BETON 

performance  45 min

BETON

Blocks of flats - bloki, panelak, Plattenbau, poor man's penthouse1 - the large-scale social dormitories are an embodiment of modernist ideals, a relic of the past era. The public housing projects that originate in a Utopian vision were believed to answer the needs of changing cities and their citizens, implementing the social mission of architecture in raising and binding democratic communities. Yet in reality, thousands of people inhabit constrained living spaces in an anonymous environment of the giant overpopulated structures. We grew up there (as did one third of our country's population). In Beton, we revisit and portray how such architectural construct affects our corporal and mental constitution. Extracted movement languages relate to the sense of living in those prefabricated colossi with its small, cubic spaces and invasive soundscapes. The feeling of the ostensible closeness to the others is in contrast with the psychological distance from the need to protect the little private space. Although, there is a noticeable sense of grayscale and isolation, these experiences are shared among millions. The blocks affect identities of their residents and contribute to the urban culture. A need to escape and to respond to the grayness becomes a creative drive. What emerges from studying conscious and visceral memories of beton? 

Choreography, performance: Hygin Delimat, Martyna Lorenc
Music: Ivan Shopov, Fryderyk Chopin
Visualisations: Polina Stoyanova
Co-production: Heinrich Stipendium Braunschweig, danceWEB Life Long Burning
Artistic residencies: artblau Braunschweig, WASP Bucharest, Derida Dance Center Sofia
Premiere: upcoming 

photo credit: Martyna Lorenc

BETON

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MARTYNA LORENC