Grenzland H (2010)

“Within the flexible installation (design: Adrian Silvestri) that constantly re-defines the space itself, the bodies topple over or hold their balance in the most slanted positions, with seizure-like twitching of the muscles, or frozen stiff, with heads sliding underneath boards or legs up the wall.”
Stuttgarter Zeitung

From 15 – 20 February 2010 at Kunstbezirk / Gustav Siegle House the dance/music theater lab Grenzland H provides the setting for dancers and choreographers Fabian Chyle, Renate Graziadei, Zufit Simon and Eline Tan, together with composers Mark Lorenz Kysela, Alexander Grebtschenko, Michael Maierhof and Steffen Moddrow, to explore the connection between the body, space and music. During the day, they research using instructions from Peter Handke’s works as associative material. In the evenings, the outcome of their research is presented at a public dance/music theater event where painting professor Holger Bunk, Chilean philosopher Mónica Alarcón and dance journalist Leonore Welzin give the piece added dimension through their theoretical input.

Peter Handke is known as a cinematographic author. As a reader, you easily feel like you’re sitting in a film, as Handke portrays the figures’ inner experiences by showing their external actions: “After he sat down, he puts his bare foot on the sidebar of the chair and cuts his toenails. It’s a familiar sound. He acts as if we weren’t watching. He cuts his nails so slowly and so long until it ceases to be funny. When he finally finishes, he puts the scissors on his knee. After a very long time, the ward stands up and walks around the stage, as we then see, to pick up the nails and place them in his empty hand. This too is done so slowly, that it ceases to be funny.” (Peter Handke)