After projects that questioned how we represent and perceive nature and sexuality in society, your latest work seems to address new questions and ideas… Could you share some of the background behind your artistic research and how it’s evolved over time?
Skatepark is indeed part of a new direction within my work, and one that has been developing over the last 3 years. The Artificial Nature Series and The Red Pieces were more thematic cycles concentrating on one topic in a kaleidoscopic way, whereas the pieces I’ve been developing recently do not share a common topic, but rather a more general approach towards an expansive and ‘permeable’ choreography. The way I’m working at the moment is based on observing movements that already exist in public space (for instance skateboarding) or in the world (like migratory movements) to understand what they express, or what they are an expression of. Through this, I have also started working with performers who are not educated as dancers, but come from other backgrounds and differ in ages.
In The Life Work I worked with Japanese women in their late 70s and 80s who migrated to Germany when they were in their 20s. The piece is based on their personal stories – it is a collection of individual portraits that also form a larger collective whole. In The Dancing Public I enter into a collaboration with the audience as I attempt to reactivate movements and narratives about dancing manias, or dance epidemics as they were also called, that took hold in the streets during the Middle Ages.
I think Skatepark is a continuation of these approaches. During the last year I’ve had several concentrated periods of work with a group of 12 skaters and dancers between 11 to 35 years old. Some of them have only skated for a couple of years, while others have been moving on wheels for more than half their lives.