A retrospective by Kat Válastur
March 29–April 2, 2017
HAU Hebbel am Ufer
HAU1, Stresemannstr. 29, 10963 Berlin
HAU2, Hallesches Ufer 32, 10963 Berlin
HAU3, Tempelhofer Ufer 10, 10963 Berlin
T +49 30 25900427 / tickets [at] hebbel-am-ufer.de
Kat Válastur’s retrospective focuses on her last productions which are part of the trilogy The marginal sculptures of Newtopia, exploring the encounter between the body and a ritual utopian topology it inhabits. Fragmentation, time lapse, entropy, and virtuality are some of the notions that emerge from her dance works. Highly intense atmospheres are created, challenging the senses and the rules of ordinary perception. The works emerge out of a fictional condition, where the narrative is part of the process either relating to a post-apocalyptic environment or to science-fiction existentialism in the era of the Anthropocene.
With OILinity, Válastur tackles the dependence of western societies on mineral oil. Three dancers are wandering through a landscape animated by petroleum and full of surreal obstacles. The audience is confronted with a dance work that reveals both the hidden traits of humans as well as those of petroleum, finding a vocabulary of movement in which forces and speeds culminate in the crude beauty of dripping oil.
In her solo GLAND, the body wanders through unknown landscapes in which a series of events is experienced in parallel universes, shifting from familiarity to the unfamiliar. With her own particular virtuosity, Válastur presents new challenges to habitual perception over and over again.
Inspired by the idea of native rites, Ah! Oh! A contemporary Ritual reflects on the origins and traditions of circle dances. In a post-apocalyptic atmosphere six performers recall the memory of dancing together by holding hands.
Specially for this retrospective, Kat Válastur reworked her work lang giving it a new perspective. Focusing on the perpetual expansion of the body in time, the dancers move in a circular way, not following the linear movement of physical time, which is imposed by walking.
Besides the performances, HAU will host several videos, installations, as well as sculptures designed specially for this frame. The retrospective finishes with an epilogue in the shape of a new short solo—Kat Válastur was better in the future.
Programme:
Kat Válastur, OILinity (2016)
March 29–31
HAU2
Kat Válastur, lang (2009)
March 29–30
HAU1
Kat Válastur, GLAND (2014)
March 30–April 1
HAU3
Kat Válastur, Ah! Oh! – A Contemporary Ritual (2014)
April 1–2
April 2 afterwards: Kat Válastur was better in the future (2017)
HAU2
Kat Válastur & Leon Eixenberger, Samsa, Samsa, Samsa (2017)
March 29 & March 31–April 2
HAU2 / Installation
Kat Válastur is a Berlin-based choreographer and performer. She was trained as a dancer at the Hellenic State School of Dance. She continued her dance studies at the Trisha Brown Studios in New York with a Fulbright scholarship. During her MA studies at the Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin she posed the question “What is there left to be danced?” creating the philosophical context in which she developed her work. Fragmentation, diverted architecture, time lapse, entropy, fiction, virtuality are some of the notions that emerge from her dance works, through the creation of a specific force field. Inside that field the bodies move while the condition forces them to produce a special kinetic perception. She also utilizes diagrams, scores drawings and texts that she creates for each work. She participated as a grantee at the Institut für Raumexperimente, a project initiated by Ólafur Elíasson in collaboration with the Berlin University of the Arts. While a grantee at the Institut she started to develop for 2014 a series of new choreographies titled The marginal sculptures of Newtopia. Válastur’s works have been presented at international venues and festivals. As part of the retrospective We were better in the Future in 2017, Gland (2014), Ah! Oh! – A Contemporary Ritual (2014), OILinity (2016) and lang (2009) will be shown at HAU Hebbel am Ufer.
The retrospective is supported within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Presented in the context of [DNA] Departures and Arrivals with support of the EU cultural programme.
