Open Studio as an encouragement
for a more complex future project

28 January–1 February 2010
Studio Emad Eddin Foundation, 18, Emad Eddin Street, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt

SCCA-Ljubljana in collaboration with HaRaKa, Townhouse Gallery and Studio Emad Eddin Foundation

Open Studio workshop was conceived as collaboration between SCCA and HaRaKa, the leading research platform for dance and performance in Cairo. HaRaKa was established in 2006 and has combined research, production, publishing and educational programmes. The workshop focusing on dance/performance video was conceived by Adham Hafez, a performer, dancer, choreographer and the head of HaRaKa, Barbara Borčič, a critic, curator and the director of SCCA, and Neven Korda, an artist and external collaborator of SCCA. It was a pilot project which is planned to develop into a more complex audio-visual and discursive project in the future, exploring the connections between performance, video, music and discursive practices and more actively involving Townhouse Gallery, Studio Emad Eddin and RAMI regional network.

The workshop was attended by 15 dancers and video artists. Neven Korda, the workshop leader, presented his way of work and the concept which was based on the Laban cube. The dancers had second thoughts about the conceptual guidelines of the workshop, which is another reason why it was significant for the Egyptian scene. After finishing ballet and contemporary dance school, dancers have more knowledge of performative collaborations rather than collaborations that border-line the visual/performative paradigms. This highlights even more the importance of such workshops and production experiments. At the presentation of the workshop photo and video material along with a partly-edited work were shown, which, come to think of it, is not that little.

The workshop was also attended by the film director Azza Shaaban, who screened her documentary on the life in Gaza. The astounding film portrays everyday life: people eating, sleeping, rejoicing, women getting married by proxy, etc. She shot the film in the few days when the wall on the Gaza border was demolished and there was a way in and out of this otherwise isolated area. Azza managed to sneak in and talk to people. She says that even in Egypt the news about events in the Palestine are rather scarce and only reported when someone dies. As only such things are reported on, she wanted to shoot a film about life, not death. She has certainly succeeded.

Barbara Borčić

Open Studio was conceived as a workshop that uses the basic principles of the movement and manipulation of video signals. The visual part was conceived as a simple system: one video camera, one computer (software for real-time manipulation). The choreography demanded simple starting point, such as focus (of the gaze), stop, slow motion - time warp, repetition, persistence. The basic principle of the workshop was the manipulation of streaming video/audio data in real time. The workshop was offered to dancers, choreographers, film directors, and video artists and finally a number of dancers and video artists applied.
After the introductory first day, when the goals and aims of the workshop were presented, several video artists and one dancer agreed with the conditions.

In practice, the workshop resulted in the work of the video artist/director Ahmed Roby and dancer Alice R. Johnson. Roby developed the concept, which included detailed instructions to the dancer for improvisation (aleatoricism), explaining her potential position in space, the primary purpose of her action and the potential final result. The dancer changed the choreographic starting point in the system of Laban cube with Graham technique, as she felt closer to it.

The video was recorded and edited. The analysis of the first part (of the planned three) which we saw at the presentation of the results of the workshop showed that Roby created a model following our guidelines for the Open Studio, which sought to develop a model for workshops focusing on problems and results of collaborative production and live interaction. Roby used methods such as the splitting of the screen (shot) in the middle, a mirror image of the same or different action, multiplication of the image and several types of loop (feedback). These can be included in the realisation software to manipulate media images live, such as Isadora, which was used at the workshop. Roby’s work could be performed live. It also includes video modules and functions of the Isadora software, including crop, the splitting of the screen, mirror, the multiplication of an image, and capture and play).

The workshop focused on preparatory work and was unfortunately too short to produce a tangible result. With other participants who attended the workshop until the end (Azza Shaaban, Shayma Aziz, Amanda Kerdahi Matt) we could develop the envisaged plan and present the multimedia event live (Roby’s idea and direction) as described above.

The results of the workshop provided a welcome encouragement to everyone and points for the preparation of a more complex future project.

Neven Korda

LINKS

• Announcement

PARTNERS

HaRaKa (movement and performance platform, Cairo, Egypt), Townhouse Gallery (Cairo, Egypt), SCCA-Ljubljana, Center for Contemporary Arts (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Studio Emad Eddin Foundation (Cairo, Egypt)

The programme is part-financed by the Department of Culture of the City of Ljubljana and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia
The residency was supported by the Townhouse Gallery and HaRaKa in Cairo, Egypt.