Finally a Sky Space!

After years of following James Turrell's work, using him as a prime example in my BA thesis on light and space artists, always in search of exhibitions of his work in Europe and after seeing a great show of his in London earlier this year, at the Gagosian, last week, at last, I got to see Sky Space I in Varese, Italy. Part of a collection I had read and written about but had never had the chance to visit! 

It was worth the wait! An entire corridor of "light" architecture created from Dan Flavin's installation rooms, leading to Irwin's window cuts and not so imaginary walls, to finally arrive at Sky Space...

 

Workshop "La cecità vedente"

With many thanks to all participants, Alessandra Fabbri, Ruth Zanella and all  those who publicized the 2-day workshop I gave last September at Magazzini Generali, Ferrara, Italy. In attendance to present "Blind Trust" here in town, after London and Brighton.
Click here for details on workshop.


Some images from 23rd and 24th of September

Blind Trust at The Basement, Brighton

BLIND TRUST (a participatory performance on the senses) at The Basement (Brighton), as part of the Supper Club on the 23^rd of April.

Doors open at 7:30pm, tickets £8, conc. £6. Don't be late! Limited places available on a first-come-first-served basis. Looking forward to seeing you there!

BLIND TRUST is a one-to-one performance, in which audience members are invited to a 15 minute journey where the interaction with performers and being with oneself becomes a tool for perception, as vision and hearing are taken away to enhance awareness of what is tactile as much as what is only grasped by our sixth sense.

Concept, development, set design and presentation: Milka Panayotova

Original music: Giacomo Natali

Performing: Hamish MacPherson, Lydia Georgoula, Michael Kelland, Milka Panayotova

Approximate duration: 15 minutes

"Focus-Pocus" at Kinitiras Studio, Athens

A short while ago I applied for a performance contest organised by Kinitiras Studio, Athens, with he theme 'What I like about the crisis'. I ended up in the group of eight selected pieces, to present at the studio.
So here I am, in one of my favourite cities, presenting 'Focus-Pocus' for six nights, where a valid ticket for all eight performances gives the right to voting two of the works. 
Concept, development and performance: Milka Panayotova
Sound design: Giacomo Natali

The idea behind 'Focus-Pocus', as stated in my application:

Economic crisis is a time to be creative, a time to reflect, a time where you appreciate the little things and value what you have. I happened to spend my early childhood in the late eighties/ early nineties in a country of great economic difficulty. With recurrent electricity curfews, water shortages and general scarcity for everything, making the simplest the most precious, I couldn't think of a better way to have grown up into the creative and free adult I am now. True, I am still pretty moneyless, so my life is always in a state of crisis, but probably this is exactly what I need to keep it all going.

As a performance maker, working with movement and interested in audience participation, my idea for a short performance (estimated to 15 minutes) with the title

''Τι μ΄αρέσει στην κρίση'':

I like it that we all make more conscious choices and also focus on what really matters. So I am going to give that choice to the audience. They can view the performance with the help of little torches, while the performance space saves on electricity, why not? Low electricity bill and you still get to see a peformance. The audience gets the choice of seeing, not seeing , what to see and how to see it. They can focus on one part and forget about the rest, unite as a community and decide how the performance is to be viewed.

What happens on stage? The performer (myself), will execute a short choreography, inspired by the movement techniques of Butoh, around the idea of focus and concentration by using single body part movements and controlled breathing. Playing with the speed and pace of the shifting body from one point to another in space, responding to the interplay of lights coming from the torches used by the audience, the performer alternates movement and stillness, again to stress moments of spontaneity as opposed to concentration and focus.

The reciprocal influence between performer and audience within the space reflects the need, especially in time of crisis, to communicate with others in order to obtain what we want. On the other hand, we are also free to make choices individually, according to our needs and possibilities.

Sky Scapes

Europe: North-West to South-East passing over the Alps from Milka Panayotova on Vimeo.

The Institute of Kentish Town

Kentish Town Story Tellers

(an audio archive of stories created by visitors)

Tuesday 14^th of December, 13:00-17:00

Concept/Development: Milka Panayotova

Marketing/Design: Blanca Garay and Inês Silva

Visitors are invited to write a short story of three things or places they like about Kentish Town and share why they have an impact on them. Their stories get recited by other visitors so that each participant gets to write their own story and read somebody else's for the voice recording. An audio archive of short stories about Kentish Town is created, which will be used for a sound installation within the exhibition space for the duration of the show.

Come and tell us your story!


For more info click here.

Hemline at Somerset House

Recently I danced for a video that was to become part of an interactive installation  at the Somerset House, produced by Jason Bruges Studio (London). The work took inspiration from Loie Fuller and her skirt dances, so I enjoyed moving in a butterfly costume for a day. 
Apart from the fun, the new experience and all the package that comes with new collaborations and meeting new people, I find the piece of subtle elegance and a careful study of light and space. 
You can see it at the Somerset House by the 12th of December.

