Thomas Körtvélyessy
with Aharona Israel
Água morta - água viva (dead water - living water)
Água morta - água viva is part of a series called con"sens"us started by Thomas Körtvélyessy and Eva Tremel in 2002.
A research-performance project confronting the domesticated waters of the Dutch city of Rotterdam with the wild waters of the neighbouring ocean.
In this series the performers experiment with using sensory work (especially the extraordinary movement technique of Kinetic Awareness" by Elaine Summers ) to find and create possible interactive moments of agreements between one or many individual(s) and the respective environment.
By working with close simultaneous listening to the inner as well as the outer state, and directly reacting to how these develop, the performers enact their own (dis)agreement and in this way influence the current consensus of the place where they perform.
As artists they work on a traverse between art and everyday life, intermixing the codes of behaviour between both and contributing to their mutual equilibration. By choosing to consciously interact within this daily ongoing state they can become conscious of constrictions from direct experience which are not so obvious at the first hand, and, when performing this in a public space, infiltrate this space with a vivid kind of awareness, closely linked to the responsive action(s) of crafting art. In the case of dance, the awareness is focussed on movement and physically related energetic correlations.
Performances have so far been realized with many different guest artists and as several co-productions, among them Plein Publiek, Arnhem (organized by Stichting Epicentrum), ZiM Nomadisch, Rotterdam, Kinetic Awareness" Center, New York City.
Água morta - água viva (dead water - living water) was realised as a contribution to Perambulaçăo.
Concept and performance: Thomas Körtvélyessy with Aharona Israel. Camera on Rotterdam locations: Geeske Kanters. Thanks to: Mirta Demare, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Rob Hamelijnck, Nienke Terpsma, Renata Andrade and our Brazilian artist-friends!
Leuvehoofd at Erasmus bridge, Rotterdam - where the Rotte flows into the Nieuwe Maas, which flows onward into the Europoort and out into the ocean again...
Still from video by Geeske Kanters with thanks to Wendelien van Oldenborgh.
Housing complex, Balderikstraat, Rotterdam - where the Rotte river "disappears" into the city.
Still from video by Geeske Kanters with thanks to Wendelien van Oldenborgh.
Aharona Israel, Hoek van Holland Strand, June 7th 2005.
Still from video by Thomas Körtvélyessy.
Thomas Körtvélyessy, Hoek van Holland Strand, June 7th 2005. Still from video by Aharona Israel.
