Espacios latentes/Latent Spaces

• Main Authors: Burton, Robert, Salzer, Heike, Baer, Ana, Prough deVol, Cheri, Hall, Richard, Luna, Rocio, Nance, Michelle
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Burton; Gonzalez; Iceland
• Online Access: https://research.tees.ac.uk/en/publications/03dce033-3d65-4aa2-8237-8ec469c3482b; https://anabaer.com/pacio/

Espacios Latentes/Latent Spaces was an installation of site-specific screendance works by Ana Baer at the TXST Galleries, curated by Margo Handwerker. The work was a collaborative project from the international team of Cheri Prough DeVol (sceninc/video designer); Richard Hall (composer); Robert Burton (fashion designer); Heike Salzer (choreographer/videographer); Michelle Nance (live performance coordinator); Brandon Gonzalez, Rocio Luna, Pat Stone, Michelle Nance and Heike Salzer (choreographers and dancers during live performance). Site-specific screendance couples two contemporary dance forms: site-specific dance, and screendance, a hybridization of cinematography and choreography. Only in tandem, do the site specific and screendance forms convey the collaborative performative experience that occurs in the absence of a traditional audience on site. Espacios Latentes/Latent Spaces is a deliberative attempt to explore this medium further, to account for a singular project’s relationship to its multiple sites of representation: What is the relationship between the project’s site of origin and its range of presentations, whether a screen, a stage, an art gallery, or on-line? Espacios Latentes/Latent Spaces explores the role of the white cube in site-responsive arts discourse. The project explores two broad themes within the collaborative teams site-specific screendance work: themes loosely categorizes as “extreme environments” and “identity, roots, and home.” The first grouping includes footage from The North York Moors, Iceland, and The Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in Michoacan, Mexico. Gallery I will showcase Wild-er-ness, WECreate Ice and PARAKATA. The second body of works, transpose the female dancer from these so-called “natural” environments to constructed ones. Gallery II will screen Homemaker and shift. By colliding screendances with self-referential installation art, this exhibition layers in increasing complexity the audience’s experience. The content of the videos includes dancers exploring the connection between their bodies and different environments. Each screendance was projected into a unique surface, and will be supported by scenic, lighting and sound design. Additionally, the exhibit will be activated by a live performance showcasing the same dancers that were filmed on location. The exhibition will tour a series of venues in reimagined iterations throughout 2019 ending in a performance in London in the spring of 2020.