Photos of 30/08/07

2007-08-30T23:59:00.001+02:00

Mediathek ... Tempo 76 - learning & watching of learning

Stage ... plug-session

Program of 30/08/07

2007-08-30T09:10:00.000+02:00

4.00pm - 7.00pm

KAF open learning environment:
different workshops and research processes on all floors

Photos of 29/08/07

2007-08-30T08:57:00.000+02:00

Work ... shop with Xavier Le Roy - Gran Torso

Work ... shop with Xavier Le Roy

Work ... interview with Mr X

Bar ... dance in couple energy

Program of 29/08/07

2007-08-29T10:05:00.000+02:00

4.00pm

interview with Xavier Le Roy

6.00pm

in Bar
dance in couple workshop
based on salsa and Argentinian tango

Photos of 28/08/07

2007-08-29T09:59:00.001+02:00

Mediathek ... playground - sharing movements workshop

Mediathek ... playground - Tempo 76 process

Program of 28/08/07

2007-08-27T23:25:00.000+02:00

4.00pm

on Stage
Different performative structures around the question:
What is/means 'contemporary' for you?

all day

in Mediathek
different exhibitions:
What makes me show what I show?
Paratext

Photos of 27/08/07

2007-08-27T23:10:00.000+02:00

Mediathek ... reviwing reviews

Marathon ... open feedback session

Mediathek ... a new exhibition - "PARATEXT"

Stage ... Ante showed his work ... and?

Program of 27/08/07

2007-08-27T09:17:00.000+02:00

4.30pm

Open feedback session for and with the participants and the audience of
KAF 10-minutes SHOWCASE MARATHON

5.30pm

in Mediathek
opening of the exhibition "PARATEXT"

6.00pm

on Stage
work presentation: Ante Ursic "Nova woda"
discussion: showing in KAF

Photos of 25/08/07

2007-08-26T11:11:00.000+02:00

Marathon ... all our lovely guests

Homework ... for the audience - feedback corner

Photos of 24/08/07

2007-08-25T00:39:00.000+02:00

Socks vs e-mails

Mediathek ... listening of what makes me show what I show

Photos of 23/08/07

2007-08-24T00:46:00.000+02:00

Meeting ... Yvonne Rainer in KAF

Workshop ... around objects or playing with food

Marathon ... organisation team taking a nap

Program of 22/08/07

2007-08-23T00:14:00.000+02:00

4.30pm

on Stage
Lets talk about programmation

special guests: Barbara Friedrich, Wagner Caravalho, Bettina Masuch, Catarina Saraiva

4.00pm - 7.00

in Mediathek
exhibition "What makes me show what I show?
"Thought of the day" wall

Phots of 22/08/07

2007-08-23T00:02:00.001+02:00

Rehearsal ... with Yvonne Rainer I

Rehearsal ... with Yvonne Rainer II

Stage ... fo videodance

Nijinskaf

Moment ... of out of KAF

Prgram of 22/08/07

2007-08-22T00:56:00.000+02:00

4.30pm

on Stage
VIDEO DANCE

5.30pm

special guest Andrea Keiz

4.00pm - 7.00

in Mediathek
exhibition "What makes me show what I show?
"Thought of the day" wall
slideshow of KAF photos

Photos of 21/08/07

2007-08-22T00:49:00.001+02:00

Mediathek ... sharing work processes

What-makes-me-show-wht-I-show structure ... Kronos gods

What-makes-me-show-wht-I-show structure ... what makes me hide what I hide

What-makes-me-show-wht-I-show structure ... I like to touch people

Program of 21/08/07

2007-08-21T08:41:00.000+02:00

4.00pm

on Stage
hello! KAF people
discussion "What makes me show what I show?"

6.40pm

in Mediathek
updates of photos and thoughts of the day

10.00pm

in sommer.bar (Podewil)
concert of the monsters (we are) by Gérald Kurdian from KAF

Photos of 20/08/07

2007-08-21T08:33:00.000+02:00

Open rehearsal

Bar ... the first dance karaoke process

Meeting with ... everybodies

Program of 20/08/07

2007-08-20T02:25:00.000+02:00

4.00pm

opening of the Bar

4.30pm

opening of the Mediathek
followed by discussion with Mette Ingvartsen and Alice Chauchat

6.40pm

in Mediathek
public update of the photos and the thought of the day

Presentation of KAF in Podewils'sches palais (19.08.07)

2007-08-20T02:11:00.000+02:00

A bit of KAF history for introduction

Programation ... mathematics

Programation ... poetry

Bar ... find the missing members

Mediathek ... creating the space

Communication ... rehearsing the simultaneous interpretation

Preparation of KAF in HAU3 (14.-18.08.07)

2007-08-20T01:42:00.000+02:00

The very first KAF meeting in Berlin

A daily general meeting

Mediathek ... gathering the objects of...

