Flâneur responds directly to the site in which the piece is installed. Such as out-of-the-way spaces such as alleyways and underpasses, bus stations, pubs, supermarkets and galleries. By placing our code-performances in an urban environment we want to examine the architecture and spaces around us. This interest in exploring a geographic location and the effect it has on our emotions and behaviour is called psychogeography.
The ideas of psychogeography can help us to break the wall of silence in certain spaces, who is or is not allowed there. The images and films highlight the contraction of certain spaces. And how the presence of the body can disrupt the ideas in how we conceive the architectural environment.
When the work is placed in a gritty urban setting, you can become aware of how the images resignify the architecture and draw attention to experience it in a new way. We want to draw attention to the political implication of the space even creating a fun and instigating environment to explore and to transform the experience into something quite meditative and reflective.
Flâneur aims to invent ways of navigating the urban environment to examine its architecture and spaces, social and political aspects and conflicts. This show is a reminder of the consequences, and often invisibility, of intolerance and bigotry in all their forms. We want to expose societal intolerance for what it is and, in the process, and hope to disrupt it.
by Vinicius Salles
more info: viniciussalles@me.com
Description
Flâneur, is an interactive dance performance that explores reality and the virtual world. Between gaming and performance Flâneur encourages an immersive experience during which audience members are invited to wander and even become a part of the narrative, using technology to interact with the piece.
By finding codes spread secretly around different locations, the audience gets access to a secret world using their smartphones. Using, dance, film, sound, text, narratives and documentary techniques, this experience will facilitate the creation of new meanings to urban spaces that usually don’t get much attention. Like Graffiti that leaves a printed image on the wall, we want to leave a movement, a dance, a message that will always be repeated as part of that location.
How do different places make us feel, behave, belong or exclude? This performance is influenced by psychogeography and the effects of a geographical location on the emotions and behaviour of individuals. Also, we are inspired by the French nineteenth-century poet and writer Charles Baudelaire’s concept of the Flâneur – an urban wanderer.
The app will leave a secret memory to create a sense of intimacy. The performance is interested in how new media can trigger memory and emotions and question our ideas of entitlement. While each audience will have a unique experience, it will explore familiar themes of longing, identity, queerness, immigration, power and control.
Using dance in silent performative experiences, I want to create a dialogue within unexpected locations in the urban landscape, sometimes in a gallery, sometimes a pub, to re-signify and question our assumption of what and how we see the world.
Flâneur will focus on young adults but it is open to everyone, stimulating their perception of dance, theatre, performance and aims to allow a more profound presence of dance in unexpected spaces. f l â n e u r
wall of silence