Tanz 23 24 is a music and dance performance based on a mysterious encounter between two artists of the avant garde scene in Berlin from 1920’s : Ernst Schoen – antifascist radio pioneer and composer, and Henri Châtin-Hofmann – queer dancer , second husband of the infamous cabaret performer Anita Berber.
Prof Ester Leslie and Dr Sam Dolbear originators founded a flyer in Schoen’s archive. We could see a figure face made-up, in a constructivist jumpsuit, fixed in a dramatic posture, with wooden boards attached to both arms. Schoen’s name was emblazoned on the flyer – his music was to be play at this Tanzabend – and so was the name of the dancer, ‘Henri’.
“It struck us that Schoen, who floated in illustrious circles around Walter Benjamin and Edgard Varèse also moved within the decadent avant-garde cabaret scenes in Berlin. We felt compelled to reconstruct this night of performance, so that the spirits of the evening might commune once again.” Prof Ester Leslie and Dr Sam Dolbear
PROJECT WEBSITE / PORTFOLIO THE SCHOEN COLLECTIVE
Duration : 35 minutes
Presented
PREMIERE – 3rd October 2020 – Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw
as part of a series of events : Re(De)generate Art Exhibition, live performances on Tamka street, and a pre-performance lecture, dedicated to Bauhaus, organized and hosted by the experimental art space Curie City.
March 2020 – Bishopgate Institute, London – Cancelled
Credits Poster Ola Jasionowska / Photos – Kuba Szafranski
REVIEWS
Art Monthly UK magazine n°441, Letter from Warsaw :Reality Check by Phoebe Blatton
“Henri’s role become dual in the spidery form of Palazot and the sturdiness of Nauman, as they calibrate through expressions that resonate in Poland today. A moment when Palazot cradles Nauman exudes queer eroticism and protection. Later Nauman exhausts herself with a mimicry of despotism – or a cry of protest ? – her small figure stranded on the highest tier of the modernist hall’s stage, a vast banner behind her, its two vertical stripes in the red and white of the Polish flag. In that moment it appears to me like tears streaming through greasepaint; the tears of a clown. In Warsaw the tragi-comic is a very familiar kind of duet.”
blokmagazine, Contemporary Flux: A Spotlight on Curie City by Kathryn Zazenski
