ACCOMPANYING PROGRAM

Saturday, 23 February 2019, at 20:00  – Little Hall of the National Home Maribor (ulica Kneza Koclja 9)

The Axis Point

Pivot Point, The Dynamics of Space Trilogy, 2016-2018

Pivot Point explores the dynamic exchange between drawing and movement, with the focus on the process of formation, establishing a relationship to the final product.
The project is designed as a changing environment in which the body is located. The visual and kinaesthetic processes are focused on the line and the relations of the body towards creation of meaning.
The outset for the drawn, projected and carved sculptures are actually the drawings from the "Neverending" series (Polona Maher, 2010, archival ink on paper), where the sculptural body develops from an unbroken line.

The volume of the accumulated drawn material has been formed through seeming movement of the lines and the uneven inclination of the weight around the pivot point and the distancing from it. The drawing seems to be moving and always changing, like the body of the performer. Falling is the basic starting point of the movement, since the perseverance is present in the repetition of the body swing. Dance is placed in the gallery space so that it can share the same plain with the viewer.

The moving installation, among other things, deals with the notion of the horizontal that enabled Pollock to liberate the art of the upright canvas and introduce instead the performance-based art. The horizon, as Walter Benjamin wrote, is a flatland that contains signs, while the vertical is a plain of representation that contains objects. The research of the horizontal within the intersection of dance and visual arts is encountered also in some works by Trisha Brown that will make some reference material for the work. The Pivot Point of the axis revives and updates the question of the relation of the body in motion towards figuration, theme, meaning and its occurrence in the representation space. He is confronted with the questions about how to create a space without having to designate a territory, and how to create an event outside the politics of colonialism.

The Pivot Point traverse the relationship between the female and male principles, perseverance and passing by. The falling body, in dialogue with gravity, bends the linear perspective, creating through its constant action visual-kinetic comfort in the discomfort that is caused in the viewer through the feeling of a swing/pendulum.

concept: Tina Valentan, Polona Maher
coreography, dance: Tina Valentan
scenography: Polona Maher
dramaturgy: Barbara Novakovič Kolenc
light design: Jaka Šimenc
sound design: Gal Škrjanec Skaberne
photography: Nada Žgank

production: Muzeum Ljubljana
co-production: Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana and Layer's House Kranj
in collaboration with: Narodni dom Maribor, Culture and Event Center
Supported by the Municipality of Ljubljana, Department for Culture.

TINA VALENTAN (1978) graduated in her studies of dance and choreography at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam in 2007.
Her solo and group projects have been supported by various production houses: Maska, Emanat, Plesna izba Maribor, European Cultural Foundation and Modul Dance.
She also works as a choreographer in theatre productions. She gained her teaching experience in the Dance Chamber Maribor, where she co-created a programme of dance education (2010-2013). She taught dance technique at SVŠGL (Pre-School Education and Grammar School, Ljubljana). Tina Valentan excels in her internalised dance attitude and performing sensibility.
In 2017 Valentan was awarded the Ksenija Hribar Prize.

POLONA MAHER (1971, Maribor) graduated from sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Italy, then pursued her studies at the Faculty of Arts in Bristol, Great Britain.
In 2006, she received the Aletti Award at the Art Verona fair. Her works make part of permanent collections of the Palazzo Forti, the City Gallery in Verona, the Art Gallery Maribor, in the Factor Bank and Talum collections.