© Trisha Brown; photo Katrin Schilling / documenta GmbH One of the artist's works at documenta 12 I really loved was the one by american choreographer Trisha Brown. Her work shown at Fricericianum’s second level was definitely one of those works that has the most admirers especially amongst visitors who normally don’t go and see art exhibitions that often. There is something happening, it’s an ongoing performance...
I love the work of Trisha Brown because of her aim to connect modern dance with art and not only in a „hey dancing is art“ way but in a conceptual way. Minimal Dancing as a form of Minimal Art. I wrote about an exhibition I visited at the Kunstmuseum Siegen a couple of months ago - Dance | See. It was about dancing as a theme in modern and contemporary art. Many artists like Robert Rauschenberg or Donald Judd also dealt with dance as a form of Minimal Art during their artistic careers a fact that lead me to the idea on researching dance and minimalism in order to get my phd (well let’s talk about it in a couple of months...). Yvonne Rainer (who’s performance I wasn’t able to see in Kassel, damn it – it was sold out too quickly!) and Merce Cunningham are also very important to mention in that context. But well, back to Mrs. Brown:
Credit: artsciThe fact that Roger Buergel chose her as an artist to participate in documenta 12 was quite surprising for her, and showed her that she seems to be accepted as an artist (and not “only” as an choreographer) at last – at the age of 71. The demand for her work is constantly increasing. Besides Kassel she has shows and performances running in Paris and Schwetzingen (Salvatore Sciarrino’s “Cold”) and in Aix-en-Provence (Claudio Monterverdi’s “L’Orfeo”). At documenta 12 she shows within one of the three leitmotifs “Is modernity our antiquity?” two of her choreographies from the 1970s – one of them “Floor of the Forest”.
© Trisha Brown; photo Frank Schinski / documenta GmbH She lived the live I dreamt of when I was a bit younger than today. I used to dance a lot and loved it but never was that good to be a really good, innovative, remarkable dancer (I met some if those...). I always was too tall, to feminine, too unflexible, too whatever... Instead of trying to work into the modern dance section I quit ballet lessons (three times a week with “floor” exercise classes to stay flexible in addition) at the age of 13, totally devastated and disappointed. I restarted dancing around 19 (modern, ballet, hip hop you name it...) and loved it, but had to stop because of money issues... will I ever be able to start again?
Credit: artsciTrisha Brown started her career in the 1960s. Trained in modern dance she came to SoHo, New York and rented a football-field large hall to start reinnovating modern dance. Raised in Aberdeen, Washington she quickly made contact with New York’s art scene of that time, with people like Robert Rauschenberg for example, with whom she should work a lot with. She worked for Merce Cunningham and gave Donald Judd’s wife dancing lessons. “These was a great time”, she says “everything was questioned, and so the work really got radical, like a manifest. [..] The only ones who were afraid of change, were the dancers.”
Trisha Brown broke with conventions and invented an abstract pattern of movements without any pathos. “Structure is my baby”, she says today. She started to dance in parks, galleries and public spaces, walked down fassades or staged a “chinese whisper” choreography on top of 12 roofs of SoHo. And she always worked with artists: Rauschenberg and Judd created settings for her stage performances, Jonathan Demme (“Silence of the lambs”) filmed her work, together with Lina Werthmueller she staged “Carmen” and Laurie Anderson composed her soundtrack. And finally Trisha Brown draw herself. With chalk between her fingers and toes she documented movements on paper. Some of those are shown at the documenta 12 aswell.
Related Links:
Trisha Brown Company
Trisha Brown at documenta12
Interview by Melanie Eskenazi
Recommended literature:
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