bipod 2022
beirut international platform of dance
This 18th edition of BIPOD takes place in Lyon & Beirut, with a live streaming program on Citerne.live digital platform. We gathered a program of performances, videos, discussions, debates, experiences and conversations around the thematic of #cultural_disobedience
5 – 7 May | Lyon in partnership with les SUBS and CN D à Lyon
25 – 29 May | Beirut in partnership with Sursock Museum and Théâtre Béryte
Program streamed live on Citerne.live
This 18th edition of BIPOD proposes a program of performances, videos, discussions, debates, experiences and conversations, in Lyon and in Beirut, around the thematic of #cultural_disobedience.
Disobey why, disobey to do what, and how to disobey?
Opening a debate on culture in relation to several artistic, social and political concerns is urgent today. How can culture intervene and engage in the social and the political without losing its dynamism and its artistic values. How many cultural dynamics reflect a scene of inclusion and equality. What does it mean to be an artist? A programmer? And what does it also mean to be an "active" audience and why? There seems to be a vital artistic and curatorial need to rethink our approaches to culture and to question current operating dynamics. Our aspiration is to explore how inspiring ideas, materialized in theatres, festivals, companies and collectives, can continue to rejuvenate, revitalize and serve their innovative goals.
We would be delighted to have you with us, to share these moments and highlight the many inspiring thoughts of this edition.
Organizers BIPOD – Beirut International Platform of Dance | Maqamat | Maqamat Beit El Raqs | Moultaqa Leymoun | Masahat In partnership with CND/Lyon – National Center for Dance | Les Subs Lyon | Sursock Museum In cooperation with Allianz Kulturstiftung | Relais Culture Europe With the support of Ministère de la Culture, France DRAC - Direction régionale des Affaires culturelles | Ville de Lyon | ProHelvetia |Institut Francais du Liban | Institut Francais du Paris | NPN – National Performance Netz | Wallonie-Bruxelles International | AFAC – The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture | Al Mawred – Culture Resource | Istituto Italiano di Cultura | Spanish Embassy in Beirut | Swiss Embassy in Beirut In collaboration with Peggy Olislaegers | Menhir | CCN Bourgogne Franche-Comté à Belfort/ Viadanse | Sareyyet Ramallah | Dan.Cin.Lab | Cinedans | Beirut Physical Lab | Burokultur/Sergio Chianca Media Partner L'Orient Le Jour Sponsors Warde | Saadallah & Loubna Khalil Foundation PR and Communication Mirros | Link'Art
Performances
Performance in Lyon supported by Wallonie-Bruxelles International
g r oo v e was born from an irrepressible desire to create a piece, where "grooving" is an imperative. Between a search for spontaneity, commitment and honesty, this solo testifies of an urgency: the urgency of writing, of freezing a movement for posterity. From family moments shared around music, to composition work through the solitary practice of dance, Soa Ratsifandrihana begins a sensitive and almost didactic exploration of the notion of groove.
Performance in Beirut supported by the Instituto Italiano di Cultura -Beirut & NPN
As
slipping out of the cloth of constantly fluttering flags, heraldic symbols take
form and weight. Chimerical beings and oneiric figures appear, like leafing
through an armorial or medieval bestiary. They seem to tell us stories of
conflicts which took place in the well delimited perimeter of an emblematic
battlefield.
Free entrance.
Ticketing at the theatre opens 1 hours before the show (FCFS)
Performance in Beirut supported by Institut Français Paris and Institut Français du Liban
Alexandre Roccoli produces a circular, hypnotic and magnetic aesthetic where the body is seized by the vertigo of dance. Between a state of grace and a state of shock, the energy and virtuosity of young Moroccan dancer Yassine Aboulakoul transmits a mad desire to dance.
Free entrance.
Performance in Beirut supported by the Spanish Embassy in Lebanon.
When we look at each other, I forget if it's me who looks at you or who you look at. The idea we have of ourselves is not that of an organism of living cells, but something else. We are a mental construction (psychological) of abstract concepts that results in what we call the Self, or Ego. An Ego that is observed, reflected and materialized in the gaze of the other.
In Nebula, Vania Vaneau approaches the
human body-nature relationship as the meeting of force fields in a
post-apocalyptic context. In a kind of archaeology of the future, Nebula
questions what other relationships to time, craft, soil, and chimeras could
emerge to draw a new cosmogony. What mutations and hybridizations could come
out of chaos? Nebula is a crossing into the unknown, a moment of eclipse to
glimpse at other possible worlds. Here, the future and the past meet, time
flows in a spiral leading us to a “prehistoric science-fiction”.
Free entrance
How can such an experience affect the perception one has on its body, movements, and reactions. As a dancer, Bassam Abou Diab, attempts to embody the reaction of inhuman practices, leading to a world of fantasy, allowing the body to transcend into the supernatural. Dancing and dreaming in order to survive the pain.
Free entrance.
Ticketing at the theatre opens 1 hours before the show (FCFS)
Ioannis’ aim is to create on the spot a performance based upon the spectators’ ideas that will be thrown at him at the time of the performance. To collect, process and render the audience’s suggestions in the form of a dance, improvised instantaneous performance, hence its title. By involving the audience in the creative process, Ioannis offers a new perspective on the choreographic art, from the inside, which aims to help understand some of the rules and tools of the composition of a choreographic piece.
