Conversing with the contributors / B(l)alun: capturing time through the materiality of the body

Choreographers Iota Peklaris and Vasia Zorpalis explore the imprinting of time through the materiality of the body – organic and non-organic – in the direction of the multi-sensorially accessible artistic work. In a space flooded with polymorphic balloons, the performers create kinetic and sonic dilutions and densities, mapping its dimensions. The performative dimension of the work brings to the surface a very interesting counterpoint: the balloons, like dancing butoh beings freeze time, making visible the air that occupies the shape of the space and fills the gaps between the bodies. They thus interrupt the uncontrolled alternation of events in the past, present and future, necessary for the understanding of time, while modern sound-kinetic composition glorifies periodicity and synchronicity. The choreographic research balances between the visual and the auditory, having a parallel address to sighted and non-sighted, hearing and non-hearing people. Delving into an interdisciplinary performative practice, body music, the kinetic performance explores the physicality of sound, which manages to vibrate both the ears and the eyes/gaze. The extra-verbal language of b(l)alun transforms the viewing into a universally experiential, collective experience, an artistic meeting-prompt, which is not limited to the standard tools of accessibility but discovers and cultivates innovative, alternative interpretative tools of inclusion. We talked to the performers of this special performance, while there are two more performances left, April 21 and 22 at PLYFA.

Iota Peklaris – choreographer / performer

For a long time, I had the idea of ​​a work that wouldn’t be complete if you only saw it or if you only heard it. The practice I have been studying for the last few years (body music) creates sound environments exclusively through the voice and body movement, and many times through this practice, such complete musical works are realized that it is enough just to listen to them! Having studied different types of dance (classical and contemporary dance, flamenco) which gave my body the ability to connect in different ways to music, I have always been intrigued by the physicalization/visualization of sound and how these two senses intertwine [όραση/ακοή]. How is musicality captured by silent movements? How can I connect with a blind person through my dance, without describing them?

The b(l)aloon creates a three-dimensional sound-kinetic performance that requires the physical presence of the audience for its realization. The movement of sound due to the movement/movement of bodies and the vibrations they cause, become basic interpretative tools necessary to understand it. That is, if we were to film or record it, the playback of these files would leave many question marks to the audience because important stimuli would be missing. Even the placement of the audience around the perimeter of the performance is not accidental. It is an integral part of the resonator in which we move/sound.

This tactile dimension of the project enabled us to form a group of people with different ways of perceiving stimuli, with hypersensitivity to touch, vision and hearing. Our artistic research/practice, precisely because of our diversity, has focused on creating a global extra-verbal vocabulary that allows us to connect and manages to develop multi-sensory works accessible to people with or without forms of visual or auditory impairment.

Natasha Handa-Martin – performer

As time goes by, the b(l)aloon for me transforms into a mystery, a process in which some people are initiated and imitated (s)the sound and soundless elements of nature. It’s a secret that five of us created and we’re sharing a part of it with the public. It is a call to something mystical and mysterious. We make our own family and for a few minutes we all travel together in something that is very strictly structured, but that can be dissolved at any moment. Our pulse connection hangs by a thin rope, like a balloon in the ceiling. It is fragile and ephemeral and can burst at any moment. The concentration that presupposes such a mystery is the one that (trans)moves us as a whole and to it we owe the feeling of purification at its end. In other cultures it would be called trance, meditation, trance, when something takes over you. This is how our rhythmic attention is at the time of non-verbal coordination. All of these may sound intense in their description, yet they happen in a quiet, timeless and soothing environment that we create entirely. I like feeling the b[λ]they seem like a mystery because it also connects me to the past. In the Mycenaean dialect the verb myo (whence the verb myeo-myo related to initiation) meant to close the eyes or the mouth, to close a wound, to be still from a pain or a storm, to wither or wither, to try not to think of anything , I take a break or interrupt. I relate to all these interpretations of muscle through the work. The theme muscle (mewH) is an onomatopoeic syllable from the Proto-Indo-European class of languages ​​denoting the sound that comes out with the mouth closed and to which we owe many cognate words. In b[λ]alun we don’t talk, but we talk. We murmur, breathe with vitality and sing with our whole bodies.

