A feeling between belly and chest. it strikes the shoulders. the shoulders make the arms follow . I observe my hands, how they move around me, my belly, how it wants to touch my back. Hips, hands pressure my skin. I am there. I try to find out, what I am made of bones, muscles, flesh,and skin is what I have learned once. I am without time. not to see oneself from the outside. I am moving even when I am standing still. What have I been feeling? does the body want what you’ve been giving it or do you give the body what it wants? thoughts become experiences. I have to experience. I want everyone to experience. they have to feel to forgive. When I feel myself, I feel everyone. everything is language. skin, moving, touch. we know. the fear to recognize oneself. the fear to recognize oneself in another. falling too fast to see where you’re going. not having to know, what you’re gonna discover. there is no repetition. I will always learn. no matter what I do. I will think, be quiet. breathe. breathe on. It’ll be good. it’ll not seem to matter.
When dealing with dance as a subject I wanted to avoid clichés and the impression it often gives by trying to make pictures that show people turning their innermost feelings to the outside. I view it as an essential way of expressing oneself – a way we have almost completely forgotten how to use. We doubt our feelings, when we don’t find words for them. Because of my work I don’t see dance as something defined anymore, that one does when there’s music, but rather movement, gestures and touch, constantly wanting to get out. In the end dance stands for something general: the entity of body, spirit and soul; the ability and necessity of communicating in different ways others than verbal language; the desire to experience things beyond the thinking mind and to feel oneself in order to develop empathy.
For this work I followed two New York based dance companies for a couple of weeks, with permission to constantly document their everyday life. in that period of time I got close with some of the dancers which made it possible to go into the studio with them and find out what happens when things like stage, stress, choreography and representative behaviour are excluded. How does someone move without being directed and how do I react to this.
Franziska Strauss, (1984)
Franziska Strauss: Vert
From January 18th to March 9th, 2013
Egbert Baqué Contemporary Art
Fasanenstrasse 37
10719 Berlin
Germany
T. +49-30-43.91.08.80
Opening Hours
Tuesday – Friday : 2 pm – 7 pm and Saturday : noon – 6 pm
