If I Cant Dance
PO Box 51144
NL 10007 EC Amsterdam
0031-6-21554931
info [at] ificantdance.org
Partners Huis | Festival a/d Werf, Utrecht
www.huisaandewerf.nl
De Appel, Amsterdam
www.deappel.nl
If I Cant Dance I Dont Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, 2006
Performances by Alexandra Bachzetsis, Rabih Mrouhé, The Otolith Group, Lina Saneh, Stefanie Seibold.
May 23-27, 2006
The second edition of If I Cant Dance I Dont Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution will take place in two parts: in May in Huis | Festival a/d Werf, Utrecht and from November to January in De Appel, Amsterdam.
If I Cant Danceis an experiment in collaborative curating and extended artistic production, initiated by Frédérique Bergholtz, Tanja Elstgeest and Annie Fletcher. As a long-term project, with three editions (2005-2006-2007), several activities (symposia, programmes and publications) and a variety of contributions by a broad range of cultural practitioners, it defines its structure as contemplation interrupted by action (Hanne Darboven).
As an ongoing research project, punctuated by public moments, If I Cant Dancetakes as its point of departure this famous quote of Emma Goldman, which suggests that the search for agency and the potential of empowerment lies in all elements of life and cannot be regulated to the cordoned-off arena called the political. It is embedded and reflected in art too, which can critically reflect on and indeed, in this very act, celebrates the world in which we live.
If I Cant Dancethus aims at developing projects with artists who are interested in the performative potential of art. In part one, in May, these projects will be contexualised by the Huis | Festival a/d Werfs broad orientation towards theatre, dance and music. In part two, from November to January, the programme will relate to both the history and the future policy of De Appel, engaging with performative practices in contemporary art.
Each edition defines its own field of research. In the 2005 edition, If I Cant Dance explored the notion of performativity and agency and its relation to the live moment. This years edition will focus on the legacies and potentials of feminism in todays art practice. Feminisms focus on agency indicates its potential to think from the individual to the collective, and is related to varied fields of interest. As a prominent feature of our recent past, feminism has the potential, both to investigate our contemporary cultural and societal state of affairs, and to propose – through art – necessary scenarios for the future.
Artists: Alexandra Bachzetsis, Rabih Mrouhé, The Otolith Group (Anjalika Sagar & Kodwo Eshun), Lina Saneh and Stefanie Seibold.
If I Cant Dance I Dont Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution is supported by the Mondriaan Foundation, the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture and the Prins Bernhard Cultural Foundation.
