[spectre] [foam][illumine-events] excercise 01

[nat muller]

illumine: ebb and flow of stubborn matter

A public experiment exploring the convergences of (anti)-gravity
performance, movement and media.

'The first corporeal form which some call corporeity is in my opinion
light.'
Robert Grosseteste, 'On light or the beginning of forms'


This informal gathering is organised as a closure of the artist-residency of
two aerialists/anti-gravity artists Isabel Rocamora and Camila Valenzuela at
FoAM, within the 'illumine' programme. The two artists in residence are
joined by Stevie Wishart and several FoAM collaborators in a jam-session
with matter and media.

The experiment is conceived as an open studio, where the audience is invited
to meet the artists, exchange ideas and experiences, spawn new
collaborations or simply slow down, transported into a dense, charged,
luminescent sphere.

Throughout the evening the public can witness small experiments in which the
boundaries of choreography are nibbled on by media systems, suspended bodies
move through costumes designed as minuscule wearable spaces, live improvised
sounds converse with computer generated media in a 'camera obscura', where
gravity seems reversible and the architecture turns into illuminated
walkways. 

Anti-Gravity Artists: Isabel Rocamora and Camila Valenzuela
(http://www.infinito.org.uk)
Live Sound Improvisation: Stevie Wishart
Media Designers: FoAM/ Nik Gaffney, Maja Kuzmanovic
Costume Designers: FoAM / Cocky Eek, Lina Kusaite


Location: FoAM lab Koopliedenstraat/Rue des Commerçants 60-62, 1000 Brussels
Date: Tuesday, 02nd September, from 19.30
free entrance
contact: info at fo.am


'Illumine. Excercises in Colloquial Luminescence': http://fo.am/illumine/


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Artists in residence biographies:


Isabel Rocamora is an anti-gravity artist based in London. Her background is
in theatre, dance, physical performance, aerial skills and film (training:
Jacques Lecoq, Masaki Iwana, CNDD (Netherlands), Circus Space and Bristol
University). In 93 she co-formed Momentary Fusion Aerial Dance Theatre with
the aim to explore the body¹s defiance of gravity pull. The company¹s
theatre and site-specific work toured extensively to sell out audiences in
the U.K and worldwide.

Since 2000 she works as an independent artist, having founded Infinito, home
to the meeting point between performance, video and new technology. Three
main areas have driven the work:

The dialogue between the hanging body and architecture has been at the heart
of her investigations over the last 10 years. Recent site-specific
commissions include: "The Rapture of matter" (Architecture Week/ V&A),
"Inpermanence" (Greenwich and Docklands Festival) and "Passage" (Colchester
Arts Centre).

Aerial choreography for film and television has lead to a series of diverse
collaborations including: "Fairy Tale" (dir. Charles Sturridge, Paramount
Pictures, General Release), "Chocolate Acrobat" (dir. Tessa Sheridan,
Channel Four), "Karmacoma" (dir. Jonathan Glazer, General Release) and
"Passage" (Dir. Marcus Behrens, Arte TV, Germany/ France, dance film ­
highest viewer rating of the season). Currently preparing "Nomad", an
anti-gravity on film, to be shot in Summer 04.

The meeting point of the anti-gravity body, science and technology has
recently opened up new collaborative potential and methodologies. Research
and production over the last 18 months has allowed for an investigation into
areas of neuroscience, medical research, classical physics, motion capture,
sensor and wearable technology and their transposition into the performance
field. Commissioned works include: "Fluctuation" (Tate Britain), "Memory
Release" (Future Physical/ Essex Dance), " Requiem and Deliverance" (Queen
Mary Medical Library, Retroscreen Virology) and "The ebb and flow of
stubborn matter" (Foam, Belgium).

Isabel is an Associate Artist at dance.tech (essex dance, UK), she is also
First Flight Officer of the International Necronauts Society
(necronauts.org). 



Camila Valenzuela

Originally from Peru, Camila Valenzuela was brought up in Chile. She studied
Biology in the Universidad de Chile, Circus Skills and Physical Theatre in
Circomedia, Bristol and Corporeal Mime in London. Camila works as a
Performing artist specialising in Aerial Dance. She has previously performed
her solo pieces at the Matucana 100 (Chile), Area 10 (London), Glastonbury
Festival and others. In the past year, she collaborated with the
anti-gravity artist Isabel Rocamora, performing site-specific aerial works
in internationally renown venues, such as  V&A museum of London, Greenwich
and Dockland Festival and  Queen Mary Medical Library. Camila is interested
in the body as an abode for life, the moving body as an instrument of
expression and the suspended body as a metaphor of human transcendence.

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supported by:
Ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap

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