#ablebodiesandstones – artistic research about bodies and circus

With Emma Goldman I ask: How can I be part of your revolution, when I am too hurt to dance? How can I change the world, when I cannot be present?
At the moment this "I" is hypothetic, a healthy feeling "I". But this "I" - as an agent of the art of risk, an agent of circus - is always creating with the knowledge that the situation might change any time.
So, I am interested in bodies, situated between discipline and disability, between circus body and injured body, between adrenalin high and pain: I am looking for the discrepancy between the disciplined, functioning body of the aerial artist - over-achieving norms of health and fitness - and the reality that there is no such thing as a "healthy" body.

Following the "Sick Woman Theory" by Johanna Hedva, who had their audience put stones in their shoes, I regard stones, pebbles and boulders as our main objects and props. We will play with them, animate them, manipulate them: in relation to our bodies, searching for contradictions and paradoxa, reversing the laws of nature and gravity. We continue until our awareness blurs, until the borders between our bodies and the stones disappear.

Research-Sessions

Once a month from February until April 2019, I invited two circus artists to join me in artistic research sessions, to work on different themes and issues. Each session was dedicated to one aspect: virtuosity, immediacy of the "trick" and the body, injury, materiality, etc.

We continue to invite artists who create in the field of contemporary circus and who work on recent issues of the international discourse of circus.
We will document the sessions, see my blog post below. The results might become part of a new artistic production.

Artists + Production Team

Idea, artistic research: Jana Korb
Artistic research: Jana Korb, Hoppe Hoppinsky, Stephanie N'Duhirahe
Artists research sessions: Carmen Küster, Flo* Strass, Benjamin Richter u.a.
Critical companion: Melmun Bajarchuu
Production: korb + stiefel GbR

#ablobodiesandstones - Research Session mit Stephanie N'Duhirahe

 

#ablobodiesandstones - Research Session mit Stephanie N'Duhirahe

 

#ablobodiesandstones - Research Session mit Stephanie N'Duhirahe

Documentation Blog

We are documenting our research sessions in blog posts and short videos. We sporadically publish these here:

1. Session, February 2019: with Carmen Küster and Flo* Strass

2. Session, March 2019: with Hoppe Hoppinsky

3. Session, March 2019: with Benjamin Richter

4. Session, April 2019: with Stephanie N'Duhirahe

5. Session, April 2019: with Melmun Bajarchuu

April/Mai 2020: Corona Intermission

6. Session, June 2020: with Anka Herbut, conversations about artistic practice, Performing Arts Festival Berlin

7. Session, October 2020: with Jennie Zimmermann, Residency at Chamäleon Theater

8. Session, Januar 2021: with Stéphanie N'Duhirahe, Residency at Klub Mlejn, Praha

9. Session, August 2021: with Stéphanie N'Duhirahe, Residency at SE.S.TA, Centrum choreografického rozvoje, Žďár nad Sázavou

10. Session, Oktober 2021: with Melmun Bajarchuu

Residency and rehearsals: with Stéphanie N'Duhirahe, LOFFT Theater, Leipzig

– STONES – Video-Impressions

– About our creative process – Podcast

Eine Produktion von korb + stiefel in Koproduktion mit LOFFT – DAS THEATER und in Kooperation mit Meta Theater Moosach.

Gefördert von der Stadt Leipzig – Kulturamt, dem Fonds Darstellende Künste aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien und dem Deutsch-Tschechischen Zukunftsfonds.

Forschungsstipendien vom Stipendien Sonderprogramm des Berliner Senats und einem Residenz-Stipendium der Villa Waldberta, Künstlerhaus der Stadt München, Centrum choreografického rozvoje SE.S.TA, Zdár nad Sázavou.

Residenzen bei Chamäleon Theater Berlin, Klub Mlejn Praha, Circus Schatzinsel und Verein zur Überwindung der Schwerkraft Berlin, Villa Waldberta Feldafing, Instituto Entrando em Cena Bragança Paulista Sao Paulo, RC2 Teatro Escola Belo Horizonte Minas Gerais, Internationales Frauen* Theater Festival, Frankfurt.