Douglas Dunn invites artist Hannes Schüpbach to screen his film Essais (2020, 43’), with choreographed shots of dancer Kira Blazek Ziaii – a Douglas Dunn + Dancers member 2008 to 2014 – in an exchange of gestures with artists Stephen Watts, Éléonore Bernard, Heba-Raphaëlle Meffre, Flurin Cuonz, Marco Baschera and Jiajia Zhang. In the fleeting space of the film they all engage in some kind of self-experiment.
Douglas Dunn and Hannes Schüpbach in conversation about movement that starts within us – in dance, poetry, fashion, music and language. How singular are our gestures? Where do transitions between individuals come into play? Where does a shared cultural space come into being?
Followed by a video of Kira Blazek performing at the DD Salon in 2014, drinks, and a newly published book, Essais, Verlag für moderne Kunst, Vienna, 2023.
A limited number of books will be on sale for a special price of $25.
“I shake myself. I get the idea to make a few movements. Movements, gestures.
For almost two years now, I have been searching for something along these lines.
Movements mostly without meaning. What was I looking for by doing so?
To modify myself. To undo a certain stationary condition.”
(Henri Michaux, Face à ce qui se dérobe, 1975)
- This is a FREE EVENT. Please RSVP on Eventbrite.
- November 8, 8pm
- Doors open at 7:30pm
- Beverages served
- Elevator access
Hannes Schüpbach was born and lives in Switzerland. He is a visual artist, a maker of silent films, and a writer. He has made eleven silent films since 1999. An overview exhibition of his works, Stills and Movies, at the Kunsthalle Basel was curated by Adam Szymczyk in 2009. It highlighted the intimate conceptual interconnections between his installations, performances and films; they all entice movement, and unfold through memory. Many of his pieces explore the creation of art, such as his films Erzählung (2007), L’Atelier (2007), Spin/Verso/Contour (2011), Instants (2012), and Essais (2020), as well as his large-scale installation Explosion of Words (2021), which revolves around the oeuvre of London-based poet Stephen Watts. His films have been shown in the US at Lincoln Center, Anthology Film Archives, Bard College and the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. He has written about the films of visual artists such as Rudy Burckhardt and Klaus Lutz—who both lived and worked in New York.