Vasia Zorpalis – choreographer / performer

Coming from the field of movement and visual arts, I observe the world through the moving body, within the existing space. The minute detail of change that is barely discernible excites my senses and tames my impatient relationship with time. The material body that I keep coming back to for the past three years is the balloon. In addition to being an active object that shakes and is disturbed by the space in which it is located, no matter how much it is deformed, cracked, burst and deconstructed, it remains as a materiality stuck like chewing gum to whatever surface it finds itself. In other words, it remains a body that persists, a body that insists on existing.
To blow up a balloon is to create a world through the breath. It deceives you that you can control its shape, its volume and its form, but it remains an unclassified body that explodes uncontrollably or shrinks slowly; how futile it is to structure the air.
The metaphorical invasion of balloons into the b(l)aloon space underlines a versatile and poetic “openness to transience”. The b(l)aloon is an ephemeral place, a changeable environment, a multisensory way of hosting bodies. Balloon bodies and human bodies stand present but constantly suspended in a suspended balance between appearance and disappearance. They develop an almost imperceptible resonance in the space, slipping like flares and resonantly unstable fireflies. While never touching they have an almost tactile communication, giving space to the body itself to express its multiplicity. The deforming elasticity in the b(l)aloon invites us to face the biography of matter (organic and non-organic) as a space that weaves difference and openness to the outside, through creatures that, while every moment a sense escapes them, shape finally a body with meaning

Olga Dalekou – performer

Many people wonder how a deaf person can communicate with a blind person without any outside help. How much more so in everyday life and more through art.
And yet in the expression “b(l)alun”, we demonstrate this relationship through a “communication” with specific codes of our own.
In each rehearsal the communication got better and better, until we reached a point where we could communicate on our own without any other outside help.
The good thing about this show is that the meaning of the word “inclusion” is very strong, because disabled and non-disabled people participate in harmony.
After much thought and hours of discussions with the team, we have come to the conclusion that we want the “access” to be done by us. Without any external tool. To experiment, to try new ways of access without having to use accessible tools
That is, ACCESSIBILITY is us, MEANING, AUDIO DESCRIPTION and AUDIO-VISUAL STIMULATIONS.
We want to prove that whatever obstacles may arise along the way, this show will prove the strengths that show that there is no limit and no minority in art
I, as a deaf person, through this performance, got to know and connect with the pulse, the vibrations and the rhythm.
My status as a deaf actor helped me more in understanding “body music”. Especially in the concepts of “pulse” and “time” through eye and body contact.
It should be noted that I have no previous contact with auditory stimuli in the past and this made it difficult for me to believe that I could do this and keep up with the rest of the group.
Before you[σ]we invite you to see, listen and feel the show without the discrimination and prejudices imposed on us by society.

Christos Koutsovasilis – performer

As the b(l)aloon rehearsals progressed, I wondered how much we really need what we don’t have. How much we really need what we lack. Is it so necessary for us? If you can’t see or hear someone, can you dance with them? Can you follow a movement if you don’t see it? Can you sing a note if you don’t hear it?
In b(l)alun the senses self-regulate in a reflexive, almost canonical way, as if they were destined to meet to produce sound and movement. As we meet each time and one becomes the sound and movement of the other. Sounds are coordinated without being heard and become music. The movements are synchronized without being seen and become a dance. What you don’t see and what you don’t hear becomes your bond with those around you. A bond so elastic that it can be changed, so delicate that it can be broken. Like the stuff of a balloon.

Information

– The installation will be open to the public for 3 hours and will be activated through a repeated 30-minute performance.

– In the reception area there will be an ENG interpreter to serve the public.

– The space is accessible for wheelchair users.

– Due to limited seats, pre-booking is required. The seats are not numbered, there is very good visibility from every part of the hall.

– Public entry is not allowed after the show has started.