Damien Jalet has travelled the world, infusing his dance with images of the myths, religions, and rituals of each country that he visits, and reflecting the conflict between body and mind in the dance. Nawa Kohei explores materials and techniques through his sculptures and installations that communicate an organic world view while successfully combining image and materiality. As the basic concept for this part of their collaborative project, Jalet and Nawa chose “vessel”—the background to everything that is subsumed by life and death, and the cycles of earth and life. Incorporating into the stage design a breadth of physical properties that extends to gases, liquids, and solids, they attempt to create a dynamic merger between the stage and the bodies of the dancers as they constantly transform their figures.
Damien Jalet | Nawa Kohei “VESSEL yokohama”
Damien Jalet ｜Kohei Nawa, VESSEL 2016 ROHM Theater
- 1.26 [thu] 19:30
- 1.27 [fri] 19:30
- 1.28 [sat] 16:00
- 1.29 [sun] 16:00
Damien Jalet
As a dancer and a choreographer, Damien Jalet has worked in a wide range of areas, including collaborations with sculptor Anthony Gormley Babel, musicians, choreographers, movie directors, and designers as a co-creator, and has provided choreography for opera and music videos. In 2013, he collaborated with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Marina Abramovic to restage Boléro, premiering at the Paris Opera, and was appointed Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres by the French government. Recent works include “THR(O)UGH”, (2015, in collaboration with Jim Hodges) and BABEL 7.16 (2016, at the Festival d’Avignon). He has been named guest artistic director of the UK National Youth Dance Company for 2017.
Nawa Kohei
Born in Osaka in 1975, Nawa Kohei is based in Kyoto, and is professor of Art and Design Studies in the Kyoto University of Art & Design Graduate School. Nawa graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts in 1998 with a BFA in Sculpture, followed by an MFA in sculpture in 2000, and a PhD in Fine Art/Sculpture in 2003, both from the same university. In 2011, he presented the solo exhibition, “KOHEI NAWA—Synthesis” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Working with beads, prisms, polyurethane foam, silicone oil, and other contemporary materials, Nawa constantly explores new frontiers and new potential for visual art. He is the director of SANDWICH, a creative platform that he established in Kyoto in 2009 for multidisciplinary creative work involving architects, photographers, designers, and other creators as well as artists.