Dance artists, artists and professionals of all disciplines meet in this two-day lab on the topic „Remembering the Future“ to exchange artistic research, choreographic and other practice. Each of the two days starts with a shared warm-up. In their session - "Nowhere Now Here" - choreographer Christina Ciupke and researcher Anke Strauß will then give insights from their current research on work and utopia. This two-year research titled „Working Utopias“ engages with artists and their work-lives with a particular interest in the social dimension of it, for instance in artists’ renewed longing for forms of solidarity. Based on this, Gabriele Reuter will be moderating an exchange of participants in the afternoon on their own research questions. The goal is to continue to think about the impulses given in smaller groups, to apply them to one's own practice or research, to exchange skills or just to try things out in an open, process-oriented working environment. In an open studio at the end of the lab, the working process will be shared with an interested audience.

Nowhere, now here

Utopia is a word created by Thomas Morus, which paradoxically covers two meanings simultaneously. One means "good place", the other means "no-place". Such good non-places can only be experienced temporarily. They are an intensity that arises in the interaction between people, places, materiality and other living beings and which inevitably disappears after a while. What remains is the memory of an ideal time in an ideal place that is at the same time present and not reproducible. The simultaneity of the ideal and the unattainable is important, because it is this simultaneity that can produce a sense of longing, which also carries the potential to influence action in the now. Christina Ciupke and Anke Strauß report on their two-year research project on work and utopia, within which they have visited various artist-led organizations. Some do not exist anymore, some still exist but in a different way and some are just about to come into being. The question is, how do we remember those intense moments? What do we do with it? And what does the memory do to us?

The lab is free of charge for the participants and includes a daily lunch together in studio 2. The number of participants is limited. Please register online via our website and then send a short letter of application stating your background, specific artistic projects to bring into this lab or more general interests or questions around the topic, to reuter@tanzfabrik-berlin.de.