... what makes me show what I show

Bar ... recording

the dance-karaoke

Communication's navigation in space

Communication/Magazine

2007-07-26T01:14:00.000+02:00

Some thoughts about all the communication in K.a.F.
First of all the need to identify the different types of communication:

from K.a.F. to Tanz im August (festival direction, administration...) - gracias Hermann
from K.a.F. to the invited artists
from K.a.F. to the public of Tanz im August
from K.a.F. Berlin people

Some suggestions:

We would like to consider and think of how the activities that happen during K.a.F could get a form or a kind of documentation. We would think of that as the K.a.F. magazine, so to think of an information source, not in a written format but in a LIVE format, inviting people to move through them. Maybe propose a performance-like "magazine" ("report"+announcements), an interaction with the audience in the other festival spaces before the programmed performances. Also think about a daily communication inside the HAU3, meant for the people who have already come for one afternoon.

In addition we have a constant need to disperse the information about what happens next in K.a.F. On the one hand we would like to use the weblog to fill in this task during the festival. That is, posting daily couple of images of what has happened and adding short information what is still to come. All of those, who feels the need to share the experiences through written word on the Internet, are welcome to use the comments space also on the same weblog.

A bar in K.a.F.

2007-07-11T21:53:00.000+02:00

Here are some suggestions, how to organize the BAR:

Job description:

I would be responsible for the cash (counting it at the opening and closing of the bar), for doing a schedule for those who want to "work" at the bar, for coordinating the different ideas that come up in our heads and that concern the life at the bar.

Some technical things:

Two services: one self-service, when KAF is not open for the audience and another (usual) one, when KAF is open for the audience.

Two price rates: internal (for those who are active in the life of KAF) and external (for the audience).
We should define what would be to eat and drink at the bar:

for drinks: tea, coffee, fruit juice and beer, wine, refreshing drink with ginger and lemon;
for food: chips, peanuts, home-made cakes.

Or we could buy mini-sandwiches and think of collaboration with other alternative food providers outsied KAF (Gérald's idea).

To ask whether it is possible to get a "tireuse" (for draft beer), a coffee machine, wheter there is already a fridge, some tables and chairs or some sofas, water boiler for tea, what is the festival bar offering? A TV-set or video projector; at least a radio, but better a small stereo system.

The idea(s):

An informal and lively place for exchange: it is the place, where the audience can get its first insight into the KAF activities and at the same time it is a place for internal exchange. (C'est un premier espace pour les gens pour entrer en contact voir pour participer à d'éventuels évènements donc il reste ouvert à toute propositions déplacée.)

Some brain-storming:

An information point for exposing the schedule of daily events in KAFentuels évènements de la journée ( workshops, lectures...);
A danced karaoke: to suggest a set of video clips and a small dance floor to create a merry movement cabaret;
A place to recite/expose the magazine;
A place for small musical events;
A service, where everybody speaks their mother tongue;
A place for diffusing the videos and photos of KAF events;
To invent a new service (for exemple, you can order a coffee only by a certain way of moving...);
An extension for the events organized by mediatheque.

first contact

2007-07-11T18:17:00.001+02:00

hello.
my first day on the kaf blog. i am a hüz student and i want to participate in kaf.
to answer fast your questions.
i have space to sleep...but not in a seperate room. i have a "matelat" and a nice kitchen to sleep or some free space in my own room. if you need...you are warmly welcome. i live in neukölln, hermannplatz. wonderful place!!!
a bientot.
anna

"Meeting with artists" proposition

2007-07-10T23:42:00.000+02:00

Hello all!

Here comes a first proposition concerning the “Meeting with Artists” activity within the K.a.F. project (and more specifically the Programmation Group). This is just the starting point from where we can begin to exchange ideas about how to define the proposition more.

So , the main points that we first considered are :

Which will be the exact proposals to the artists? Till now we thought of 3 options either discussions/debates or lectures or short workshops.
How do we organize those meetings so that both sides can benefit from it.
Which is the role of the Moderator on the synthesis/construction of the discussions ?
Who meets with Who? (Maybe it would be helpful to have a look at the program of the festival).

