USAmerican(a)s is a series of vignettes set to pieces of popular music, which are treated as
found objects (as:is) (objets trouvés) together with elements from
pop-culture of various kinds.
all of the pieces came from my
interactions with friends in the US of A on Turtle Island, especially since the illegal and
unconstitutional occupation by the Trump-regime 2024/2025 and have been formed from a lifelong active engagement with and influence by US-American culture in many of its varieties, fascinations, promises, etc. (dance, music, visual arts, literature, media, and the list goes on ... )
all of the latter gave me an amount of space that allowed me to escape, blossom and grow. in reverse, sometimes it made me unfit for expectations at home, both artistic and personal, creating a kind of in-between state. one more diaspora, an adopted one, over the years. my formation as an artist was very strongly influenced by all that came from the USAmerican late/post-modern innovations, which was at times also a conscious choice.
can we go from 'empire' towards more 'human' in a time when our existence as a species on this planet keeps eroding and being destroyed? (by that mysterious "us" or at the very least, by very powerful oligarchs)
That softness without a name, that makes man humane.
(from Christa Wolf, Kassandra, East Berlin 1983)
what
do I have to tell them, these colleagues and friends who I have kept in
touch with, sometimes for decades and who are now in a country that is ever faster
becoming a totalitarian nightmare, more like that other very large country East of where I happen to live and work?
Why did you let them get to be so powerful.
(from Christa Wolf, Kassandra, East Berlin 1983)
in line with earlier works such as popERA (2000) available tension: brown (2006) medvetánc / Savage (2015-2018) Raven/Kassandra (2021) or (dis)embodiment and dance (2022) this new series explores all these themes as a loose, open-ended sequence of dances, songs, visuals, ideas, moments.
the
pieces presented on November 15th at Weggeef Podium Rotterdam premiere first results from the entire series, potentially this could
become a larger, maybe even an evening filling piece.
presence and ...
on a
formal level, I am interested in driving the approach of performance art
and dance and (inter)media with·in it even further, make the
compositional and dramaturgical structures even more like a conversation in the moment, and at the same time strengthen the core of the composition, what I definitely would like to get to say, dance, do.
acting, emotions, personal interaction have become more important than ever, I have definitely become more conscious of them. even though this series evolved as a part of my conscious dealing with music as a very central aspect of my work, even when I deliberately dance without a set musical piece, how all of these areas interact with each other in the moment of my presence shaping and expressing by doing, has become even more concrete and conscious.
special thanks to Suzan Lemont, Frances Becker, Rachel Cohen, Jean-Ulrick Désert, Deborah Black, Laura Shapiro, USSC #unitethestruggles and all friends and colleagues in the US of A
You, don't let yourself get hardened
In these hard [and trying] times.
The all-too hard they break,
The all-too sharply pointed pierce and break off right away
And break off right away
(Wolf Biermann, Ermutigung (encouragement) East Berlin, 1968)
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