Duration: ca. 60 Min. Choreography and Dance: Ikue Nakagawa (J/F), Frank Micheletti (F) and Morgan Nardi (I/D) Visual Art: Naoko Tanaka (J/D) Live Music: Miguel Constantino (Audiopixel) (F) Organisation: Martin Brüggemann Co-Produced by: Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg, TEMPS D'IMAGES – tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf, TEMPS D'IMAGES – La Ferme du Buisson. In Collaboration with: Commedia Futura, Hannover Supported by: the Prime Minister of the Nordrhein-Westfalen, the Office for Culture of the state capital Düsseldorf and the Kunststiftung NRW, the Ministry for the Culture and the Communication/DRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, the General Council of Var and the Region Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and the city of Toulon. This event was made possible by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK with funds provided by the federal government's office for culture and media, and by the ministries of culture and art of the federal states."
THE STORY: The project searches for its place at a space that is vague. Fluid. Like a writer or a painter in front of the blank paper, a musician confronted with silence, a dancer or choreographer enters the empty space with both horror and hope. Like everybody else, the artist knows the stressfull force of having to do some-thing. You do what is necessary, the result is ok, but from time to time a desire sneaks around the corner: the wish of the Other Way. This is why in summer 2005 four participants of the European artists’ co-operation project COLINA in tanzhaus nrw in Duesseldorf decided to spend the given time in the studios together without big concepts or aims. Out of the pleasure to simply try things out there came about small scenes and feathery images in a space filled with white drapery. Floating and playful, the first elements of KOKO DOKO sounded like harmony and a little crazyness.
DANCE INSTALLATION: Frank Micheletti and Ikue Nakagawa of Kubilai Khan Investigations from Toulon/France, Morgan Nardi and Naoko Tanaka of Ludica from Duesseldorf/Germany and, new in the team, the Portuguese-French musician Miguel Constantino construct and expand KOKO DOKO the following summer 2006. This should be taken literally: the form is assembled from small parts, and at the same time it grows by its own means. The room makes life possible and protects it, and at the same time the room is a product of its inhabitants, always changing. Everything here is laid open: movement and manipulation, light and shadow, music and projections. All making is visible on stage. And inspite (or because) of that, what happens here is like a philosphy of creation or like a dream of appearing and disappearing, of forward and backward, of colour and emptiness, being here and away. The dance, the images, the views and looks and sounds will tell stories from outside and inside the room. Their threads will cross each other like the lines in a crystal. Memories are spaces, too.
THE SPACE: KOKO DOKO found a concept in the equipment of the space. It refers to the traditional Japanese architecture which developed in the 12th century the style “shindenzukuri”: a big open room without separating walls, without fixed partitions. According to requirements or circumstances (seasons, guests ect.) the room was adapted harmoniously by moving Tatami mats or mobile walls – a kind of staging. In KOKO DOKO a wooden construction is hanging in the air. It reproduces the proportions of a Tatami floor: rectangles laid out side by side. The lighting from underneath makes them reflect into the space, and so a kind of illusionary Tatami landscape appears on the ground. With this construction and other elements of the stage design the performers can modulate the space in which they move. They manipulate elements such as spotlights, and by this they constitute situations of immaterial space. With simple means, i.e. light, shadow, colour and movement they create dimensions, directions and atmospheres of the space. The creation and change of space can be shown as a process. The question “Koko Doko – where is here?” is being formulated in an experimental way on stage and by the stage itself.
This project is co-created by LUDICA. collective from Düsseldorf (NaokoTanaka, japanese visual artist and Morgan Nardi, italian choreographer) and Kubilai Khan Investigations, located in the South of France (Ikue Nakagawa, japanese dancer and Frank Micheletti, french choreographer/dancer). The 4 artists met in Düsseldorf in the summer 2005, during the Colina project (artist laboratory of exchange for different artistic mediums). They invited Miguel Constantino (Audiopixel) to perform live new compositions. Their similar research territories and complementarity naturally lead them to develop this project together. Started at the Tanzhaus, in the summer 2005, the work will continue in different residencies in the summer and autumn 2006: Düsseldorf, Hannover, Paris, where the premiere will be presented at the Festival Temps d’images- Arte- La Ferme du Buisson.
PRESS
ABANDON FIRM GROUND
In the beginning the light arranged precisely by Naoko Tanaka on a wooden construction suspended over the dance floor was based on Japanese floor mats or Tatamis. An invitation to abandon firm ground. About 40 visitors in the sold-out Studio 6 of the Tanzhaus NRW intently follow the piece “Koko Doko” (“Where is here?”), a production of the group Ludica (choreography: Morgan Nardi, media art: Naoko Tanaka) and the company Kubilai Khan Investigations, which is part of the Temps d’Images Festival.
Five participants play on the stage, which is decorated with neutral white curtains – an ideal projection surface for the dancers Ikue Nakagawa and Frank Micheletti (Kubilai Khan Investigations). While Nardi and Tanaka operate the projector and lights, Miguel Constantino accompanies the dance installation using guitar and effects devices with subtle arrangements that vary from tender to aggressive. The decision of which optical attractions to follow is already forced on the viewer in the first few minutes. The apparent? The real? The films, which are initially projected on small pieces of fabric, grow on larger backgrounds and mix with the accessories carried by the participants into these prepared images. Are the monumental shadows forming on the back wall the event, or the actors in the foreground? The latter leave the stage again and again, as if washed in or blown out.
The scenes develop fluidly; a prism held into the light provokes a spontaneous scene change – it casts a picture of two skiers, which is initially tiny. This theme is also addressed through dance, and the observer effortlessly adjusts to the new image. It is enjoyable to follow the densely packed ideas associatively rather than narratively. The excitingly staged theme “light and shadow” ends with the use of a small lamp, which illuminates Nakagawa’s heart before the audience and artists find themselves surrounded by woods again. A beautiful image – after many other beautiful ones.