For once, then, something

Group performance by invited artists Jaanika Peerna, Vanessa Enriquez, Dolanbay.
Saturday 19th July 2014 from 18.00 to 21.00 at berlinerpool / NON Berlin Gallery Space.
Curated by Paz Ponce

“The essential condition of this group performance is the resulting situation itself, the manifestation of act(s) has a plural stance on the white surface… for once, then, something.” (Dolanbay)

This performance took place under the frame of Mapping Contemporary Concerns #2: Opening the space of the propositional. Collective approaches on Berlin-based art production

‘No man is an island’ 

Does collaboration work in performance?
Is it possible to have an impact in somebody else(s) work?
Do we act collaboratively or collaterally with/to each other?
Are we talking about overlapping, intersecting or interacting selves?
How many shores does an Island have?

These (and a few more) are the questions anticipating “For once, then, something”, a three-way action where artists Jaanika Peerna, Vanessa Enriquez and Dolanbay will perform diverse drawing act(s) on a large white (un)common surface.

In a conversational piece with no words, the 7×2.2 meters  of paper will become a sentence unit where three artists will try to formulate the language of the unknown. Within the logic of displacement, the object becomes the subject and the subject(s) become the verb, conjugating the action in present continuous tense.

The situation is framed by the limitations and possibilities offered by the surface of paper, the one material chosen by the artists (charcoal, chalk and eraser), and the physical conditions of the given space. All entry points into a horizontal gesture where there are no privileged moments. Only the (shared) shore of a three-hours’ island  and a mirage: the sea of uncertainty encircling it appears to be its anchor.

For this medita(c)tive journey, I wish the wanderers no other pray than the words that the english poet John Donne once said: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main”. [MEDITATION XVII, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions.  John Donne 1623 ].

Words by Paz Ponce – Berlinerpool Chief Curator

 

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Dolanbay practices in Painting, Drawing and Performative Installation. His latest work is in focus; exploring the performative aesthetics via practice based, independent artistic research since 2007.   Dolanbay has studied 3D Design and Mixed Media Fine Art in the UK. He is based in Berlin. www.dolanbay.com

Vanessa Enriquez is a multidisciplinary artist focusing mainly in the meditative practice of drawing, whether by puncturing paper or by involving her whole body. A former student of ballet and contemporary dance, and trained as a designer, she draws upon these past experiences to explore her interest in repetition and gesture, language and pattern, contemplation and collaboration. She graduated with a Master in Fine Arts from Yale University and was awarded the Bradbury Thompson Memorial Prize in 2000. Her work has been exhibited in Berlin, Boston, Hong Kong and Mexico City and more recently, New York and the UK.
www.vanessaenriquez.net

Jaanika Peerna is an Estonian-born artist living and working near New York since 1998, and is currently based in Berlin. Her work encompasses drawings, videos, installations and performance, often dealing with the theme of transitions in light, air, water and other natural phenomena. She is often involved in collaborative projects working with designers, dancers and musicians. She has exhibited her work extensively in the entire New York metropolitan area as well as in Berlin, Paris, Tallinn, Helsinki, Lisbon, Rimini, Dubai, Honolulu, Novosibirsk and Rome. Her work is in numerous private collections in the US and Europe and was recently acquired by Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris. Her work is represented in the United States by Masters Projects in New York and ARC Fine Art in Connecticut.
www.jaanikapeerna.net