Reappearance & Sommerspiele
Film screening by Eszter Salamon
In the frame of :Love: Tickets
A filmic speculation on history and memory and a cinematic manifesto against forgetting: The short films “Reappearance” (2022) and “Sommerspiele” (2023) by choreographer and film maker Eszter Salamon combine the visions and gestures of two female artists from different generations.
“Reappearance” and “Sommerspiele” reference two anecdotes in the autobiography “Ich bin eine Hexe. Kaleidoskop meines Lebens” (1968) by German avant-garde artist and performer Valeska Gert. In the first anecdote, Valeska describes how she dances naked for her lover, a pianist, in exchange for the pieces he composed for her. The second anecdote takes place in London in the summer of 1936. For three weeks, Gert dictates her ideas for a screenplay to a man until she realizes that he is a drug addict and his handwriting is illegible.
The short films examine transnational and feminist intersubjectivity and the materiality of the female body. Using the grotesque, one of Gert’s performative tools, they address the failure of collective memory and historical consciousness. “Reappearance” and “Sommerspiele” reflect on the physical and artistic impermanence of performance and the potential of moving image to create a space for the transformation of the historical canon.
The two short films will be shown at Radialsystem as part of the :LOVE: cooperation between Tanzfabrik Berlin and Radialsystem. With the Radialsystem ♥ Tanzfabrik initiative, the two institutions have joined forces to specifically improve the presentation conditions for dance professionals in Berlin.
08.03.2025 Artist Talk
Following the screening, we invite you to an artist talk with Eszter Salamon and Dorothee Richter (in English).
07.03.2025 "Dance for Nothing (revisited)" a performance by Eszter Salamon.
Radialsystem ♥ Tanzfabrik
Tanzfabrik ♥ Radialsystem
Tanzfabrik Berlin and Radialsystem have presented artists to a broad audience on the stages of Radialsystem since spring 2019. The collaboration aims to improve the labor and presentation conditions of dance professionals in Berlin beyond their individual institutional contexts. In addition to the visibility of this joint platform, an important moment of nexus between local and international artists and scenes is achieved. Both institutions provide equal support to the artists in the forms of co-production resources, rehearsal spaces and public relations work.
“Reappearance” and “Sommerspiele” reference two anecdotes in the autobiography “Ich bin eine Hexe. Kaleidoskop meines Lebens” (1968) by German avant-garde artist and performer Valeska Gert. In the first anecdote, Valeska describes how she dances naked for her lover, a pianist, in exchange for the pieces he composed for her. The second anecdote takes place in London in the summer of 1936. For three weeks, Gert dictates her ideas for a screenplay to a man until she realizes that he is a drug addict and his handwriting is illegible.
The short films examine transnational and feminist intersubjectivity and the materiality of the female body. Using the grotesque, one of Gert’s performative tools, they address the failure of collective memory and historical consciousness. “Reappearance” and “Sommerspiele” reflect on the physical and artistic impermanence of performance and the potential of moving image to create a space for the transformation of the historical canon.
The two short films will be shown at Radialsystem as part of the :LOVE: cooperation between Tanzfabrik Berlin and Radialsystem. With the Radialsystem ♥ Tanzfabrik initiative, the two institutions have joined forces to specifically improve the presentation conditions for dance professionals in Berlin.
08.03.2025 Artist Talk
Following the screening, we invite you to an artist talk with Eszter Salamon and Dorothee Richter (in English).
07.03.2025 "Dance for Nothing (revisited)" a performance by Eszter Salamon.
Radialsystem ♥ Tanzfabrik
Tanzfabrik ♥ Radialsystem
Tanzfabrik Berlin and Radialsystem have presented artists to a broad audience on the stages of Radialsystem since spring 2019. The collaboration aims to improve the labor and presentation conditions of dance professionals in Berlin beyond their individual institutional contexts. In addition to the visibility of this joint platform, an important moment of nexus between local and international artists and scenes is achieved. Both institutions provide equal support to the artists in the forms of co-production resources, rehearsal spaces and public relations work.
Eszter Salamon
Eszter Salamon (she/her) is a choreographer, filmmaker, artist and performer. She lives in Berlin, Paris and Budapest. Salamon uses choreography as an activating and organising force between different media such as image, sound, music, text, voice, body movement and action. Since 2001, she has created solo pieces and large-scale performances, performative installations and films that have been shown internationally in performance venues and museums, including the Centre Pompidou Paris, New York's MoMA, the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, the MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, the Akademie der Künste Berlin, the mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien and many more. Her exhibition ‘Eszter Salamon 1949’ was presented at the Jeu de Paume in Paris in 2014. Salamon's performative installation ‘Study for the Valeska Gert Pavilion’ was presented at the 16th Biennale of Contemporary Art in Lyon in 2022. Her most recent film ‘Sommerspiele’ (2023) premiered at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin and was shown at the Centre Pompidou Paris in 2024.
Concept and dance: Eszter Salamon
Media partnerships: The Berliner, Rausgegangen, taz - die tageszeitung, tip Berlin.
Media partnerships: The Berliner, Rausgegangen, taz - die tageszeitung, tip Berlin.
