Respiratory Protection 2045

Trailer Crowdfunding for the Performance Installation: Respiratory Protection 2045 [step two]

Respiratory Protection 2045 [step two] by Navina Neverla, artistic director of the association MovingImageMovingBody - Association for Contemporary Arts & Holistic Practise in Vienna

Respiratory Protection 2045 [step 2] is a performance installation with audience participation that will take place in 2022 in public in the courtyard of MuseumsQuartier and in front of MQ at Platz der Menschenrechte, Vienna. Thematically it deals with Digital Surveillance and the new phenomenon of Social Distancing, in the context of the Pandemic.

This project aims to create performative interventions in order to reach not only an audience that is sensitive to art, but also to activate the social participation of the general public. You are invited to a collective reflection of your own agency.

The work questions the problematic relationships between digital reality and our physical experiences.

Do we want all our movements to be turned into data and sold to big businesses and governments? Do we want data about our behavior, location and our bodies to be traced and tracked with every move we make? According to Harvard professor Zuboff (2018): «Surveillance capitalism establishes a fatal asymmetry of knowledge and power.»

Social distancing is a new phenomenon since 2020. «Touch comes before sight and speech. It is the first language and the last and it always tells the truth», states dystopian novelist Margaret Atwood. Audience participation activates the viewer’s social and political agency, whose unpredictable actions generate awareness and impact.

• Implementation of the work:

1. Dystopia -> Utopia (MQ) Imagine: Suddenly, apparently by chance, a dancer appears in the crowd. She moves and dances with a mask, creates movements at a distance from the audience, from the architecture of her environment. Her movements are inspired by the dystopian text Respiratory Protection 2045 by Lakshmi Chellani, which triggers associations of paranoia through surveillance in the body, we work with this in dance improvisation Viewers are invited to hear dystopian texts as background sound via headphones. You can move freely through the scenery, there is no line of sight or classic stage situation.

2. The monitored body (before MQ ArtBox) Two performers, one wears a GoPro on her body, so that movements from her body perspective are projected live onto the museum wall (tbc.) and floor. The audience is thrown back on themselves as a metaphor for digital surveillance. This provides a moment for self-reflection. The electronic soundscape from Hekura Records underlines the sci-fi atmosphere live.

3. Quarantine workout (stairs of mumok tbc.) The performers invite the audience to dance. We work with appropriation of mainstream entertainment (quarantine workout by Laura Clery). Irony creates distance and thus lightness to the topic of social distancing.

4. From Cyborg to Android (Platz der Menschenrechte) Digital technology becomes an extension of the body. Without smartphones, there is no GPS, no social networks, no QR codes, no location. We intend to question to what extend humans have become dependent and even dominated by technology. Cellphones stuck to the wrist, ankle and other parts of the body - humans hobble, lag behind technology, human bodies are being pulled forward by technology.

5. 1-1 Tarot oracles (MQ Schauräume) Finally, two performers optionally invite the audience to an intimate 1-to-1 Tarot reading. Questions about dealing with digital surveillance are discussed, answered by the Tarot oracle, and interpreted using the dancer’s movements.

6. Installation Analogue photographs made by Navina Neverla for digital surveillance and social distancing are permanently installed in MQ Schauräume (Gallery space) for about two weeks.

• Rehearsals:

We will focus on analog practices in the rehearsal period and use rituals to return to the body. The methods of this artistic work include: Automatic Writing to create texts, Tarot Readings, Neo-Shamanic Bodywork, Authentic Movement, Skinner Release and other somatic practices and contemporary dance technique.

Patricia Portela wrote about Navina Neverla’s work: «In a sequence of performative situations, occupying different spaces, Navina asks the audience for their complete engagement, including disobedience.» [Source: Coffeepaste 2018]

Performance Installation about social Dis-Dancing & Digitization in Pandemic times

A previous version of the work has been presented as a work-in-progress in 2020 at @Espaço Alkantara Lisbon in the context of #strictlyworkinprogress at the Moving Reunion Festival.

This work-in-progress of Respiratory Protection 2045 has been funded through the Austrian embassy in Lisbon (BMEIA) and MA7: «Einmaliges Arbeitsstipendium der Stadt Wien aufgrund Covid-19» (scholarhip of the state of Vienna 2020).

This previous version was realized with

• the dancer Anna Prokopová,
• sound-artist Marcos Rondon (Hekura Records) &
• technician / light designer: Vasco Mosá.
• Production: MovingImageMovingBody © all rights reserved.

We are now planning a new version: Respiratory Protection 2045 [step two] for 2022 at MuseumsQuartier Vienna in the courtyard, together with the dancer Verena Schneider.

Site-specific Performance Installation with audience participation at MQ Vienna

Fairpay for our team members:

• artistic director,
• performer,
• sound artist,
• technicians,

• production management, assistance

• Costumes, props, sets
• projections, headphones
• Rent a rehearsal room
• Press work, film documentation, program flyer

Vision Mission Offer

Improving the world with art - that is our goal. The avant-garde filmmaker Alain Resnais once stated: «You can’t change the world with art, but you can inspire people to reflect.»

MovingImageMovingBody offers artistic events and multidisciplinary art projects as well as workshops in embodied practise. Artistically, the work is located in the intersection between visual and performing arts, with a focus on performance and time-based media.

The association has a holistic approach with focus on sociopolitical relevant topics.

