Ecocide
Curated by Sarah Alexander, Ecocide was the first in a series of events hosted by The Creative Practice and Embodied Research Group at BSU.
The event was open to the public, and in addition to experiencing the programme of artworks, encouraged their reflective contribution through participatory tasks and a Q and A with some of the contributing artists.
MA Dance course leader Anna Heighway reports on the successful event:
In Ecocide, Sarah Alexander, a choreographer and senior lecturer with the dance department at Bath Spa University brought together a series of live and screen-based works that respond to the escalating global ecological crisis.
In Alexander’s words,
“As ecological breakdown continues to accelerate, how can we find ways to cope with the information we are receiving? Whether it is through a sense of hope, hopelessness, or somewhere in between, this event provides a space for creative practice as a form of embodied knowledge, greater awareness, and exchange.”
The programme started with a looped live performance of Alexander’s Overspill in the Ashton Studio. Meanwhile, the University Theatre Foyer featured a stills exhibition entitled, Gallery-Dance No 2° by Sivan Rubinstein, and a series of film screenings by artists Stephanie Gottlob, Chris Lewis-Smith and Sivan Rubinstein.
The audience could also enjoy ecologically driven screendance works made by BSU dance students, or head up to the Mezzanine to experience a documentary made by Rubinstein, in collaboration with senior lecturer in Philosophy at King’s College, Dr Sarah Fine.
Ecocide was well-attended and, in bringing together artistic practices that engage ecological concerns through a range of approaches (from the somatic to the Theatre of the Absurd for instance),we joined the Q and A energised with a host of thought-provoking quandaries and concerns.
Of particular note was the human (dancing) body's role in connecting people with the natural environment and one another. Important questions were raised with, on the one hand, the quantifiability of art’s impact and its small-scale efforts, whilst also acknowledging the open and affective character of contemporary dance practice and the space it opens up for people to ‘feel’ their way to the climate predicament, rather than being preached to, or subject to data dumping.
The event concluded with a live performance of Sivan Rubenstein’s No Land B, a full-length ‘environmental dance work’ which through the synergistic physicality of two dancers, drew us into an evocative experience of materiality, presence, collectivity and care.