Identity! Move (ed.)

"Identity. Move!. Dance, Process, Artistic Research. Contemporary Dance in the Political, Economic and Social Context of “Former East” of Europe" (ed.)

Published by Goethe-Institut Warsaw, The Centre for Culture in Lublin, East European Performing Arts Platform (EEPAP), Motus o.s. / Alfred ve dvoře in Prague and the State School of Dance

While thinking about notions of the ‘local’, the ‘regional’ and
the ‘authentic’ in a social and economic context, one sees these terms becoming increasingly blurred. What remains when the ‘local’ turns out to be a mere product? How does this constant shift between locations, contexts and cultures influence artists’ work? How do these artists elaborate their ways of communicating their practice, while challenging the status of mobility, instability, being-in-motion? Where are the centre and peripheries and how do they influence working conditions? Is the East still running after the West? And what does ‘the East’ mean, after all?

IDENTITY.MOVE! aimed to create the opposite - long-term, research-based residencies, which were not supposed to provide any ready product: no performance, no exhibition, no article; nothing which could be judged, rated or sold. The goal was to give artists time and space to do their own research: let them think, work, try out different directions and let them focus only on the process itself, to use the time as they want.

This book draws the landscape we have all passed through over the last two years. It consists of material we were working on at different phases of the project, as well as contextual materials concerning the crucial points of our common research: Identity, ‘Easterness’, Politics of Dance, Time and Process.