TEST RUN
Part I, „Test Run“, Kunsthaus Dresden, 12. – 14. October 2012
With performances by Ulf Aminde, Sarah K. Balzat / Channa Horwitz (US), Gerry Bibby (AUS), Julianne Csapo, Daniel Triebe, Falco Kneschke, Yael Davids (IL), Hella Gerlach, Liz Rosenfeld / Imogen Heath (US/AUS), Karl Holmqvist (SE), Channa Horwitz (US), David Levine (US), Adam Linder (AUS), Anne Retzlaff, Megan Francis Sullivan (US)
With films by Ulf Aminde, Gerard Byrne (IE), Wojciech Bruszewski (PL), Keren Cytter (IL), Discoteca Flaming Star (ES/DE), Jimmie Durham (US), Elmgreen & Dragset (DK/NO), Liam Gillick/Anton Vidokle (GB/RU), Aneta Grzeszykowska (PL), Karl Holmqvist (SE), Judith Hopf/Henrik Olesen (DE/DK), Judith Hopf, Annika Larsson / Samuel Nyholm (SE), Anna Molska (PL), Amy Patton (US), Mario Pfeifer, Elodie Pong (US), Mathilde Rosier (FR), Markus Schinwald (AU), Martin Skauen (NO), Chicks on Speed / Douglas Gordon (DE/GB), Teresa Tyszkiewicz (PL), Clemens von Wedemeyer, Annette Wehrmann, Aleksandra Went / Alicja Karska (PL), Ming Wong (SG)
With theoretical contributions and presentations by Olaf Stüber (Curator „Videoart at Midnight“, Berit Stumpf (Performer), Nina Tecklenburg (Director, Performer), Sandra Umathum (Theatre Scholar)
Laying its focus on theatricality and the idea that “all the world is a stage”, “Test Run” takes place in the exhibition “Settings”, in the courtyard and on the Kunsthaus’ square. Its programs comprises performance lectures, performances, dance, film screenings and installations, as well as a theoretical part. By this means, the discourses and motions initiated in the exhibition “Settings” and in “Salon Rähnitz” at Kunsthaus Dresden will be extended through the format of a festival.
Terms that have been applied in the concept of the exhibition, the salon and the festival, will be dealt with discursively: Whilst “setting” on the one hand describes an arena or a milieu, it can, on the other hand, also be used for the temporal and spatial determination of a direction. The “scenario” in contrast stands for the layout of a situation or sequence and comprises conditions of possibility. In a technical sense, the “stage” is an architectural construction, a mobile pedestal for the performance; in theatre it comprises the space of action or even stands for the theatre itself. To approve its feasibility, the “test” submits a certain process to a series of sequences with actual or simulated conditions. Understood as “rehearsal” it emphasizes an experimental character and implicates failure. The term “role” implies expectation, assignment of tasks or placement in a group. It also always comprises the deviation from the individual.
Invited theoreticians, performers, artists and filmmakers no longer create and debate an index for an “external artistic reality”. Dealing with the art-innate of the medium and the format, they reflect on its respective forms of production, and its methods of showing. Different than in Clement Greenberg’s strict modernistic sense, which was about exposing the “purity” of modern art “in itself”, or in its “irreducible essence”, an implicit critic arises: The festival illuminates self-referentiality of the medium as a characteristic of critic in contemporary art.
In the course of “Test Run” some of the works shown in “Settings” will be expanded performatively at Kunsthaus Dresden.
This way, the modes of showing (in) an exhibition and (during) a performance are being interlaced. Hella Gerlach will set elements from her room-installation in motion. Adam Linder will develop a performance within the setting of Baghramian’s erotic imagination of an encounter between Laverrière and Mollino’s actors. Dancer and choreographer Sarah Balzat will expand on Channa Horwitz’ staircase notation. Taking her “Statist” as a starting point, Kalin Lindena will develop a “Gehtanz”. David Lamelas’ light cone and steam machine will be activated performatively. Yael Davids will test the possibilities of documentation and repetition – as techniques of memoria – in relation to her monumental glass sculpture in a performance.
„Test Run“ is supported by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes and the mondriaan fonds.
artistic director: Petra Reichensperger