moving monuments
2021
performance/ film
diploma 2021, academy of fine art munich
performers:
elke haldmaier
clara hilscher
morgan lespagne
sofia pomeroy fernandez
emmanuelle rizzo
film:
director: dominik bais
producer: dominik bais
camera: justin urbach
lili pongratz
editing: florian duffe
two casts of roman statues have been in the collection of the academy of fine arts munich for over 200 years and are marked by iconoclastic assaults. in their fragile condition, they vividly demonstrate the twists and turns of history. for the performance, the two larger-than-life plaster figures were transported from the basement of the academy to the colossus hall. a room that was specially designed and built for the staging of a colossus. with its representative apse, the room becomes a stage on which the sculptures’ agencies are questioned in a play between exaltation and ironisation.
the title of the performance moving monuments has a double meaning: it refers to the influence of these works of art on their recipients, which can be both positive and negative. feelings that are evoked by means of mechanisms and were consciously created in the works of art. with the help of their bodies, five contemporary dancers explored the two plaster casts in instant compositions through movement sequences arising from mirroring, repetition or changes of perspective in order to develop possibilities of breaking out of and undercutting these mechanisms. in constantly changing constellations, the sculptures are choreographically aligned by the performers in relation to the space, whereby they interact with the visitors in ever new ways. the mobility of the sculptures is meant as a proposal to allow new perspectives on the handling of historical artefacts and monuments and to point out common modes of representation of political and educational relations.
