ODD
Jorge Bascuñan // Juan Urbina // Clive Tanner // Maria Kobzeva
This collaboration took place in Menorca, Spain in the context of the art residency Casa d'Artistes - Es Far Cultural
(August 25th - 31st). Under the umbrella of Dis-Tanzen research funding.
Juan Urbina, Maria Kobzeva and Jorge Bascuñan are three independent artists funded by Dis-Tanz- Solo.
We saw the potential of coming together to seek the entanglements of our topics, and to put into practice each theoretical research, in collaboration with each other. It was a an experimental exchange, a journey on the metaphysical aspect of extinction through the lenses of social science, decoloniality, gender, and quantum physics. We began by studying the intersections of our perspectives while relating them to the death of species, epistemologies, and civilizations.
Juan Urbina is examining the syncretism of movement identities in dances from Latin America to find accessible strategies of transmission. Also, from an emerging attempt to investigate decoloniality, his interest lies in a cultural-political context where the loss of contact with nature and rituals is historically related to the rise of Western Civilization, Christianity, and Capitalism. Moreover, it is directly connected with the epistemicide of Afro-diaspora practices and colonial Eurocentric thinking.
Jorge Bascuñan stems from a connection between the performing arts and activism. More specifically, ecological issues, guided by the term 'extinction'. From my perspective a decolonial shift is necessary in the globalizing behaviors predominantly existing in Western thinking. The socio-political consequences are not surprising, such as the centralization of power in technological industry, exposing climate change, extinction of indigenous peoples, languages, and culture.
Photos: Clive Tanner // Video editor: Jorge Bascuñan // Performance: Jorge Bascuñan, Juan Urbina and Maria Kobzeva // Voice: Juan Urbina // Collaboration at Casa d'Artistes art residency -Es far cultural, Menorca/Spain (August 2021)
Maria Kobzeba's research project explores the possibilities of artistic engagement with current environmental issues, in particular water pollution. Just like we need to change how we use plastic, we question how can we change contemporary dance to become more eco-friendly. By merging and getting into dialogue with the environment she creates the physicality of the body in water, by which she addresses and generate much needed attention to the sea’s oil and plastic pollution problem.
With a common focus of questioning the traditional linear deconstruction of time, a photographic approach was an attempt to capture a timeless practice - read, performance - and to re-signify contemporary corporeality. The collaboration with Clive Tanner allowed us to interact during this period with different lenses and mixed media formats, provoking the experimental aspects of both photography and movement.