Free entrance
Meeting the artist
10 am | Workshop presentation led by Fabien Thomé
11 am | Workshop presentations led by Peggy Olislaegers
Conversations & talks in Beirut
Video Dance Screening
The Odor of Elephants after the Rain, by Choreographer Omar Rajeh, is a specially commissioned film by Edinburgh International Festival.
In 2019, Omar Rajeh, the choreographer, begins a series of explorations that will lead him to unprecedented questions: The forced dismantling of Citerne Beirut, a performing arts space of which he is the founder, the political and economic collapse of Lebanon and the civil unrest after October 17th, followed by the global Covid-19 crisis, and finally the tragic explosion at the port in August 2020, which destroyed half of the city of Beirut, killing and injuring thousands of people.
What voice do we insist on having after being silenced? What body do we walk around with when we are drowned in pain? What do we do with our memories when they deceive us and fail to resemble reality? What hopes do we carry when we are far from our struggles and dreams?
It is in a context of political, economic and health crisis that ‘The Odor of Elephants After the Rain’ was created. It was shot in Beirut in 2021 shortly after the August 4th explosion. It testifies of the experience of deep-rooted pain, loss, and disillusion. Dear places reduced to ashes, disfigured memories, trampled dreams, and dashed hopes.
The film creates a duality between a human body and a concrete building - attempting to open pathways of perception by melting the fortifications of our constructed meanings – by observing matter and thought, in their raw form.
In darkness, we construct, in light we deconstruct.
The rocks stand strong, seemingly eternally unhinged by the elements and variables, they are quite a nice refuge.
A spontaneous journey where the traveler leaves their life behind for a time to let the spirit of the landscape and architecture attract and move them. Derive is an exploration through movement and visual-arts of how our breathing bodies can leave this weight and be entranced by the existence around us.
Through their lightness, disorientation, vitality, and strength, they embark on a choreographic journey facing high and low tides, turbulence and contradictions, calm and turmoil. Guided by absurd questions the oranges reflect the path of the protagonists in their delicate passage to adulthood and guide us in a poetic reflection on our lives.
Lab for artists & audience
What does it mean to be an artist nowadays? How are the leading definitions of quality, autonomy and dedication in the industry of the performing arts influencing the daily artistic practice of individual artists and curators? In this lab internationally acclaimed dance activist Peggy Olislaegers will challenge you to articulate your artistic practice, inviting you to contextualize your work. Which artistic research questions are driving your choreographic practice? And how are these questions resonating in the bigger framework of performing arts and the society we are living in? Can we start working ón the system of making and performing, while working in it? Could we start talking about qualities (plural) that we are looking for, instead of using "quality" as a conversation stopper? How can we deepen our practises and conversations by sharing our values and goals with our colleagues, programmers and audiences? Be ready for an inspiring dialogue with your peers and Olislaegers.
Workshop
Une brève rencontre pour faire la lumière sur les principes du traitement ostéopathique axé sur la prise en charge ostéopathique du danseur. Avec des exemples d'exercices d'auto-entretien liés aux grands carrefours stratégiques de l'organisme.
Fabian graduated at the Real Conservatorio Profesional de Danza in Madrid in 2004. Since 2013 he decided to enrich and develop his skills, working with several choreographers such as Sharon Fridman and Carlos Fernandez Fuentes. He is a dancer, choreographer and teacher whose choreographic work has been acknowledged with the 1st Prize at the XXXIII edition of CERTAMEN COREOGRAFICO DE MADRID 2019 and Best Interpretation at the Burgos-New York Contest in 2014. In June 2015 joined Eatsman of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui as dancer and teacher.
Conversations
Studio Presentation
The Valley of Sleep is a performance and audiovisual installation inspired initially by a painting from Egyptian Artist Abdel Hadi Al Gazzar, “The Lover of the Jinn”. The Valley of Sleep is a performative spell - a portrayal of an in-between space, where infinite possibilities creatively unfold.
Concert
Abaya Road is the latest of Zeid Hamdan's projects. This umpteenth musical formation allows this hyperactive producer to have fun with pop and dancing remixes of great classics from the Lebanese, Syrian and Arab repertoire in general. He is accompanied this time by two young singers, Jeanne Humbert (John), harp guitarist with a fragile and suave voice and Celine Khoury who with nuance and assurance handles the different techniques of Arabic singing. But it will also be no surprise if the group launches into some reinterpretations of the great classics taken from some 20 albums that Hamdan has to his credit and from his many titles that marked the Lebanese post-war generation.
Conversations & talks in Lyon
How much artists are protected and have the ability to decide their own paths. What do they need and how would they perceive the dynamics of programming nowadays. Our guests will individually share a concern and immerse in conversation. We look forward to hear their thoughts.
Talk supported by CEC ArtsLink New York
Polina Bulat (writer/editor, Kyiv, Ukraine) and Anton Ovchinnikov (choreographer/organizer, Kyiv, Ukraine)
In conversation with Simon Dove (CEC ArtsLink, New York, USA)
How do artists work in a warzone? How can artists safeguard a culture under threat of annihilation? What does courage and daring mean in the context of a hostile invasion by a military force? The devastating war in Europe happening right now totally changes our notions of risk, care, support and the role of the artist for all of us. This conversation explores the impact of Russia’s war on two key figures in the dance world, and what they imagine will be the future of dance in Ukraine.