Noilin O’Kelly

During her second residency at CeRCCa, Noilin O’Kelly continued her research on heterotopia and the uncanny. The research, which is apart of her PhD studies, involved an installation in one of the rooms of the Cal Rosal convent.

The site-specific installation used the imperfections of the space to empower a sense of fragility and secrecy. Noilin used an old bathtub filled with water and milk to project imagery that documented the performances Zoe Balasch developed in the space one year before. The bathtub was placed on the unnerving and unstable wooden floor of the room. Every time a person entered the room, the pressure from the body weight and movement made the floor tremble. As a result, the water and milk which reflected the image also trembled, causing the image projection to blur. Simultaneously, the image projection created its own reflection into the wall, upon which the movement of a person entering the room caused it to become impossible to decipher. It was only until the viewer stood still for a while that the whole installation could become clear.

The project then reflected on states of movement and stillness, creating a fragile and unsettling space that could only be made familiar and understandable when contemplation and no movement were achieved.

Sine Ergün

Sine Ergün is a Turkish writer, curator and director of Mau Mau, an interdisciplinary residency program in Istanbul. She has a BA in International Relations from Bilkent University, and a MA in Cultural Management from the Istanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi. She has worked for several editorial companies and was a research assistant at the Istanbul Bilgi University. As part of her creative practice as a writer She has published several short story books and has been awarded several prizes.

Project

During her residency at CeRCCa, Sine wrote six short stories that reflected upon her experience at the residency and Barcelona. The short stories were illustrated by artist and designer Irina Kudriavchenko. As part of the event that took place at Jiwar Creation and Society, Sine and Irina printed several of their stories and illustrations that were then distributed to the public. Sine also developed a performative and participatory presentation of her creative process. The experimental workshop consisted of a multilingual composition in Turkish, English, Catalan and Spanish, created from the sentences that the participants wrote on pieces of paper which were inspired by Sine’s short stories. The different sentences were then projected onto a screen, and by means of the exquisite corpse surrealist methodology, a new shared story was created.

Antoine Berthiaume & Zoe Balasch

Montréal guitarist and composer Antoine Berthiaume has been active on the jazz and improvisation circuits for over 15 years. His work has recently been enriched by collaborations with well-known filmmakers and contemporary dancers. Antoine is a founding member of the western-folk group Rodéoscopique. He has been seen performing in Montréal with Pierre Tanguay and Michel Donato, with who he has recorded his first jazz foray for Ambiances Magnétiques Jazz. With grants from the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts, Antoine has furthered his skills in the United States, Japan and Europe. He is currently working on a PhD in electronic music at the University of Montreal.

Dancer, choreographer and researcher of body and dance’s shapes. Since 2004 she works as a dancer or choreographer participating in festivals in Catalonia, Bask Country, France, Denmark and India. She participes in many artistic projects related to body and territory and she collaborates with artists, architects, landscapers and geograhers. Usually she takes the opportunities offered by technology as a link to collaborate with sound and video artists. In 2011 and 2010 she recived the support of the Catalan Arts Council and two catalan art’s centers CACIS, Center of Contemporany Art and Sustainability and Nau Côclea for the Phase I and II of Parinama Project (dance and experimental sound) developed in collaboration with the sound artist Olga Solà.

She studied contemporary dance and performing arts in independent centers of Spain, France Denmark and India with deep influences of Bodyweather. She was awarded a degree in Social Pschicology by the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) where she also studied Dance Movement Therapy. As a researcher she is interested in Eastern philosophies and how the body is understood linking this research with postmodern studies of the body. Her education has been implemented by a training course in Hatha Yoga, Naad Yoga ( sound’s yoga) and meditation. Nowadays she links her artistic practice with teaching the discipline of yoga, meditation and dance as a way to explore the links between the body, the mind and the movement.

Project

The project nAu now by Antoine Berthiaume and Zoe Balasch was developed at CeRCCa in collaboration with L’Escorxador, a cultural and social space of Vilafranca del Penedès.

Their work stemmed from several meetings in which the discussions and exchange of ideas opened up a dialogue for experimentation and improvisation, a mutual interest shared by both artists. For the artists, improvisation in dance is understood as the immediate translation of a sensation or a physical/energetic impulse in motion, all without passing through the logic of the mind. Regarding the music, the utilization of romantic sound landscapes created by string instruments, electronics and sound objects, opened the door for the interaction between movement and sound.

With the project nAw now, their aim was to draw attention so as to interact spontaneously and intuitively with the others, with sound, the surroundings and with anything else occuring. nAw now was performed at CRA’P - Pràctiques de Creació i Recerca Artística in Mollet del Valles, and was accompanied by a talk and discussion about the project.