Team members for Respiratory Protection 2045 [step two]:

• Artistic concept & creation: Navina Neverla
• Production: Andrea Munninger
• Performance & Contemporary Dance: Verena Schneider & Navina Neverla
• Sound Art: Marcos Rondon [Hekura Records]
• Outside Eye: Costas Kekis
• Dramaturgy: Anna Leon (tbc.)
• Video Documentation & Trailer: Sofija Galogaza
• Technicians: tbc.
• Venue: MuseumsQuartier Vienna

Biographies Team-Members:

1. Navina Neverla - Artistic creation & Performance Biographien der Teammitglieder:

Navina Neverla - Artistic creation & Performance https://NavinaNeverla.com She presented her art work since 2009 amongst others @Kampnagel, Temps d’Image, Künstlerhaus Vorwerkstift, site-specific, AmbulArt, DanceKiosk, Gängeviertel, OPAF & Film Festivals. Forum Dança: I SEE YOU_YOU SEE ME @ RuadasGaivotas6, TAGV, Galeria Zaratan, MOM ART SPACE, RAW MATTERS. Respiratory Protection 2045 has been presented at #strictlyworkinprogress with Anna Prokopová] in the context of Moving (Re)Union @ Espaço Alkantara with the support of the Austrian embassy Lisbon (BMEIA) and einmaliges Arbeitstipendium der Stadt Wien aufgrund von Covid-19. The work-in-progress has also been awarded for its site-specific version with a prize @ Bionic Festival 2020. Residencies: Espaço do Tempo, AADK Centro Negra, Fleetstreet Theatre. Funding from BKM, Hamburgische Kultur- & Augstein-Stiftung, Larga Marcha Arte y Ediciones & Crowdfunding. Moreover as performer/ dancer she has worked a.o. with Vânia Rovisco, Manoel Barbosa, André Guedes, Isabelle Schad, Cristine de Smedt & Bojana Cvejic at Tate Modern, God’s Entertainment, Eva Brenner/ Sprung and Anna Leon.

1. Verena Schneider - Dance / Performance https://verenaschneider.org/ Born in Tyrol in 1988, lives in Vienna. She is an acrobat, performer, dancer and choreographer. Biology studies in Innsbruck, reorientation towards contemporary circus and performance art: trained at the FLIC- Scola di Circo (IT) and Le Lido (FR). Founder of the association Freifall; developed a series of events and interdisciplinary performance projects, including Indigo-City and Plateau Partagé. As a performer she has worked for Doris Uhlich, Willy Dorner & Collectif Protocol, among others. She is currently working for Martina Stapf, as a freelance dancer for Bert Gstettner and collaborates with Charlotte Le May since 2020 as part of the production ’alter - sprechen mit mir’. In addition, she teaches Yoga, Handstand, acrobatic dance and bodywork in various contexts internationally. She is a member of Wiener Perspektive; Teaching & Education group.

2. Marcos Rondon - Sound Art http://hekurarecords.com Originally from Venezuela where he grew up in the world of ballet, Marcos Rondon is based in Vienna since 2000. Performing under the artistic names Van Monte and ACBOY, Rondon predominately works as an electronic sound artist, producer and manager of different projects in EU. He has worked in various projects across theatre and contemporary dance platforms as a performer, artist in residence and sound designer at institutions such as TQW, MAK, Kulturhauptstadt Linz ’09, Brut, Wiener Konzerthaus, FAMUFEST, The Kitchen (NYC), Pohoda Festival, Impulstanz Vienna, Transart (it).

3. Costas Kekis - Outside Eye He started dancing as a kid in his parents living room on loud music. He later brought his favourite activity on the stage as performer and choreographer. His works have been shown, among others, at the Ostertanztagen Salburg, in festivals in Athens and Berlin as well as in Vienna at Brut, Raw Matters, Tanzquartier, WUK and Impulstanz. He is also active as a dramaturg and choreographer’s assistant (Magdalena Chowaniec ‚Sanctuary’, Claire Lefèvre und Evandro Pedroni ,S/M Stage Made’, Andrea Gunnlaugsdóttir und Laia Fabre ‚And all in between’, Fanni Futterknecht ‚We will not let you go’, Lau Lukkarila ‚Nyxxx’). In summer 2021 he coordinated artistically the Life Long Burning Programme ’Performance Situation Room – On the Road to Nowhere’ at Impulstanz festival.

4. Anna Leon - Dramaturgy (tbc.) Anna is a dance historian and theorist based in Vienna, Austria. She studied Psychology and Philosophy at the University of Bristol, and Philosophy of Art at Paris I Panthéon - Sorbonne University, before completing a PhD in Dance Studies at the University of Salzburg. Her doctoral research, Multiple Stories. Expanded Choreography and Choreographic History, was supported by the NEON Foundation, the Leventis Foundation and the Marie Andessner Stipendium of the University of Salzburg. She is currently participating in the research project ’Dance Europe Now!’ (University of Roehampton). Her research interests include expanded choreography, immateriality in choreography, methodologies of dance historiography and theatrical dance in early 20th century Greece. Since 2015, she has been teaching dance history and theory in regular classes (University of Vienna, University of Bern, University of Salzburg, SEAD – Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, the Institut Français) and workshops. In parallel, she works as a Dramaturg.

5. Sofija Galogaza - Videographer / Photographer She is a very dedicated and self-motivated professional content creator; she works closely with brands, businesses and artists that want to make original content to create engagement. After eight years of working as a model internationally and going to University for Economy majoring in Marketing, she re-directed her career to where her creative skills can all be used to become a freelance photographer and videographer. Sofija creates content for various purposes in online businesses.