Intersection/The Art of Identity is a co-operation between karen-boesser-projects and the Al Akhawayn University. It is a participatory, German-Moroccan performance project.
The choreographer Karen Boesser, the visual artist Beatrix Szörenyi and the musician Isabel Eddouks work together with 26 students from the University School of SSAH at Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane, Morocco.
With this project, she presents students and the public with an approach to finding identity that is rooted in the physical and in one's own perception, regardless of religious affiliation and political discourse. The performance project was created at the interface between performance and visual art and helped to convey abstract performance art to the students and give them an insight into the artistic practice of various disciplines as well as exploring different methods and techniques.
In the final performance, the audience and performers embarked on a journey of encounters, on a course of rapprochement and mutual discovery. The focus was on the individual as well as the group as a whole.
The description of the process in the performance can be translated into a written report as follows:
The room is large. There are 26 performers in the space.
The audience enters the room and is asked to place their shoes and mobile phones on the floor. In the room, there is a semicircle of chairs, with one chair facing the inner space and the next chair facing the outer space. The semicircle consists of 20 chairs. The performers are seated on chairs distributed along the walls of the room.
On one side of the semicircle of chairs, there are various materials such as fabric, cables, plastic, and fur.
The guests take their seats according to the number of chairs. Once the last guest is seated, three performers responsible for making a rope sit down next to the materials. The other performers stand up and position their chairs directly in front of an audience member. (As there were more audience members than chairs, additional chairs were set up in the room. These audience members were purely observers and not part of the interaction.)
The first part involves the performers sitting opposite an individual audience member, initially with their eyes closed.
The first thing the person/performer experiences is the relationship and perception of their own inner space or body. The sense of location within one's own body allows for an expanded awareness of personal space, the aliveness in the body, and the receptors that connect the inner space with the outer space, feeding it with information from different areas. The more alert the inner sensation is, the greater the perception of oneself and the relationship to the surrounding space of the body. This leads to an inner and physical alignment, expanding the inner field of awareness throughout the entire body, enabling maximum sensitivity to the surrounding environment. During this time, the audience member has the chance to adjust to the intimacy of sitting face-to-face and to observe the performer.
As the performance progresses, the performer opens their eyes, and vision becomes part of the encounter; the audience member is looked at. The connection with the other person and the field of perception between them comes into focus. The emphasis is on grasping, exploring, and tuning into the encounter and perception of the other in this moment of togetherness.
What feels right for each person in the face-to-face encounter? Are the eyes used as the primary means of connection, or is body language also introduced into the communication?
Then, the performer's body begins to hum. With their lips closed, the vibration of the sound resonates through their body and into the space. A spatial experience is created through the performer’s own sound, but also through the tones of the other performers.
Spatial awareness opens up, and the ears are engaged in listening. The sounds interact linearly with one another and resonate as a unified whole within the space.
The seating arrangement is then dissolved, and the outward-facing audience members are invited through gestures to sit within the newly formed circle. The performers arrange themselves accordingly to close the outer circle.
The inner semicircle forms its own complete circle.
The inner circle introduces a rubber band, which is passed from performer to performer and guided meditatively through their hands. The material is felt, and its properties are explored.
The rubber band functions as an abstract tool for the visible connection between individuals. Through the creation of geometric, sculptural forms in a three-dimensional space, multiple performers explore their own impulses and forces. Compensation, balance, intention, and idea—all of this is conveyed through the communication of the rubber band, in the way it “speaks” to each participant and how each individual interprets and integrates this information into a shared whole.
At the moment the rubber band is passed from the inner circle to the outer space, an expansion into the room occurs. Multiple rubber bands create a network, a web, and a relationship between the various participants. The band is passed along, drawn back, continuously creating, dissolving, and interconnecting simultaneously.
While this process is unfolding, another element is introduced.
The materiality of fabrics, which speaks of different qualities and communicates through its visual and tactile properties. A rope, in which everything is intertwined in various ways, surrounds us as a reference to connection. A rope that binds together the stories of a country, a life, whether on a personal or global scale, and that plays a part in the decisions we make and experience.
This rope is passed from the performers to the audience, closing the circle and including everyone present. The performance concludes as the chairs in the center are opened and rearranged.
Intersection/The Art of Identity offers the invited audience members the opportunity to become part of the performance, to experience a relationship with the performer, rather than merely observing the event, watching, or distancing themselves from their own "part-being."