F R A G I L E
OR THE PARABLE OF ANGULUS NOVUS
05/07/20-19/07/20
A think tank and dance laboratory from 5.7. to 19.7.2020 for young people from Nantes, Saint-Nazaire, Forbach, Saarbrücken, Saarlouis, Bad Kreuznach, Girona, Targu Jiu and Sarajevo.
In 2020, the Corona pandemic forced us to rethink. We were not able to carry out the project in its usual form this year. This means that there was no joint camp, as planned, in Nantes. But especially in this extraordinary situation it was important to us to stay in contact with our partners in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Romania, Spain and France and to work together on our ideas of a better life for all during this special time. That's why we came up with a different form of project that didn't require traveling. All the young people stayed at home and worked in a large transnational digital lab. In this way, they helped prepare our next dance project in 2022 in Saint-Chély-d'Apcher, France. At the end of the 14 days, there were short video pieces with dance scenes, short texts and pictures from all lab locations. We collected these and compiled them into a film that can be seen on our Youtube channel... and here if you scroll down.
What are our dance theater projects this year and next year about?
The photo of the rising earth, taken by astronauts of Apollo 8 on 24 December 1968 on their flight around the moon, is one of the most exciting images of mankind. For the first time, people saw how limited, unique and fragile the small blue diamond floats in the darkness of the universe. The magic that this image spreads has not been able to stop humans from further destroying the earth, its climate and the life on it. It is becoming increasingly clear that we are in the middle of an ecological catastrophe. In addition, the corona pandemic is a dramatic reminder, right into our personal everyday lives, of how vulnerable human life on our planet is. It is becoming increasingly clear that there is a connection between the ecological crisis of the corona pandemic and the human race. Both phenomena are thus indicators of an "unhealthy" human-environment relationship.
The second dimension of content is connected with a small oil color drawing by Paul Klee and the philosopher Walter Benjamin. This painting entitled "Angelus Novus" becomes an impressive thought-provoking image for Benjamin. In the angel he recognises the angel of history, staring at the ruins of history with eyes wide open and wings spread wide. He wants to stop and put a stop to the destruction. But a storm that blows from paradise drives him with his back to the future. This storm is called progress. The Angelus Novus will inspire our thinking and our dancing.
A third dimension that ties in with the "Angelus Novus" is connected to the French city of Nantes, where the project was originally to take place. The city became the most important port city in France in the 18th century due to a flourishing slave trade. About half of all French slave ships set sail from Nantes to bring people to the French colonies. At the Quai de la Fosse, the landing stage of the slave ships and central place of terror, a memorial for the abolition of slavery was inaugurated in 2012. It commemorates the suffering of thousands of people who were treated as non-humans. This is only one example of European dominance thinking that forms the basis for the most efficient, worldwide plundering of the earth.
The blue planet, the Angelus Novus and colonization form the coordinates of the project to trace the destructive dominant culture of the West historically, economically, culturally and psychologically.