VietNamNet Bridge - The intoxicating dance work “The Burrow” (Der Bau), created by Berlin-based choreographer Isabelle Schad and French visual artist Laurent Goldring, will come to Hanoi and HCM City this month.

“The Burrow” is inspired by Franz Kafka’s unfinished novella of the same title, which is about a mole-like creature, digging an elaborate system of tunnels that it has built over the course of its life. 

Schad and Goldring use the animal’s burrow as a metaphor for the human body and create a unique performance with a mix of lush, ferocious, and sometimes spare movement, performed nude.

 A large and commanding sheet of fabric suggests Kafka’s labyrinth – described as a space derived from the body, and yet still belonging to it. It is beautifully manipulated to dramatically alter the visual and physical relationship between body and space.

“The Burrow” is part of a series of influential art collaborations by dancer and choreographer Isabelle Schad and visual artist Laurent Goldring. 

In their work, Schad and Goldring employ a concept of “intensifier” to make physical processes visible. Like an artificial limb, an outer layer encloses the body, serving as transition between the inner and the outer world. 

In The Burrow, the space which results from the connection between body and material serves this purpose.

The dance piece will be performed as part of the festival “Europe Meets Asia in Contemporary Dance” this year, together with the visual exhibition “Sculpting the Burrow” of still images from the video record of the piece.

Stuttgart danced for many different choreographers. In 1999 she started her own projects as choreographer. Her research focuses on the body and its materiality; the relationship between bodies, representation, form and experience; practice as a learning process; community and political involvement. 

Her works are situated at the interface between dance, performance and the visual arts, and they tour internationally. She has co-initiated numerous projects and groups that search for connections between various fields of research and practice, whereby production methods are also questioned by participants. 

Schad teaches throughout the world and in various formats. She is the co-director of a project space in the Wiesenburg in Berlin.

Laurent Goldring studied philosophy at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris and at the City College of New York. He is a visual artist who works with video, photography, drawing and sculpture. His work demonstrates that the body has very rarely been shown and seen apart from very specific codes. Laurent Goldring has worked with numerous choreographers including Saskia Hölbling, Sandrine Buring, Donata d’Urso, and Xavier Le Roy.

Funded by The Lord Mayor of Berlin, Senat Chancellery – Cultural Affairs, Fonds Darstellende Künste, Production Isabelle Schad in collaboration with Espace Pasolini Valenciennes & Monty Antwerpen. With the support of La Menagerie de Verre Paris, Uferstudios Berlin & Wiesen 55 e.V.

In Hanoi, the performance will be held at the Hanoi Youth Theatre, 11 Ngo Thi Nham on September 20 while in HCM City, it will take place at ARABESQUE STUDIO

25 Phan Phu Tien Street, Ward 10, District 5 on September 25.

In Hanoi: Tickets: 50.000VND/person at Hanoi Youth Theatre, from 11 Sep

In HCMC: Due to the limited number of seats, entrance only with invitation

Besides the dance performance, the exhibition entitled “Sculpting the Burrows” is being held at the Goethe Institute Hanoi from September 19 to October 9.

This exhibition reflects upon the dance piece with the same title by Laurent Goldring and Isabelle Schad. 

The exhibition shows the way the visual work and the choreographic combines to experiment on this conception of space and image. Six canvasses make the connection with their four pieces Unturtled 1, 2, 3 and 4, where the fabric is used as a costume, last artificial layer of skin and first enclosing space, and shows how the body generates its own design. The paintings are actually made after video stills.

Two other groups of photography are devoted to “The Burrows”, where Schad’s body dissolves into a stand for sculptures created by the movement of the long lays of fabric, or a sculpture herself when she combines with them in an ever rolling bundle.

Video loops make the connection between film work, photographic work, and choreographic workas being one process.

T. Van