Concerning the discussions we thought that the following characteristics are important:

Specificity/Concreteness (What kind of strategies we could develop so as to make the discussion easy to be followed and to avoid spinning out!!)
Performativity ( How do we understand this term in relation with the discussions as well as with the lectures and why not the workshops too.)
All the participants are aware of the Responsibility that they have on constructing the discussion (How to develop techniques so that this awareness can contribute to a constructive way of talking ?).

We thought that it would be interesting to organize meetings/debates with 2 or more artists f. ex. The “Club de 5” with the “2 fish” talking about collective work or Yvonne Rainer and Xavier Le Roy talking about The Rite of the Spring or group projects (optionally).

The topics of the discussions, lectures, workshops.
As options could be:

Intuition (as method), inspired by G.Deleuze’s ”Bergsonism”
The notion of Affect and Expression
Collective work processes -What kind of strategies/methods could a group use in order to create?
Music and Choreography

..and and and..

Looking forward to your responses..!

K.a.F. Mediatheque

2007-07-10T19:28:00.000+02:00

Some informations concerning the K.a.F. mediatheque:

Questions and guidelines:

Library as a source of information that has to do with LEARNING and CREATION processes.
How can a library be an open and exposed one? One in which you don’t have to open the book in order to get some information but is already accessible somehow.
What can be a library specific to Tanz im August + KAF project context?
What is a more personalized library, that has to do with the people that conceive it?
What’s the specificity of a 2-week-long library?

We thought of using one of the rehearsal spaces in KAF as a library. Using its walls and their periphery, so that work can take place there but the space itself carries the information of the library. The studio walls as library as a frame to whatever is taking place in the space, how the 2 things feed each other.

We came to a point of thinking of having 3 elements that would conceive the KAF library:

A wall being a “thought for the day wall”. Borrowing from Jonathan Burrows’ workshop idea, writing A4 papers, which would be attached to one of the studio walls, a thought that could inspire a creation process, a working method. We thought of having quite a few papers already at the beginning of the festival but having the option of people (KAF + outside public) adding thoughts for the day while the festival is taking place so that the wall is active as well. We need to find a way to make this possible without being a mess.
Another wall being an “alternating exposition wall”. The idea is to reveal different objects or materials that have to do with learning and creating processes in a form that may be parallel to exhibition. For example: an exposition of all the notebooks of the Ex.e.r.ce students during the time of Ex.e.r.ce. Another idea: each KAF participant chooses 1 material that inspires him/her or that one considers significant to the personal research and he/she brings it to KAF. We then thought to exhibit these objects/materials, but combining it with recording of an aural description of the connection between the person’s work and the material. The recording will be put one after the other and could be listened to in the exposition space in earphones. The ideas for the changing exhibitions can be offered by ANYONE interested, and then this person should take responsibility to make it happen, together with other colleagues from KAF. The library team is there to make it possible on a practical and conceptual level, also deciding on planning etc. The minimum time for an exhibition would be 2 days.
Performative library – what can we consider as a performative library? We would like to challenge anyone to think how he/she could share with people some kind of material they use or are interested in, in a performative manner. To give a concrete example, it could be a lecture for example, but it could be whatever you can think of, only it should be limited to a certain time in order to be framed in programation.

Any ideas considering any of the thoughts mentioned are welcome.
We are looking forward to thinking together and bringing this to life.

Invitation to K.a.F.

2007-07-10T19:27:00.000+02:00

Hello all!

We would like to invite you to take part in the K.a.F. project. We redefined and re-articulated the principals of K.a.F. which will be happening in the frame of Tanz im August in Berlin between the 13th August till 1st September and would like to share those with you, any reaction, question, doubt, thought is welcome and helpful!

K.a.F. PROJECT

Key words:
• Learning
• Personal creation processes
• Sharing and exchanging, KAF participants and public
• A space that is defined by what you all propose
• A more fragile, vulnerable texture of presentation
• Interest in the dispositif of a theatre: bar, library, rehearsal space, stage, public etc.

Being a KAF participant means:

Being involved in the organization of the space – so helping things happen (in the particular category that you are interested in, i.e.: bar, library, programation etc) in terms of thinking of coherence and creativity as well as on a practical level. That in order to create a field on which we could exchange – so rather than meeting and talking about each one’s experience and way of working etc, we would like to offer an active exchange by doing – having a common goal which would be the functioning of the space and the happenings in it during the festival shared by different KAF people, coming from different backgrounds, interests etc etc.
(optional) Offering an activity or a presentation in the frame work of KAF: KAF is a place to show things that have to do with all that is AROUND a show or a finished piece rather than the piece itself (which can be presented in the MARATHON – for more information scroll down). One of the main questions we thought to think of is: What makes me show what I show? Using this question as catalisator for thinking rather than one that should necessarily be answered. The presentations/suggestions could be done in “closed doors” – to the people of KAF or in “open doors” – in the time frame of 16:00-19:00 during weekdays when the public is invited (to be decided in advance, preferably as soon as possible, offering the activity + time frame + needs to the programmation group which will schedule it).

