Laundries in Hanoi

ABOUT THE PIECE

During Falken’s childhood in the 1960s, the TV images of the Vietnam War would dampen the atmosphere in the living room every Sunday. The video artist Nguyen Trinh Thi was born shortly after the last major bombing of Hanoi. Both women carry traces of these images in them to this day, and they still consciously and unconsciously influence the lives of both artists. Where does our gaze wander? What does our body remember? What do we remember, and how are images reconstructed and transformed into vivid portrayals that are containers of memory but also future projections. What happens when, in the moment of remembering, the gaze shifts to the image; when the image is reconfigured and adapts to the actual experience? The video artist Nguyen Trinh Thi gathers images and sounds from her own unique perspective. Her cutting technique becomes a choreographic inspiration. The composition with the human body comes into communication with images. The choreography and videos encircle the disrupted and repetitive memories, throwing them into sharpened perspective. The single moment does not exist. The memory of the body and the story behind the image merge to become both witness and projection. In Riki von Falken’s abstract choreographies, the emotionally concrete is transformed into a rigorously composed, almost architectural dance form, which incorporates the observed and the moment of observation.

TEAM

Concept / Choreography / Dance: Riki von Falken // Video: Nguyen Trinh Thi Dramaturgy: Katja Kettner // Set / Videographic: Oscar Loeser Costume: Heather MacCrimmon // Light and Sound Design / Technical Supervision: Ralf Grüneberg // Stage Assistance: Clemens Kowalski PR: Kerstin Böttcher // Graphic Design: Franziska Schwarz/schwarzplus Photography: Dieter Hartwig // Production Management: Christine Elbel, Katja Kettner

PERFORMANCES

Premiere: 08/09/2016 at 8.30pm Further performances: 09-10/09/2016 at 8.30pm, 11/09/2016 at 7pm Uferstudios Berlin / Studio 14 / Uferstraße 8 – 13357 Berlin