Spoon Dance In The Hippocampus
November 26, 2004 - January 30, 2005
Spoon Dance In The Hippocampus uses a Greek dance from Asia Minor to investigate learning processes. In this dance the dancers use a pair of wooden spoons in each hand to beat the rhythm to the music while their feet are dancing a different step rhythm. In training units performed during a given time span the project aimed at mastering the dancing coordination of hands and feet. This practice process was documented with a video camera. The visualization took the form of a video calendar, and the learning process was reflected in a learning diary.
The website of the Secession offers recipients the possibility for a switch to a participant's perspective. In E-learning Spoon Dance , the e-learning part of the project, the physical structure of the dance - including the training units that explain the sequence of movements - can be learned in a model setup.
The third part of the project, About Spoon Dance and Hippocampus , includes a glossary with accompanying information, short text clips by selected writers, and a commented link list. It is likely that "xorós koutália" (spoon dance) was danced in the Greek cultural sphere by orthodox Christians from the ancient world up to the 19th century multinational Ottoman Empire. Most probably other Ottoman versions of the spoon dance existed in neighbouring Islamic regions. The development and tradition of the dance presumably came to a halt because of the forced displacement of Greeks living in Turkey and Turks living in Greece (according to the 1923 Lausanne Treaty). Today the popular dance has almost disappeared and lacks study.
Spoon Dance In The Hippocampus translates the structure of movements into an e-learning process and thus breaks with folkloristic expectations.
BETTINA HENKEL, born 1966, lives and works in Vienna and teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.
Exhibitions (Selection): 2002 Ars Electronica, Linz, Community Interpreting , Werkstattgalerie Lothringer Straße, Munich, Perception Geographies , 2001 Internationales Ludwigs Forum, Aachen, Lob der Anwesenheit , 1996 Galerie Grita Insam, Vienna, Kunst Raum Wien .
editor and co-publisher of EIKON - internationale Zeitschrift für Photographie und Medienkunst (1996-2000).
For
further information and photographic material please contact:
Urte Schmitt-Ulms
Secession, Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession
Friedrichstraße 12, 1010 Vienna
Tel: +43-1-5875307-21, Fax: +43-1-5875307-34
presse@secession.at