Camden Arts Centre

Johanna Billing

10 Jul - 13 Sep 2009

© Johanna Billing
filming in Iasi, (work in progress), 2008
JOHANNA BILLING
"'I'm Lost Without Your Rhythm'"

10 July - 13 September 2009

Swedish artist Johanna Billing has been commissioned to make a new film which is the second project in the 3 Series; a collaboration between Camden Arts Centre, Modern Art Oxford and Arnolfini.

Shown alongside other work, this exhibition is Billing’s first major solo exhibition in a public gallery in London.

Johanna Billing’s videos reflect on routine, rehearsal and ritual with an emphasis on the fragility of individual performance and power of collective experience.

Her new work is based around the recording of a live performance of dance ‘learned’ or performed by amateur Romanian dancers in Iasi (pronounced ‘yash’), during Periferic 8 Biennial of Contemporary Art "Art as Gift" in October 2008.

The film links several days’ activity into a continuous process, in which dancers were watched by an audience who were free to come and go as they pleased.

Johanna Billing’s skill lies in combining the choreography of individuals with facilitating their freedom to perform naturally, bringing the whole together through editing hours of footage.

There is no final performance, the whole is a collaboration between choreographer, dancers and local musicians. The unfolding dramas hold the viewer enthralled and moved.

Part of the 3 Series: 3 artists, 3 spaces, 3 years, funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and supported by the Embassy of Sweden
 

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