I am back, rolling

I have officially graduated from my MA degree in Theatre: Visual Language of Performance with a distinction! My final show, Blind Trust, went really well and I am working on taking it to another venue now.
For the past month I have been looking into creative and job opportunities (the two not always go together really, but then again, that's another creative aspect of it all) and have been lucky to have a nice break from an exhausting, but indeed very productive, year. I have started going to some dance workshops at the Place,  something I hadn't had much time for during my MA year. 
Also, I recently discovered that luna parks, which have always had some kind of a 'sad and out-of-date stuck in the eighties' feeling attached to them, are beginning to involve our senses on a more personal level. A few quid to spend 10 minutes in a plastic sphere on your own, in an open field...It was a thrill!

It's called 'zorbing', and seems to be a new sport activity in fast expansion. It may only look like a simple hobby, but if you actually decide to move in a certain pattern with that ball, it does take the energy and skills!

BLIND TRUST details

BLIND TRUST

(A participatory performance)
@ Wimbledon College of Art

Approximate duration: 15 minutes

One participant at a time on a 'first come first served' basis. Get your number!

Concept, development, set design and presentation: Milka Panayotova

Original music: Giacomo Natali

Performing: Charlie Hendren, Laura Erwin, Marta Masiero, Martina Armaro, Michael Kelland, Milka Panayotova, Rata Thuvasin

Thursday 9 September: 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Friday 10 September: 5:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Saturday 11 September: 2:00 pm – 4:30 pm

Tuesday 14 September: 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

Wednesday 15 September: 5:00 pm – 7:30 pm

BLIND TRUST takes you on a small journey of the senses. While it sets off as a visual experience, it seeks at creating further dialogue in the absence of vision and language,

concentrating on touch and movement.

The performance is divided into two main parts: one is visual, and the other is non-visual. You are invited as the only spectator in the performative space, which you are free to explore. You will be blindfolded at a certain point and your journey will carry on by trusting your other senses as well as the performers who will guide you for the duration of the performance. Based on the notion that the absence of a certain sense contributes to the amplification of the others, ear muffs will be placed upon you and you will renounce to your sense of hearing for a few moments.While you are encouraged to respond to the performers' movements and tactile stimulus, this does not mean there is a right or wrong way of doing so. You may interact or just enjoy your non-visual tour of space, texture and movement.

High heels: While you can totally trust our performers, which will especially be the case when you are blindfolded, high heels are not an option. If you happen to be wearing a pair you can still participate, we got some flat shoes available.

Share with others what the journey was like for you: you are very welcome to leave a written or video message after the end of your journey as reference for other participants.

* Please note that you may be filmed or photographed for documentation purposes and the material could be used for promoting the show. If you do not wish to be photographed just let us know.

My web page

Here it is:
http://milkapan.com
With special thanks to Marco Lodovichi, photographer and web designer.

Blind Trust

MA show goes on the web!

Click here to see the website:
/http://www.wimbledonmashow2010.com/

Small lights, small changes, considerable impact

Now that the space is ready and the structure of the performance is slowly coming to life, there are the little details to take care of. Small things that make a big difference in visual and perceptive terms, all a big deal for my final piece. Things like getting all the LED lights to work in unusual ways, blocking the massive green lights of the beloved health and safety exits, so dear to the British. 
Great thing is I got the desired equipment, solved the problem with a flat screen way too big for its purpose, tried the sound system and many thanks to Eileen, got a heavy black curtain, pictured below. Can't wait for the two-day workshop with dancers leading up to the first show on the 9th of September.

Rehearsals with spectators

For the non-visual part of the show I have been trying out different movements and actions to do with the participant getting feedback from them. My first participant was Marouso. Topics that came up: trust, disorientation, fear.
I am also testing these ideas while working on the information given to participants before each one can have their private 'sensorial perception'.

Story line

A summerised story line of the performance, mapped out on the 29th July. Under development through practice and rehearsing with potential participants.

My space ready

A couple of weeks of muscle fatigue were worth it I guess, my space is all ready and newly painted now. 

Almost ready on the outside

Closing doors

Smooth walls

Floor painting

Rooms one and two seperated

Nutricion matters

Painting walls black

Ready

View from corridor (my space on the left)

Above photo taken from this angle, special tribute to health and safety

Well happy now! 

A short story in photos

On the 19th of July I handed in my final dissertation along with the research portfolio! So glad this is over. It was fun, but glad it's over...

And now I can enjoy preparing for my final show. This is how I left my space before we broke for holidays. Packed with lots of flats and red signs keeping  away potential burglars...

And the building started, in the early morning... Two flats up already!

The risk assessment sheets are a must in Britain... Steve, our technician was too nice to explain it all in detail...

But all I care about is put flats up...

So great to get some help! A lot of help actually...

Probably I am gonna dream of those tonight...

I am always amazed at how inventive people can be, especially when they got nothing to do. That's  some chewing gum on one of the flats...not using that one...

Here we go...

Getting there...

Closing the other side, it's starting to look like real walls!

Ok it's not so boring, not just a wall...there's a lovely door too...

Yes!

Will be back tomorrow!