Popela’s Paralipomena
A lab around scores, experimental writing and collective discursive practices Sarma @ WorkSpaceBrussels, November 10-18, 2011
Research and forms of collective dramaturgy are of central interest in Sarma’s collaboration with WorkSpaceBrussels. The laboratory Popela’s Paralipomena assembles a diverse group of artists and researchers for reflection and exchange around scores, experimental writing and collective discursive practices.
In dance and choreography meaning is understood as embodied in specific practices – form does matter. It doesn’t come as a surprise then that many artists in the field of dance and performance not only look into the underpinnings of the discourses surrounding their work, but that alternative discursive practices and experimental writing have become the very core of their work. By connecting with the principles of Oulipo, the “workplace for potential literature” that saw a creative challenge in constraints, current questions appear in a different light. Can the playful formalism of experimental writing provide a critical view upon the rapid and superficial consumption of knowledge in our information society? What can the approach of scores as obstacles or sites for negotiation mean for artistic research and creation?
Concept: Jeroen Peeters
Participants: Shila Anaraki, Julien Bruneau, Mette Edvardsen, Jack Hauser, Leslie Mannès, Jeroen Peeters, Manon Santkin, Sarah Vanhee, Myriam Van Imschoot
Production: Sarma @ WorkSpaceBrussels
Documentation
On the first morning, the lab participants formulated a shared project of creating a dictionary of invented words. These words would emerge from the context of the research, as a slip of the tongue, as terms denoting new concepts,… All the words were, in an act of collaboration, documented on file cards, 99 in total, containing the word itself with a definition, which could also be a drawing or photograph. The words were also practiced during a word breakfast, used in games, songs and letters, or smuggled into everyday life in the city.
Throughout the laboratory week, Jack Hauser developed a film in collaboration with the other lab participants. His departure point was an existing score of the Austrian experimental film maker Kurt Kren, which points out five camera positions and a particular order and rhythm of organizing the resulting photographs into a short film.
