Master Project

Marc Streit

“zürich moves!” and “(X)change”


13 March–20 March 2015
“zürich moves!”, Festival for Contemporary Dance & Performance, Zürich

June 2015
“(X)change”, San Francisco, USA

13 March–30 June 2015
Nils Amadeus Lange, Miguel Gutierrez, Simone Aughterlony, Keith Hennesy, Slavek Bendrat, Carlos Maria Romero, Teresa Vittucci, Dana Michel , Jeremy Wade, Monique Jenkinson, Jan Martens

Zurich – San Francisco: Making use of the sister-city status of Zurich and San Francisco, and given the significance of San Francisco with regard to queer theory and queer culture, the zurich moves! festival did enable the first part of an exchange between Swiss performance artists and institutions and those operating in the partner city on America’s West Coast.

The CounterPulse Performance and Community Center and swissnex San Francisco as well as the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco were brought on board as partner organizations for the exchange. Swissnex and the Swiss Consulate General in San Francisco were assisting the implementation of the project on the West Coast. From June 15 to 21, 2015, the artistic exchange did take place in San Francisco. The exchange will involve artistes, curators and academics from Switzerland and the USA.

(X)change – Sister city queer performance exchange Zurich — San Francisco
A micro-festival of performances, talks and panels investigating gender representation, intersections of performance aesthetics, and queer tactics across cultural contexts. San Francisco’s sister city, Zurich, stirs our pot, rubs our elbows, and queers the queer. Marie-Caroline Hominal, Nils A. Lange and Ivan Blagajcevic from Switzerland did show us their queer and question queer, together with local artists, Monique Jenkinson, Mica Sigourney, Keith Hennessy and others. Daytime discussions around gender representation in the arts and humanities did take place at swissnex San Francisco.

The (X)change began at the zurich moves! festival in March 2015, where Keith Hennessy, Monique Jenkinson and Mica Sigourney made their Swiss debut. The Swiss artists did travel to San Francisco to continue to contextualize and decontextualize their queer tactics, as they work across cultural and national borders during a week-long workshop.

Aim
Communication and exchange can be redefined through contemporary dance, thus blurring boundaries. Comprehension and exchange through movement foster cultural understanding and provide access to a multitude of fascinating discourses. Until now, Zurich has had no platform for contemporary dance and performance explicitly addressing queer and gender issues. The Festival is geared towards all kinds of culture lovers, dance enthusiasts, professional dancers, and people involved in the dance industry.

Program
During the Festival, contemporary dancers and performance artists did perform pieces from their repertoire as well as works created especially for zu?rich moves!. The program featured predominantly groups from the independent dance scene and offers newcomers an attractive platform.

A workshop did provide a detailed insight into how professional dancers work. The participating artists taught professional classes at Tanzhaus Zurich. In cooperation with Cinedans, the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, and Neugass Kino AG, the program was once again supplemented with exciting dance videos, short films, and a documentary at the Riffraff movie theater in Zurich.

New partners were brought on board for the fourth run of zurich moves!: the Kunstraum Réunion, which is operated by the Random Institute, Le Foyer, Wagner & Friends, Notabene, and the ECAL Lausanne. For the second time, the Kunstraum Walcheturm in the Kaserne Areal did serve as our festival partner and venue. The San Francisco Dance Film Festival did provide films on the subject of queer and gender from the film festival’s current film program at  Riffraff.

Nils Amadeus Lange – Zurich
Miguel Gutierrez – New York
Simone Aughterlony – Berlin/Zurich
Keith Hennesy – Circo Zero – San Francisco
Slavek Bendrat – PINK MAMA THEATRE – Bern
Carlos Maria Romero – London/Bogota
Teresa Vittucci – Vienna/Zurich
Dana Michel – Montreal
Jeremy Wade – Berlin/New York
Monique Jenkinson – San Francisco
Jan Martens – Antwerp