Workshop DAS | Dance Architecture Spatiality
in Athens
Université Paul-Valery / Montpellier III
Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Montpellier
Teachers: Frédérique Villemur, Partrice Barthès
Università IUAV di Venezia
Teacher: Giorgio Richelli
University of Derby
Teacher: Eleni Tracada
Vakalo College of Art & Design
Teacher: Manolis Iliakis
The workshop was held from 2-15 July and was part of the three-year international program Dance Architecture Spatiality as part of the Erasmus program organized by the Vakalo College of Art & Design (Greece), the University of Derby (UK), L’Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Montpellier (France), the University of Montpellier III Paul Valéry (France) and the Iuav University of Venice (Italy) with the participation of the Isadora and Raymond Duncan Research Dance Center in Athens.
In 2012 it took place in Athens, in 2013 in will take place in Vicenza and in 2014 in Montpellier.
The Now or Never 2012 dance performance, which was performed on the Pikionis pathways on Filopappou Hill, was one of the productions of the special 15-day seminar for students of architecture, philosophy and visual arts. Its aim was to delve deeper into abovementioned issues within the context of a very significant work of architectural landscaping. If we take into consideration that the route Pikionis designed is related to an ”algebraic choreography” that Pikionis imagined for the visitors to the site, then one can better comprehend the meaning behind the kinetic exercises that took place on Filopappou under the supervision of French choreographer Patrice Barthès and the other teachers. The performance took place on July 13, 2012.
Understanding an architecturally designed site presupposes using all the senses, which are activated by the circumstances of the place, for example, the dancer’s contact with the materials, either purposely or due to the movement or position. The kinetic improvisations and exercises that Barthès choreographed for the students aimed at bringing to the surface certain conceptual relations that are not initially visible.
The attempt to conceptually recompose Pikionis’s work in the here and now was enhanced by physical factors. Each individual performer’s active collection of stimuli (not just the passive reception of stimuli as a simple visitor) helped lend meaning to the architectural work. The daily visits to the site for about two weeks brought about various approaches to this meaning. The reinterpretation of spatial meanings was expressed through each performer’s personally choreographed movement in the final presentation and through the “poetic” selections in the use of the space. The idea of the ritual procession was the unifying theme of the performance. The presentation commenced at the start of the Pikionis modifications, opposite the intersection with his median islands and drew to a close at the Anderon clearing.
The attempt to redefine the architect’s work in today’s world did not, of course, do away with the geometrical conventions inherent in any architectural design though it did perhaps alter the audience’s spatial impression of the site. The comprehension of this intention would not have been possible, either for the students or for the audience if there was not also the simultaneous movement of both along the cobblestone walkways. Movement was the main ingredient and the link to the new spatial experience proposed. The idea of a contemporary ritual procession joined the Self with the Other, the body with space, and it incorporated conscious collective movement in a modern-day urban setting.
