Date :
2015-08-28

Location :
Multimedia Theatre (M1060), Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre

Time :
7:00PM - 8:00PM

Speakers:

Arco Renz (Artistic Director of Brussels based dance company Kobalt Works)

Takayuki Fujimoto a.k.a. Kinsei 藤本隆行 (Independent Director, Lighting Designer)

Moderator: Yip Choi Fung Koala

Conducted in English

Free Admission on a first-come, first-served basis

Co-organised by School of Creative Media, Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media

Abstract:

The lecture-performance gives insight into the creation process of the contemporary dance performance EAST (premiere in October 2015) and into the work of Arco Renz | Kobalt Works. Alongside performance-extracts of EAST, the lecture will expand on the concept of Abstract Dramaturgy, involving dance, light and music.

Background:

EAST is a solo performance about Orientalism: Western fantasies of the East.

The title, EAST, is firstly a spatial indication. EAST is a direction on the map.

How does a contemporary body map Orientalism?

Following such questions, EAST is a projection into foreign movement.

Japanese light designer Fujimoto Takayuki aka “Kinsei” is designing a high-speed environment of LED light. Visual artist Lawrence Malstaf is creating an ephemeral environment of inflatable spheres. Vietnamese Phu Pham aka Dee.F and Belgian Marc Appart compose two independent music scores.

EAST is a pivotal work on Arco Renz’ trajectory of 15 years of creation between Asia and Europe. The solo follows a series of collaborative performance projects of very different nature undertaken in Asia since 2011: CRACK (Cambodia), solid.states (Indonesia), KRIS IS (Indonesia),Hanoi Stardust (Vietnam), COKE (Philippines), and ALPHA(Thailand/Singapore).

The creation process of EAST is hosted by two residencies in Hong Kong: at the School of Creative Media and at the West Kowloon Cultural District in collaboration with City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC).

About the speakers:

Arco Renz works as choreographer, dancer, director, actor and dramaturge. His activities are currently focusing on the field of contemporary dance. He is artistic director of Brussels based dance company Kobalt Works. Since its creation in 2001, Kobalt Works|Arco Renz have created over 25 evening length choreographies in Europe and Asia, as well as numerous commissioned works for Opera Houses and institutional companies around the world.

An important aspect of Arco Renz’ activities is his engagement in projects promoting the development of research and exchange between European and Asian artists. Monsoon, a series of research and performance platforms bringing together Asian and European artists is an on-going project with its next edition in Sydney in November 2015.

During 2014 and 2015, Arco Renz is engaged in collaborative performance projects of very different nature in Indonesia (KRIS IS), Vietnam (Hanoi Stardust), the Philippines (COKE), and Thailand/Singapore (ALPHA).

Arco Renz productions with Kobalt Works reveal an intense physicality and explore the emotional force of abstraction.

In his creations, he consistently broadens the principles of Abstract Dramaturgy to light, sound and multimedia interfaces; and his choreographies go beyond pure, formal dance, displaying “a graceful expressionism that can be situated somewhere between the German expressionist films of the 1920s and traditional Eastern dance and theatre forms.”

Arco Renz studied dance, theatre, and literature in Berlin and Paris and is graduate of the first generation of P.A.R.T.S., the dance school founded by Anne Teresa De Keermaekers in Brussels.

For more detailed information: www.kobaltworks.be

Takayuki Fujimoto began participating in projects of the performance art group Dumb Type in 1987.

He designed the lighting for the performance works “OR”, “memorandum” and “Voyage” and went on to do the lighting design and overall technical management since “OR”. He also worked with Ryoji Ikeda on the video and music concert series “formula” and has participated primarily as the lighting designer in performance and multimedia works by a number of overseas artists including the Hong Kong choreographer Daniel Yeung, the Vietnam-born French choreographer Ea Sola, Singapore’s theater and video artist Choy Ka Fai and others.

After 2003 he has worked on the installation/concert “path” with the guitarist Kazuhisa Uchihashi and the singer UA, collaborated with the dance company Monochrome Circus to create works like “Refined Colors” and “lost” that make use of the unique potential of LED lighting.

For his well-known work “true/本当のこと” in 2007, he worked with two performers, Tsuyoshi Shirai (AbsT) and Takao Kawaguchi (Dumb Type) and put together a multi-talented technical team to focus on integrating LED lighting with other digital devices in order to create a highly organic stage work. Also he start to create digital lighting installation “Time Lapse Plant” in 2010 and open-air lighting artworks too.

In his working process he actively employs the latest digital technologies in works for the stage with the aim of creating new circuits to connect directly to the audience with no less strength than the connection created by the stage performer communicating directly to the audience in a live stage experience.

Recent works and image link: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UConQ6_SM_r2Zudw0OeVeYbw

Arco Renz

Takayuki Fujimoto