Everything is open | Sasha Waltz
NOTES FROM THE DIARY OF SASHA WALTZ, 22ND OF MAY 2020
Art has to hold
It can shift
Be flexible and use other stages
work with less people.
Imagination is the muse of change
We will be present in the souls of people
(In their memories)All dreams and demands of people shall be given a voice
dreams
can be
written
down
and staged
Singular
Single
Performers
Give a clear
voice to
the individual.
Art
is not respected
as a system relevant element
I was angry about that, fighting that our profession has “Berufsverbot” – that we, the artists are not important or not valid.
But
that’s
our
Chance to
be different
to create
to act
in other ways
We can work
on promenades
We can work with
costumes for
the public
that gives distance
We are different already because
we perceive(d)
The World
in different ways
We heard
The World quiet (down)
We heard
new Sounds
we heard more
Silence or we heard
Birds and other animals
We heard the city silencing from the buzz
Being close to the airport, I was counting planes, just six or nine flights per day – probably transporting masks or repatriating tourists
I didn’t hear any cars but I heard voices of people
I
spoke with my
neighbours, I shared
food, I baked cake.
We as artists, also independent artists, that are
existentially
threatened
react according
to our own character:
Some really love the space they
have
The time
to read
time to work in a new
way with their bodies
learn a new technique
people are accepting
openly the State of Corona
(I know that we are talking social difference here; if people are stuck in a 1 room apartment with 3 kids, doing home school and home office or having no work then it’s difficult to rethink life. You are existentially looking how to pass the day.) (Not to talk about the situation of the Indian workers having to walk back to their villages under the time of lockdown.)
Some people see the crisis as an opportunity
The big institutions in the arts are waiting to return to how they worked before
Can we radically change the architecture of our creations and the structures we are working for?
We can have performances in public spaces and museums where everybody can participate
If we are honest, we are anyway reaching too few people of all sides of society.
So let’s come into the city
use stages
that
are
already
existing
in the city
Let’s
move
to Nature.
perform
and create
experiences
In Nature
it deepens
the perception
and
consciousness
to our
environment.
We can use the bodies
of Nature and have
physical contact with
trees
We can learn the songs of birds and listen to Olivier Messiaen’s music.
If we really like to perform a certain piece – let’s stay together in quarantine.
For the time that we are rehearsing and performing a piece, we will be in an intensive encounter with our colleagues.
We could experience a togetherness with the public in quarantine
A festival where we create new households with our public.
Newartcommunities.
The circus of touring is in times of climate change very much in question. Every performance we take has to be compensated. Create networks that can be reached by train rather than planes. If we travel overseas we really have to make sure to have connecting performances in more than one city or country) (add sustainable transfers of art, by working or teaching with the local community. Create Systems, that can be taught rather than show finished products. Share information and knowledge, spread and diffuse your wisdom. Question waste in production that harms the environment.)
Yes, I know we are NOT performing at all at this moment. We need a break, be still-to have the chance to equilibrate.
Humans
are
now
humble in front of the power of Nature
A small virus has taken the world in his hand.
Now the World has silenced
We have slowly understood that we as humans are close to humus
We have been confronted to our mortality.
It’s our meeting with death
We are humus / earth ourselves, we are the earth, we are interconnected in the pandemia. Interdependent more than ever.
Now we are in the same boat – the ark
And we are stepping out of the boat when we see the sign (white dove)
… but he hung on for seven more days …
Statistic mountains
waves of infection.
After all this
will we step out transformed?
it is
great to step out of what
we know so well
about our profession,
if we are not
in an existential survival mode
Live online dances, festivals and meetings around the world are just the beginning. We are now all doing projects we didn’t have time before
it’s a time for archive
reflection and refocus on what is necessary.
There is an uncertainty that brings spontaneity
We are living in the moment, when we were used to plan our life for years ahead. I always felt imprisoned by the thought of 3 mountains of work in front of me.
I enjoy the moment were I don’t know
Everything is open
also in the arts we have followed the market
We produced
too much in too little time
and too expensive
let’s produce in longer periods, more careful
emphasis on the people, the actors, dancers, singers.
Play en-suite rather than repertoire,
Institutions have to radically reform.
Institutions are supposed to be there for the arts but it’s the other way around the art is serving the institutions.
We shouldn’t accept the inequality of artists employed in permanent ensembles anymore and the insecurity and precariousness of independent artists and ensembles. We need a basic income (Grundeinkommen)! Why Art? we seem to be unnecessary
We are having a climate crisis – fires, storms, floods, droughts – we are in the middle of a biodiversity crisis, losing thousands of species, we have a pandemic, a locust plague in Africa, hunger and war and murder out of racism
and Art…?
SOMETIMES
I want to give up
And work in a garden
grow vegetables and be an activist rather than an artist
And
HELP
Sasha Waltz is a choreographer, dancer and director. She studied dance and choreography in Amsterdam and New York. Together with Jochen Sandig she founded the company Sasha Waltz & Guests in 1993 and the Sophiensæle in 1996. From 2000-2004 she was a member of the artistic direction of the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz. In her current choreographic work Waltz focuses on the condensation of collaborative processes, such as the synchronous development of choreography and music (e.g. ‘Kreatur‘, 2017).