It’s March again, and it’s time for imagetanz! The 2016 edition of the festival focuses on a fundamental question: how can artists initiate a change in their own communities, neighbourhoods, cities? Do they have this power only through their artworks, or can the artists themselves induct a positive change just through their presence? In order to explore possible answers to these questions imagetanz 2016 creates a tension between solo works – as fundamental artistic statements – and formats that bring communities together. This curatorial approach does not aim to create a synthesis of diverse aesthetic expressions but instead offers a space of possibilities and exchange for the artists presented, focusing deliberately on processes and practices instead of results and presentation.
For this reason the “side programme” takes a central role in the festival, shifting the expectations of the encounter with the artists by introducing different formats - club to train our social muscle, salons for discussions, cooperations, workshops, and, of course, parties - in order to activate social connections and to release the audience from its classical position of “spectator”.
In contrast to this focus on getting together the performance programme is designed as a panorama of singularities, based on the format of the solo. Being alone on stage is an assertion of irreducibility that confronts the artist with the simplest and minimal state of the choreographic alphabet yet able to create powerful statements. The explorations presented are various: from the performance that deals with different body trainings to a dance inspired by computer games, from a practice of invitation through modelling shapes and spaces to solo sessions of embodied choreography.
imagetanz 2016 is a collection of social actions, performances, trainings, researches. The festival exposes different forms of sensibility and ideas, displays deconstructions of bodies, welcomes hybrid formats and ongoing processes, aiming to bring people together, creating relations and - hopefully - starting a reaction of changes.
You are welcome to come and participate! You are enough!