Buoyant

What does an audience remember when a performance is over? Does place hold memory?

Buoyant is a series of moving sculptures from three pieces – 50 Looks (Merce Cunningham, 1979), still/moving (Ainesh Madan, 2021), and moving/still (Dayita Nereyeth, 2021) – that activates the VISIBLE/INVISIBLE exhibition at the Museum of Art and Photography, Bangalore. Rippling through the gallery, the performers measure and charge the spaces between themselves, the more permanent artwork, and viewers.

Descriptions of the pieces that inspired Buoyant :

50 Looks was a solo constructed from a gamut of fifty still positions. Cunningham used chance to generate a long series of ninety-one of these positions. Due to the nature of chance operations, some of the fifty looks were done multiple times, some were done only once, and a few were not done at all. Cunningham’s notes indicate that the solo was choreographed in December 1979, and was originally conceived as a video project.

50 Looks by Merce Cunningham is licensed under a Creative Commons license from the Merce Cunningham Trust.

Inspired by Merce Cunningham’s 50 Looks, still/moving explores the stillness–movement spectrum through a series of sculptures. The work displaces the livingroomness of pandemic dance and invites the viewer to consider the three-dimensionality of space and self.

The choreography and filming for this piece was done by Dayita Nereyeth and performed by Ainesh Madan. The sound was conceived by Mario Schenker.

As the sequel to still/moving, this piece continues to traverse the movement–stillness spectrum through a series of poses. Performed on an urban street, moving/still acknowledges the present humanitarian crisis while challenging the constraints imposed by authoritarian regimes.

The choreography and filming for this piece was done by Ainesh Madan and performed by Dayita Nereyeth. The sound was conceived by Mario Schenker.

Please Note: There will be two shows of this performance:

Sunday, April 28 at 4:00 pm & Tuesday, April 30 at 4:00 pm