Tracing Process - Documentation of Traces
Traces
by Christy Poinsettia Ma
Premiered on 2 Oct 2022.
In the event Staging IG Farben Building of Politik im Freien Theater.
for more info of the full event:
Project Description:
[EN] A performative movement journey from the IG Farben building, travelling from one memorial to another, researches the embodiment of shame. Tying in with personal experiences of skin colour, social discrimination and labels today, the performance searches for traces of memory and how they are forgotten.
[DE] Die performative Bewegungsreise vom IG-Farben-Haus führt von einem Gedenkort zu einem anderen und fragt nach Verkörperungen von Scham. Anknüpfend an persönliche Erfahrungen von Hautfarbe, sozialer Diskriminierung und Labels sucht die Performance nach Spuren der Erinnerung und wie sie vergessen werden.
Below are the "Behind the scene" or the "Process"
My first proposal to Prof. Diego Rotman regarding my project idea after having one semester of preparatory seminar with Prof. Nikolaus Müller-Schöll.
At the time I focus on this question:
With the complex history of IG Farben Building, how to handle and where am I situated?
July 2022
Exploring the content through various media
Dance and movement is an affective art form, it is ephemeral. It is, perhaps, to an extent against my idea of transcending memories.
Dance is at the same time ambiguous. One gesture could have multiple meanings, in a performance context, it is open for audience interpretation.
At the time I focus on these questions:
What is the role of movement in this performance? What are the messages/ things that I want to emphasize and how shall they be performed?
An experiment of film with the same idea:
focusing on the hidden shame and burden of corporeality.
Movement exploration with 3 motives
1.the connection of neurons, from head to the whole body. notes: can be further develop, the quality of embodying and sudden lose of consciousness
2. movement of releasing and letting go. notes: the intention and direction is not clear
3. the visualisation of shame and the motif to try to take it off. notes: might work even better with clay/ materials on the body
Entering the two-weeks intensive work with Diego
Notes on music choice, movement motifs, props list, delivery schedule, planning on design of maps and promotion materials for the events.
artistic note: I am a person who doesn't speak. No words from my mouth.
how the "character" gradually took its shape. The chemistry of location, props, costume are weaving together a web of dramaturgy for the work.
These elements supported the ambiguous nature of movement and extended the possibility of a focused theme.
Struggling on the length of the work
The idea is to have a movement journey that can also work within the framework of the Staging IG Farben Building event. With 10 other works happening together, is it a good idea to do a durational walk of 2 hours or 15-20 mins?
The biggest difference is on the movement quality and development, for the longer version, the transition is gradual, focusing on the nuances of corporeality through the embodiment of shame. It is physically very challenging and a meaningful process for my body.
But it also raised the concern that if the audience did not stay for the whole walk, the experience would be incomplete for them and I was not sure if that is what I want.
<--this is a feedback from my friend after watching my hour long non-stop movement research and research with props
*one of the feedback is how the movement becomes very emotional and he described it as "being possessed"
Movement research process
There is basically no written documentation when I was at this stage of movement research. Although at the time I was still open to the idea of durational walk, you can already see from the rehearsal clips that the direction is going towards a shorter performance. It was also unnecessary for me to further write about the movement as a performer/dancer as the process focuses on the visual and sensual awareness. Words would be distracting.
But it would be good to accompany the videos with words now:
20220923
drawing from inspiration from the music: #passive body #discovering body #seeking balance #delicate movement
motifs from me: #breaking free #observing oneself #touching and taking off the post-its
20220926
the challenge is to achieve the movement discovered on 20220923 with high heels on, and how to take them off.
in general the movement is too "solid" compare to 20220923, the touch and gesture seemed very intentional and lack the freshness of a first try. the carpet floor is also too slippery for high heels.
20220928
rehearsal with the costume and space, also check if the speaker is loud enough.
inspiration from the sound and view on the site, more vulnerability compare to 20220926, also the slightly tilted ground gives more imbalance. It is nevertheless important to keep the "off-balance" under control and not actually fall off.