The thinking would be about finding different formats of presentation of these different elements, so to frame it in order that the process could be shared between the KAF people + public.
KAF as a place to expose searching or contemplation about creation and doing in the field of performance, but in a FRAMED way, so how to find a way to present your questions in a coherent, performative way.
Ways to involve the KAF people are welcome, so for example to do a mini project with the KAF people for 3 hours and then open it for a public presentation in the afternoon in different possible forms, such as conference, framed trials in rehearsal form, game, whatever else you can think of or interested in.
MARATHON – happening on the 25th, 26th August, open for all people, pieces from 1-10 minute long, no technical possibilities, minimal preparation time, application to be sent to kaf.project@gmail.com by 1st August.

So if you are interested, the different elements that KAF includes till now are: bar, mediatheque, programation, marathon organization, programation music, design of the space, technique, artists meetings...

KAF will happen from 12th August (preparation time before the actual opening), 19th August – exposure of KAF in Podewil by KAF participants, till the 1st September.

The different people that signed up for the same category will do the exchange through the email in order to organize the activities before the actual meeting.

Till now the Ex.e.r.ce people signed up for:
Programation

Hermann - hermannheisig@hotmail.com
Elpida - elpisor@gmail.com
Filippo - fidelioscultor@hotmail.com
Ines – inesbleu@hotmail.com
Vincent – vth.contact@gmail.com
Nuno Lucas - lucasholdingcompany@gmail.com

Mediatheque

May - mayzarhy@gmail.com
Olivier - ruahleaves@yahoo.fr
Nele - kurinuku@gmail.com

Communication + Magazine
Inés - inesbleu@hotmail.com
Nele - kurinuku@gmail.com

Bar

Florent - hamon_florent@yahoo.fr

Programation of music

Gerald - nivunivu@hotmail.com

Reception

Beatrice - bealcou@hotmail.com

So lets start..

2007-07-02T15:57:00.000+02:00

This is a message from Hermann, just to spread a bit what was going on. I think now it is important to name and share what interests there are for K.a.F. In the last week we from ex.e.r.ce had some meetings about K.a.F.

Our starting position is that we have three different forms, how K.a.F. will be presented in the frame of Tanz im August.

there is a GENERAL PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT on Sunday 19th of August in Podewil. This presentation will be made together with all K.a.F. Partecipants in the week from 13.th August on, where everybody meets in Berlin. How could this presentation look like? in ex.e.r.ce we thought of it as a kind of performative lecture/ fake press conference. To do a presentation of the project, its aims and problematics and the questions and wishes from a lot of different participants. But to do this in a performative, playful way which invites the public to visit K.a.F. in HAU 3 the next days. If people have other ideas and comments on this, post it on the blog!
then there is THE DAILY ACTIVITIES OF K.a.F., starting on Monday 20th of August in HAU 3 and open every weekday from 4 to 7 p.m. to the public. This is the core activity of K.a.F., consisting of the HAU 3 Stage, (where for instance showings, discussions, lectures take place), a mediatheque, a reception desk, a bar.... We like to think not only the things happening on stage as a performance: how a mediatheque, a bar, a reception desk can be turned into a performance, a choreography? Every K.a.F. Participant can contribute and invest into this framework. It will be therefore helpful to prepare a personal departure point, what you want to try out, what you want to show, what you want to talk about... To organize all this, we from ex.e.r.ce signed up in different groups of interest. right now there are Programmation (of Shows+Theory) group, Bar group, Mediateque/Magazine/Documentation group, Programmation of Music group, a Reception group...these groups of interest will present their work here on the blog, so all non-ex.e.r.ce K.a.F. members can see what is going on and join them according to their interests.
THE 10-MINUTES MARATHON, which will take place in K.a.F. the weekend of 25./26. August beginning each day at 4 p.m. This is, as written in the concept, a marathon open for everybody interested in using the time of ten minutes on stage to present something. This marathon is open for everyone interested, K.a.F. partcipants or not. Right now we have there to think how to frame it, that it doesn't become only a big bombardement with shows, but instead how this openness of K.a.F. to the exterior can be fertile. All the ideas are welcome!

So this was a little introduction, some of it is maybe already known. But post questions and comments, so that we can use this blog to organize and define K.a.F. in advance, although being spread in many different places!

Howdy Hermann