Mari Kalabegashvili, Fabian Krestel, “Tracing Absences”, performance

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)

Free admission
Language: English
Duration: 20 minutes

Doors open at 19:00. Performance starts at 19:30

Mari Kalabegashvili (b. 1999, Tbilisi) is a multimedia visual artist and cultural practitioner based in Georgia. Her research-based practice draws from collaborative and interdisciplinary knowledge-sharing processes and works with the given environment to pose the question of what happens after “ever after”. Apart from her individual praxis, she is currently involved with the Parallel Class Project creating alternative educational initiatives for high school students in Georgia.

Fabian Krestel (b. 1987, Munich) is a Brussels-based dancer and choreographer with formal training as a circus performer, specializing in the Chinese pole and juggling.