Bodies that resist. Images that challenge with our common perceptions. Things that evolve a life of their own. The theme of “In Transit 09” is ‘Resistance of the Object‘. In performances and installations, dance and theater productions, international artists explore what happens when objects and subjects exchange places.
The festival opens on June 11 with the Japanese dance company Sankai Juku. The internationally acclaimed Butoh company led by Ushio Amagatsu can be seen in Berlin for the very first time with the work ‘Hibiki’. “In Transit 09” will end with a performance by Mathilde Monnier. In ‘Gustavia’, the famous French choreographer and the scarcely
less known Spanish performer La Ribot take on the theme of the burlesque.
This year, “In Transit 09” is marked by strong female positions. These approach the theme ‘Resistance of the Object’ from very different directions. In her ‘untitled’ performance, Maria Jose Arjona from Colombia lets blood-red soap bubbles burst against a wall – 8 hours a day throughout the festival. In ‘Solo…?’, the young Spanish choreographer and dancer Aitana Cordero accumulates objects on the stage, drapes them one by one to finally penetrate them with her body.
In a work by Yingmei Duan from China, the audience of ‘Rubbish City’ encounters actors and musicians in a massive environment made from ten tons of Berlin trash; slowly, the apocalyptic looking scenario turns into something more intimate and familiar. El Periferico de Objetos works with exciting crossovers between fine art and theater. The
Argentinean group is staging its play ‘Manifiesto de Ninos’ in a box with viewing slits. Melati Suryodarmo from Indonesia can be seen in the long-running performance ‘Perception of Patterns in Timeless Influence’ accompanied by an opera singer and violinist with seven white rabbits in a vitrine.
Allen S. Weiss from the USA is the director of the disturbing ‘Danse Macabre’ with unsettling puppets by the French artist Michel Nedjar. The installation ‘Everything #5.2’ by the North American artist and philosopher Adrian Piper will be on view for the first time, and in ‘Once upon a time country’, Hooman Sharifi from Norway invites us to his utopian country in the pond in front of the House of World Cultures.
Further dance productions, performances, films, installations and sculptures by: Nevin Aladag (Turkey/Germany), Julie Tolentino and Ron Athey (USA), Trajal Harrell (USA), MAPA Teatro (Columbia), as well as a collaboration with the Tanzfabrik Berlin and the artists Nelisiwe Xaba (South Africa), Sello Pesa (South Africa), Carlos Pez (Spain/Belgium) are all waiting to be experienced at IN TRANSIT 09. Last but not least Heine R. Avdal, the Norwegian living in Brussels, will present with his company deepblue his recent solo and duet.
Besides parties, discussions with the artists, and an interactive library, the lecture series will again form an integral part of the festival. The title of IN TRANSIT 09 is taken from the groundbreaking work of the cultural critic and performance theorist Fred Moten. Moten’s definition of the ‘resisting’ object is explicitly political, as is his lecture for this year’s festival: ‘There is no racism intended.’
http://www.hkw.de/en/programm2009/in_transit_09/projekt-detail_3.php