Course 10: Serious Immobilities (Workshop Version)
Course by Ari Benjamin Meyers and Sandhya Daemgen
July 30 – August 2, 2018


Course description

The “Serious Immobilities” workshop uses Meyers’ durational performance Serious Immobilities (2013) and his own music compositions as a jumping off point. There will be a focus on both learning set vocal material and improvising as a group, moving in space and exploring relations between performer and public in a durational performative context. The first day will be spent working together as a group. The second day will be open to the public as a performance, who may join in the movement, voice work and improvisation. This workshop favours doing over discussing and deals with durational vocal-body work, playing with set and improvised material and deconstructing the rehearsal-performance dynamic. An attempt will be made to create a workshop as a group installation performance, with all activities taking place at Summer School as School. Advanced performers of all kinds are welcome; no musical experience is necessary but a willingness to sing and move are essential.


Biographies

Ari Benjamin Meyers (b. 1972, USA) lives and works in Berlin. Meyers received his training as a classical musician, composer and conductor at The Juilliard School, Yale University and Peabody Institute. His works as an artist, such as Kunsthalle for Music (2018), Symphony 80 and Solo for Ayumi (both 2017), explore structures and processes in music composition and relationships between performer and audience. His diverse practice includes creating musical performances for the stage and exhibition spaces. He has collaborated with artists such as Tino Sehgal and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster; bands such as Einstürzende Neubauten and Chicks on Speed; and classical ensembles including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble.

Recent works were shown at Witte de With (2018); 14e Biennale de Lyon, France (2017); Spring Workshop, Hong Kong (2017); Lenbachhaus München, Germany (2017); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany (2016); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland (2016); and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany (2015).

Sandhya Daemgen is a performer and choreographer based in Berlin. She is interested in ideas exploring the multi-dimensional reality of the everyday, using music/voice, sci-fi and new modes of personal and societal interaction. She holds degrees in Cultural Theory from Wesleyan University, USA and in Dance, Context and Choreography from Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz in Berlin. Her notable pieces include: Alter Ego (2014, Berlin); The Listening Party Experiment (2015, Berlin); What’s That Noise (2015, Berlin); and This is Not the Omega (2016, Amsterdam). Since 2011 she has worked closely with Tino Sehgal performing in various pieces and also has performed for Ari Benjamin Meyers, Alexandra Pirici, Kat Valastur and Arcade Fire, amongst others. Most recently she worked alongside Ari Benjamin Meyers to produce the Kunsthalle for Music at the Witte de With (2018, Rotterdam) as well as with the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble to present his new work Litany and Rapture within the context of his solo show at Spring Workshop, Hong Kong.