At its root, the gesture of writing is a gesture of tracing. The writer starts to exist in this moment of tracing. As such the trace of writing is a performative act which can be connected to the temporality of a physical body. In this performative talk, Caroline actualises and expands on some of the material and philosophical questions that tie gestures of inscription to the development of a text, and in what ways performing a text can in turn inscribe the material shadows of physicality back into writing.
what_now 2014 was presented by Independent Dance in association with Siobhan Davies Dance.
Caroline Bergvall is a writer and artist of French-Norwegian origins, based in London. She works across languages, artforms and media. She is a strong exponent of writing methods adapted to contemporary audiovisual and contextual concerns and multilingual identities. Her language-based pieces and micro structures frequently revisit literary models as well as tackle historical and political events. Projects alternate between performances, sited installations, textual and graphic work, and audio pieces. Current performance: Drift (for live voice, percussion and electronic text).
Bio as published in 2014.
Independent Dance’s series of WHAT festivals was initiated by co-director Gill Clarke in 2009. It was a platform for invited artist-curators to ask questions about and through dance.
what_now 2014 was presented as a public residency, taking as its starting point the suggestion that artists need to construct new conditions for the realisation of community. It was a festival of processes and activities, and addressed new forms of social organisation and production.
Four public talks addressed the thinking body and its potential in and for movement. The speakers were invited to talk about how attention operates, and how we direct ourselves and our thinking as full-blooded humans, with varied approaches including philosophy, human geography, education and performance. Each public talk was followed by a discussion, which was also filmed, and placed on this page.
