Phoenix

Surrounded by gadgets, portable computer systems such as smart watches and other, almost autonomous devices like drones, serving as both toys and war machines, our everyday life changes continuously. In “Phoenix” by French choreographer Eric Minh Castaing, the ambivalence in dealing with new technologies opens up for a look at their possible subversion. With a webcam and a hacked server, the exchange with territories that are otherwise hard to access may be enabled, or a surveillance drone turns into a documentary channel: Live from his Gaza apartment, Dabke dancer Mumen Khalifa, raised in a Palestine refugee camp, tells the audience about his experience with the surveillance drones, and he lets us follow b-boy group Myus GB Crew on the backdrop of a building’s  ruin.

Together with his company Shonen, Eric Minh Castaing, currently associated artist at Ballet National Marseille, has been dealing with the connection of dance, technology and ethical questions for years now. Educated as a visual artist, the “revolting body”, as he calls it, remains at the centre of his creation, especially the enhancement of the physical nature by means of technology.

Duration: 60 min. / in English and Arabic