Inside the Octagon
A Transformatory Fighting Workshop
Zachęta – National Gallery of Art
cost of the workshop (2 days 3 hours each): 50 PLN, duration: from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
If you're interested in taking part in the workshop, please fill in the form and sent it to: informacja@zacheta.art.pl
How can we use the preparation for the ring as a preparation to make dance or art? What if the preparation of the fighter is an artistic process? Florentina Holzinger wants to explore the exchangeability of physical disciplines as a tool for dancers, makers and creative people. In that spirit we also investigate the performativity of the collaboration happening between trainer and trainee, coach and student, personal trainer and client. In this workshop we will transform our body into a weapon to serve our dreams.
To prepare for the artistic work the artist uses the preparation that a fighter undergoes. The workshop will start from a place of physical challenge, taking inspiration from martial arts and boxing training. Participants and their partners will work on condition, on pads, and prepare themselves for some sparring, the pas de deux of the ring.
For this workshop Florentina invites Olga Tucakov. She will offer her experience to pass profound boxing technique on to the students and prepare them for combat.
A Fight Club opened for the public will take place at the last day of the Workshop.
The Workshop will be conducted in English.
Boxing and kickboxing skills are not required.
Florentina Holzinger studied choreography at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO), the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. Her diploma solo work Silk was awarded the Prix Jardin d’Europe at the lmPulsTanz Festival 2012. She collaborated with Vincent Riebeek for a trilogy of pieces, Kein Applaus für Scheiße, Spirit, and Wellness (2011–2013). Her second solo work Recovery (premiered in 2015) is an experimental consideration on a traumatic stage accident she had suffered and critically explores various kinds of female representation as well as the potential of female corporality. Subsequently, she started pursuing martial arts as a way to train for a life as an artist. Florentina is also a co-author and performer of the web series Body and Freedom, initiated by the Berliner Festspiele in 2016. In her latest work, Apollon (2017), the Viennese choreographer hacks George Balanchine’s eponymous gem of a ballet (1928). At the moment she works on TANZ a ‘misinterpretation’ of the ballet Les Sylphides, a performance that will bring together a cast of professional stunt actors and classically trained dancers. The work will premier in October 2019 in Vienna.
partner: Österreichisches Kulturforum Warschau