Rehearsal and feedback with Diego and the group
It was a very fruitful feedback session with the group, sorting out lots of details of the work and to have an actual group of audience during the run-through. We've discussed the gesture of giving the stones and whether it is necessary to give to each audience, how the site and music created a theatre-like vibe at the Alzheimer's memorial, how they feel when they were following the performance, the structure of the dancing and walking parts, the "acting" or the "naturalness" in the walk and also the dance. The feedback was not only based on the actual performance, but also how the project description could affect what the audience expects and Sara mentioned an important point to not mention the Alzheimer's memorial in the project description and it actually made a huge change on the work.
Tackling the texts on the Black board
I did not show this part fully when I show it to the group, partly due to the difficulty in preparing the board but also being not confident with how to frame it. We managed to talk about it in the feedback. The idea was always to connect my personal experience of being an outsider and having multiple (mostly falsely-put) labels in life but I wasn't sure if it is appropriate under the bigger frame of the IG Farben Building history. I see this as a connection bringing me closer to the feelings of rejection of Jews in the past and also how this place happens to be where Alzheimer disease is discovered in 1906 and we see mental health and memories differently from then on. The campus is also a place of knowledge and how knowledge is reminded or discovered everyday. Although all these happened at a different period of time, there is this commonality of new discovery with others, connection to the past and reminder.
The board is full of labels we have in the society, some are more neutral and some hostile.
The big question: What do you not (want to) see?
suggested two meaning, what kind of discrimination/ignorance we have in life and also what are the boundaries that we see and try to breakthrough.
This part is perhaps a very confronting part of the work, apart from the post-its already on the board, I invite the audience to write more post-its and even write on my body.
It is also interesting to notice the different reactions, some were reluctant to write, some were writing on their own body and showing them to me.
It is of course impossible to draw a conclusion for what were on their minds, but this happening at the same time create a moment of society, the variety of reactions and shifting the focus from me as the sole performer towards an observation within the group of audience.
<---- This is the notes reminding myself of the procedure and timing with the first part (taking off clothes, the post-its, drawing on body), how to make sense of it, because I always panick during this part and it is hard to rehearse without audience
below is also a note of Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Müller-Schöll of his feedback on the work. He said that he is curious of how is this walk going to end, this curiosity is the outcome of Sara's suggestion of not mentioning the Alzheimer's memorial, the end of the performance.
There was also other feedback of how Traces along the other works of the event, brought a new understanding towards the building. A faculty who has worked here for 10 years saying that Traces provided a new perspective towards this very familiar campus.
Video and Photos documentation
Here are the documentation in still pictures and video without the audience.
They captured moments that is different from the actual live performance but also with other nuances of the work, providing another entry point as documentation.
*the video version is a structured documentation that is not trying to have the live performance documented but with consideration of balancing the actual performance with how it would look on screen, considering the dramaturgical spectatorship of video.
Reflection
Approaching Staging IG Farben Building project is rather different from my usual artistic practice. It is not like working with a score of movement or theatre script. There are numerous archives and resources in the library and online regarding the history of the land and building, we are allowed to enter from the perspective on architectural philosophy by Hans Poelzig, the time when it was the administrative building of the I.G. Farbenindustrie AG, or when it was the headquarter of the US army. It felt like many scattered points in the flow of time but I believe that some things needed to be reminded over and over again, perhaps through various ways. Through Traces, I try to connect my present reality with the past and try to remind people to reconsider how we remember and handle the past. On the commemorative plaques at the entrance of the IG Fraben Building lies a quote from Jean Améry, "None of us can escape the history of our people. We should not and must not “let the past rest”, otherwise it might be resurrected and become the new present.”
With everything going on in the current time, the lesson from the National Socialist dictatorship and Second World War is indeed relevant.