Katarzyna Kozyra
FACES
October 3-November 15, 2006
opening 3 October at 7 p.m.
Centre national de la danse
1 rue Victor Hugo
93 507 Pantin cedex
33 1 41 83 98 98
collaboration Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
Polish Institute in Paris
Katarzyna Kozyras work Faces (following on from The Rite of Spring which was shown at the CND two years ago) is another work which shows her fascination with ballet. This work is also shown in a similar manner formally – the viewer is surrounded by huge screens. Here, however, it is only faces that are to be seen, demonstrating extreme emotions: above all, intense concentration, tension, and equally intense effort. Clenched mouths, rapidly moving eyeballs, frowning foreheads with trickles of sweat. The distorted faces turn into masks. Those are the faces of dancers: classical ones, modern ones, hip-hop dancers, captured doing their showpiece performances. They are filmed in such a way that one does not see their bodies, with which they express themselves, which are their instruments. One only sees the faces, which during the performance are virtually invisible to the viewers. Just as in The Rite of Spring it is dance itself that is being deconstructed, separated into individual movements and frames in a process of tedious animation and then assembled together again, so in Faces the actor’s body is deconstructed. Until now a single whole, it becomes visible only fragmentarily. Thrown into a circle of faces, the viewer can watch them, while being watched himself.
with the participation of: Carla Fracci, Marie-Claude Pietragalla, Vladimir Malakhov, Nazareth Panadero, Piotr Czubowicz, Eri Nakamura, Magda Ciechowicz, Storm, Nelisiwe Xaba, Andrzej Stasiewicz, Charles Jude, Karunakaran, Richard Move
Coproduction: Centre national de la danse – Pantin, Hebbel am Ufer – Berlin, Theorem – programme Culture 2000 de lUnion Européenne, Zacheta National Gallery of Art – Warsaw.
With the support of: Théâtre de lOpéra – Rome, Teatr Wielki – Warsaw, Polish Institute – Paris, Polish Institute – Rome, Staats Oper Unter den Linden – Berlin, Ballet de lOpéra national de Bordeaux, Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Teatr Rozmaitosci – Warsaw. Thanks to Opéra national de Paris. Special thanks to Magda Ciechowicz, Mirek Szewczyk, Pascal Minet.
Katarzyna Kozyra (1963 Warsaw, lives in Warsaw, Trento and Berlin)
Creator of films, video installations and performances. She studied sculpture at the Academy of the Fine Arts in Warsaw. Her degree work was the controversial sculpture installation, Pyramid of Animals (1993). Later she moved into photography (Olympia, Blood Ties) and video (Womens Bathhouse, Rite of Spring, Punishment and Crime, In Art Dreams Come True). In her works she takes on the fundamental problems of human existence: identity and death. She moves in the realm of the cultural taboos linked to the body and the stereotypes and modes of behaviour coded into social life. Her video installation Mens Bathouse received an Honorable Prize at the 48th Venice Biennale (1999).
Centre national de la danse
1 rue Victor Hugo
93 507 Pantin cedex
Information and opening hours : web.cnd.fr/CND/saison/expositions/saison06_07/faces_kk06
33 1 41 83 98 98
How to get to CND : web.cnd.fr/CND/informations_pratiques/telechargement/info-prat/practical-info
