Videospotting presents
Videodance_6 (2008)
Video screening. Accompanying event of the festival Spring Forward

Friday, 25 March, 2011, from 8 pm
Saturday, Sunday, 26–27 March, 2011, from 7 pm
Spanish Fighters – Cultural Center/Reading Room, Zaloška 61, Ljubljana

Aerowaves Spring Forward is the first ever compact format gathering for new European dance. In a helter-skelter celebration, 22 companies from 13 countries will perform works of 15-40 minutes in 5 theatres over 3 days. These artists are eager to show their pieces to a new, informed audience and meet each other; and presenters, organisers and the Ljubljana public will grasp the unique opportunity to see what\'s new in dance.

Spring Forward is of promotional value since some attending may be able to offer further performances. But the festival is neither a platform nor a showcase since it does not promote national or regional interests. The selection has been made on artistic grounds by Aerowaves' 40 Partners and Associate Presenters representing 34 European countries. At their annual meeting in Moscow, they identified these companies from nearly 600 applications, and 3 hits from last year are included as Aerowaves Encore.

As the accompanying event in the Spanish Fighters – Cultural Center, SCCA-Ljubljana will prepare video screening of curated video program Videodance_6 (2008) and thus give an opportunity to the visitors and performers for creative and non-formal gathering during the festival, before and after the performances. The selection Videodance_6 is a part of the program Videospotting.

Videodance_6 (2008)
Curator: Barbara Borčić
Production: SCCA-Ljubljana, 2008
Duration: 85 minut

Six selected video works from the video dance genre.

Sašo Podgoršek: Path
Beta, PTL, Ljubljana 1993, 12'

The dance video is a play of contrasts: East against West, nature against the city, meditation against energy - a haiku born out of simplicity.

Zemira Alajbegović, Neven Korda: Icht
Beta SP, TV Slovenija, Ljubljana 1993, 24'

The dance performance by a man and a woman presents a story of timeless attraction and rejection. Despite of our desire for closeness, the curse of the greatest love for ourselves is omnipresent; sometimes the dancers come together, and then again they challenge and fight with each other yet they never get together. The theme of the stage choreography is partly transferred onto the street.

Sašo Podgoršek & Iztok Kovač: Vertigo Bird
16 mm, Beta SP, EN-KNAP, Ljubljana 1996, 33'

This film can most easily be classified in the genre of dance film - moving film, body film... A genre which bases its film language on the aesthetics of coded movements, the gestures and bodies of dancers, in contrast to the dialogue and close-ups of actors in a feature film. It is a polygon of specific film language in which a new narrative is born in the relation between a dancer, space, camera and sound. A film that deals with the relationship exposed by film and video media of the nineties: no more strict separation, but conceptual and technological complementation (e.g. the use of nonlinear editing in a film).

Ema Kugler: Taiga
Beta SP, Digital D5 Mastering, Forum Ljubljana & VPK, Ljubljana 1996, 8'

Taiga is a dark video landscape with human figures in menacing costumes, but it also includes two almost naked fighters and a drowning woman. Wax dogs add to the coldness of the video Taiga; they actually melt away, while the electronic effect only serves to accelerate the process. The essence of taiga is the act of destruction, or transition. The destruction of art form creates a new, entirely different pattern. The transition becomes an event with a message. Sculptures are the landmarks of the beginning and of the end.

Jasna Hribernik & Zmago Lenardič: Elsa und Lohengrin
Beta, VPK, Ljubljana 1997, 3'

A variation on Wagner and his opera Lohengrin. There is no Wagnerian hero, but a ballerina dancing to the opera, which later transforms into a modern song, and the ballerina also turns into a modern dancer. Both dancers, however, resemble a woman covered with roses and lying under transparent plastic - Snow White, or Laura Palmer?

Branko Potočan & Katarina Nikolov: Where Are Those Paths…
Beta, RTV Slovenija & VPK, Ljubljana 2003, 5'

This short film is about the incessant quest for one's true self. A headless rush through a stressful daily routine is a road to alienation and ruin. Two identical stories from different environments reflect the essence of the devilish tempo.

»Metaphor
An apparition of daily life
Is trapped in the lenses of an observer
Between the trees and the dreams
Meets people and events
Which toss him about as a ship in the storm.«

Videospotting: A series of curated programs of video art in Slovenia produced and presented by SCCA-Ljubljana in solo screenings, exhibitions, lectures, and at international festivals, exhibitions, meetings.

For an invitation and coproduction we would like to thank the Spanish Fighters – Cultural Center, especially to Meta Lavrič.

SCCA-Ljubljana program is supported by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Municipality of Ljubljana.

[Published March 4, 2011]