Studies on Fantasmical Anatomies

Studies on Fantasmical Anatomies is the title of my ongoing and transdisciplinary doctoral artistic research, which encompasses the spectrum of experiences and practices that I have developed as a choreographer, dancer, and Feldenkrais practitioner. Based on my artistic and therapeutic body-oriented work, the research addresses the relationship between the body, language, movement, and the symptomatic within the choreographic realm and beyond it. By drawing from a broader array of fields of knowledge – medicine, psychoanalysis, poetry and literature, and somatic practices – the research has expanded choreography towards disparate discourses and perceptions of the body.

The artistic research will be presented during a three-day performance program of Fantasmical Anatomies Lessons and Studies at MDT. In my studio in Pernestorfergasse 5 – which will be transferred from Vienna to MDT – I will present a collection of works, lessons, sessions, readings, and lectures of my recent research.

At the intersections of the therapeutic and the choreographic, the somatic and the poetic, I have developed several body-orientated practices based on the Feldenkrais Method’s use of language, imagination, and touch. The participants will lay down on mats during the lessons and take part in the studies. As research that foremostly takes place across bodies, Studies on Fantasmical Anatomies is always dialogical. It involves my voice, the sounds of several objects, haptic touch, and the touch of language crossing the bodies of the audience as well as my own. 

Please note that the three days of performances will be filmed in their entirety. The videos will be published and archived one the Research Catalogue platform as part of the documentation of my PhD. The number of participants will be limited according to current Covid-19 preventive measures..

I am looking forward to your participation in the live presentation of my PhD in artistic research at the MDT.

Anne Juren, 11th August 2021

PROGRAM OCTOBER 7

10:00 – 10:25   Introduction and Welcome

10:30-11:30 Critical Awareness Lesson

Critical Awareness Lessons are somatic lessons that expose the body to different modes of awareness, proposing various movements of navigation. The participants are invited to lie down on mattresses and close their eyes if they feel like it.

11:30 – 11:45   Break

11:45 -13:00 Fantasmical Anatomies Installation and video works

13:00 -14:00 Break

14:00 – 15:00 Sensorial Transference: lecture-performance and demonstration

Sensorial Transference is a session during which two patients or more can experience different possible interrelations between them. One person, acting as a surrogate for all bodies present, receives treatment while the others lie next to the table and receive the treatment by proxy.

15:00 – 15:15 Break

15:15 – 16:15 Fantasmical Anatomies Lesson

Extending the format of Awareness Through Movement Lessons of the Feldenkrais® Method, Fantasmical Anatomies lessons suggest dysfunctional relations and speculative actions of the body using poetic and scientific-anatomical language, which can be taken in but also rejected. The Fantasmical Anatomies Lessons experiments with how verbal, sonic and kinaesthetic languages affect the body and operate in a choreo-therapeutic context.

16:15 – 16:45 Break

16:45 – 18:30 Chromopoems: Installation-performance of 7 min. for one spectator.

Chromopoems are the writings I did along my research translated into coloured lights. A Fantasmical Anatomies love poem is transformed into 24 theatrical lights decoding the letters’ sound signals into various colours. The resulting language of the light composition addresses the body of one spectator lying down in the middle of the space.

PROGRAM OCTOBER 8 + OCTOBER 9

10-11.30 Critical Awareness Lesson

Critical Awareness Lessons are somatic lessons that expose the body to different modes of awareness, proposing various movements of navigation. The participants are invited to lie down on mattresses and close their eyes if they feel like it.

11.30-13.30 Fantasmical Anatomies Installation and video works

16-17 Sensorial Transference: lecture-performance and demonstration

Sensorial Transference is a session during which two patients or more can experience different possible interrelations between them. One person, acting as a surrogate for all bodies present, receives treatment while the others lie next to the table and receive the treatment by proxy.

17-18:30 Fantasmical Anatomies Lessons

Extending the format of Awareness Through Movement Lessons of the Feldenkrais® Method, Fantasmical Anatomies lessons suggest dysfunctional relations and speculative actions of the body using poetic and scientific-anatomical language, which can be taken in but also rejected. The Fantasmical Anatomies Lessons experiments with how verbal, sonic and kinaesthetic languages affect the body and operate in a choreo-therapeutic context.

19-20:30 Chromopoems: installation and 7 min performance for one spectator.

Chromopoems are the writings I did along my research translated into coloured lights. A Fantasmical Anatomies love poem is transformed into 24 theatrical lights decoding the letters’ sound signals into various colours. The resulting language of the light composition addresses the body of one spectator lying down in the middle of the space.

Credits:

Artistic research, texts, practices and performance: Anne Juren

Light design: Emese Csornai

Sound design: Alexandre Yannilos

Installation: Anne Juren and Roland Rauschmeier

Performers: Linda Samaraweerova and Caterina Mora

Assistant and text editing: Johanna Thorell 

Artistic discussion: Anne Faucheret

PhD supervisors: André Lepecki and Sandra Noeth