Mari Kalabegashvili, Fabian Krestel, “Tracing Absences”, performance
21 May 2024, 19:30
BERLIN, S&T RESIDENCY, ARCHIVE
Tracing Absences is a collaboration between Tbilisi-based multimedia artist Mari Kalabegashvili and Brussels-based dancer, choreographer, and circus performer Fabian Krestel. The happening explores the utilization of "primitive cultural elements" related to the circus as a new artistic platform, as described by the Dadaistic manifesto from 1924 in Georgia.
Almost a century ago, one of the members of the radical collective H2SO4, film director Nikoloz Shengelaia, published an article that laid the foundation for the idea of establishing a circus “by denying its common boulevard understanding” as a completely hitherto unknown cultural framework. The main goal of the initiative was to encourage mass action, while its main charm was in depicting the dynamics of the local environment and native narratives without being distanced from them. For the current event, the body of work of two distinct artists with their practices is bound together with the concept and the use of circus elements for an open engagement with the spectators, who take an active part in the happening.
Mari Kalabegashvili’s residency and event is supported by ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen)