Choreography and performance in the Video work of the artist Simon Wachsmuth, “Body luggage” – Steirischer Herbst / 2016

“Qing” shows the line of movement that a dancer draws through a darkened room against a black background. It is the symbol of a journey, a movement from left to right, from west to east. On the way, the dancer encounters enigmatic objects. The objects are resistance on a path that is to be understood as a reference to the life stories of avant-garde dancers from the 1930s. “Qing” deals on the one hand with the actual uprooting of bodies (languages) and those persecuted who could not escape. As a representative, the dancer embarks on this journey retrospectively, on an imaginary path in a space without reference. The objects come towards her. Not only people and their bodies are subject to change due to migration, but also the objects.

Courtesy of the artist and Zilberman Gallery Berlin