Michikazu Matsune & Martine Pisani: "Kono atari no dokoka" (Somewhere around here)

"Their journey through time and space blurs borders, reduces distances, superimposes eras and combines languages in the eternal present of the imaginary." – Rosita Boisseau, Le Monde

In 2005, French choreographer Martine Pisani and Japanese-Austrian performance-maker Michikazu Matsune met at Tanzquartier Wien. In the years that followed, their paths crossed from time to time. The artistic relationships between Matsune, Pisani and Pisani’s partner, the Dutch painter and performer Theo Kooijman, give rise to a question: What remains of dance once the show is over?

Archives, personal memories, shared anecdotes, and imaginations are all used to trace their activities through the 1980s and 1990s. "Kono atari no dokoka" (Somewhere around here) is a place at once far away and oh so close, with blurry yet familiar contours, a journey through time and space. From a Kobe beach to the port of Marseilles, from Paris to Vienna or somewhere else yet, a collective memory starts to appear between the lines of personal stories. Between beautifully simple poetry, humour and, above all, tenderness, they reconstruct what’s left of the past to form a composite present.

The project premiered at this year’s Festival d’Avignon and is accompanied by a publication consisting of archive material.