untitled
2019
“My body knows unheard-of songs…” (Hélène Cixous)
untitled was a site-specific work for a bomb shelter at the heart of Tel Aviv. The work continued Zarhy’s exploration into the interweaving of body and sound, through a focus on urgency as theme and quality, with the action of breathing as a choreographic and sonoric material.
In a loose tribute to the fluorescent light works of artist Dan Flavin, Zarhy placed the work in-between choreography and the visual arts. With musician Elad Bardes, she created a resonating space of image and sound, where the two elements sustain a continuous counterpoint moving between states of immersion, diversion, and at times audiovisual clashes. The piece asked to cut through language, dive into the flesh, and operate in the field of the senses, aiming to reverberate in that which we all have: a body.
Based on a series of self recordings of bodily, physical activities that are sampled and recomposed in real-time, the artists composed a disorienting, fantastic, and, at times, uncanny environment. Drafting a fine line between eroticism and aggression, agency and submission, untitled emphasized how unobvious it is to simply breathe and be present. Through an aesthetic proposition, which is as much a performance as a live sculpture, a physical experience took place, triggering the audience’s senses and demanding their full presence and sensitivity as an imminent part of this rite.
Conceived and performed by: May Zarhy
Music: Elad Bardes
Space and light objects: Boaz Beja Gilad
Outside eye: Sigal Bergman
Production: HaZira Performance Art Arena
Support:
Mifal Hapais
Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv-Yafo
Diver Festival
Thanks to Nitzan Cohen.
Presentations:
3 - 6.4.2019 | A-Genre Festival Tmuna theater, Tel Aviv Israel
26.5.2019 | Festival Medarom, Ofakim Israel
24 - 25.9.2019 | Diver Festival, CCA Tel Aviv
30.10.2019 | The International Performance Conference, Jerusalem Theater Israel
21.11.2019 | CCA Tel Aviv Israel
23.11.2019 | CCA Tel Aviv Israel
4 - 5.12.2019 | CCA Tel Aviv Israel
9.12.2019 | Jerusalem dance week, Jerusalem Theater Israel
30.1.2020 | CCA Tel Aviv, Israel
6.2.2020 | CCA Tel Aviv, Israel
