CONTACT
Every touch a friction. This phenomenon forms the basis for the art project CONTACT by composer and musician Alireza Toghiyani and choreographer, dancer and filmmaker Zoë Schreckenberg. At the intersection of music, performing and visual arts, this explores the expressive power of friction.
performance, site-specific performance, dance/performance
FRI 04.08.2023
9:30pm — 10:00pm
Kunsthalle Darmstadt
You can see two people on a stage with the audience sitting in the background. One of the people on the stage is a musician playing an electric guitar with a bow and the second person is a da
Every touch is a friction. We are continuously in physical contact with our environment, grasping the world with our body and our senses. With every touch, whether gentle or rough, conscious or unconscious, we rub against surfaces and thus experience closeness and distance anew every day. This phenomenon forms the basis for the art project Kontakt by composer and musician Alireza Toghiyani and choreographer, dancer and filmmaker Zoë Schreckenberg. At the intersection of music, performing and visual arts, this explores the expressive power of friction. At the center of the performance is a metal plate. It exceeds the size of a human body, is massive, heavy, thin and sharp-edged. It stands for rawness, forms surface, draws dividing lines, blocks and opens space. In interaction with the dancer, it moves in space and acts as a friction and resonance surface similar to the double bass, which joins in and sets itself in a relationship to the scenery. The location of the nocturnal performance is the forecourt of the Kunsthalle on Rheinstrasse, which is heavily trafficked during the day; the audience follows it from the glass foyer. The reversal of the perspective underlines the ordinariness of the underlying experience.
Zoë Schreckenberg is a filmmaker, choreographer and dancer from Darmstadt. She realizes her artistic research mainly in live performance and films. Her movement training includes contemporary dance as well as combat methods and film stunts. She completed her degree in theater, film and media studies in Vienna and has since worked internationally as a freelance artist. zoeschreckenberg.com
Alireza Toghiyani is an Iranian composer and musician from Isfahan. In 2008 he emigrated to Austria and completed his composition studies at the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien and also studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. In addition to instrumental composition, he also deals with performative issues in which the boundaries of the human body and the objects of sound production are challenged. alirezatoghiyani.com