Kobalt Works

The title of Arco Renz’ solo performance EAST is a spatial indication, a direction on the map. As such, it triggers and addresses manifold projections on the multi-layered realities of people and places in Asia today.

EAST transposes key experiences of Arco Renz’ diverse Asian collaborations into his body. After 15 years working and creating between Europe and Asia, Arco Renz confronts his personal experiences with the orientalist heritage of Western Modern Dance pioneers Ruth St Denis and Ted Shawn. He projects his body into movements “foreign” and yet “familiar” to his artistic and cultural background.

EAST simulates, exposes and physically shakes stereotypical representations of ‘Orient’ and ‘Occident’; notions that “do not correspond to a stable reality that exists as a natural fact” (Edward Said).

The performance evolves inside a spheric installation by Lawrence Malstaf and a high speed environment of LED light by Fujimoto Takayuki. The dance engages in a vibrant live dialogue with musicians Phu Pham and Marc Appart.

The solo was commissioned by the Asian Arts Theatre in Gwangju. The festival “Gaze.Project.Myth” presented works that investigate contemporary and historic trajectories of orientalism.