All Sorts of Feelings
All Sorts of Feelings meets the need to deepen our understanding of ageing, loss, grief, death and how they affect bodily and emotional realities.
Project team
Andreea Novac - choreographer
Fidelie Kalambayi - sociologist
Alina Ușurelu - interdisciplinary artist
Cristina Lilienfeld - choreographer
Maria Bîrsan - curator, producer
Anca Ușurelu - writer, editor
Siegmar Zacharias - death doula, artist
Bianca Stăncescu - graphic designer
Adnana Cruceanu - copywriter
Tudor Popa - photo documentation
EVENTS
Residency 1 @ AADK
Andreea Novac & Fidelie Kalambayi
Residency 2 @ AADK
Alina Ușurelu, Cristina Lilienfeld, Siegmar Zacharias, Maria Bîrsan, Anca Ușurelu
Presentation @ AREAL
Andreea Novac & Fidelie Kalambayi
Presentation @ Research Station on Art and Life
Alina Ușurelu, Siegmar Zacharias, Maria Bîrsan
Presentation @ Goethe Institut
Alina Ușurelu, Siegmar Zacharias, Maria Bîrsan
PHOTO GALLERY
The subject of age skidded into my interests regarding the (un)productive bodies and new corporealities, a few years ago. Culturally speaking, especially within the western cultures, aging bodies are assimilated with negative categories and values. But the changes brought about by the process of aging can be also regarded as enabling a “new” body, one that artistically questions the binary young - old and opens up a dialog about how we present, perceive, evaluate and value age.
As in the 21st century “age itself is a changing and performative variable” (Richard Gouch and Nanako Nakajima), I am interested in grasping how aging can be approached from a performative perspective, especially in relation to dancers’ bodies. Is there potentiality in aging, a new way of performing, while reshaping it as a celebration, as a defiance or as a normal progression to be engaged with empathy and kindness?
The research that I will start at AADK Portugal, together with the sociologist and researcher Fidelie Kalambayi, represents the first phase of the project on age and aging. Topics of ephemerality, fragility, abilities, embodiment will appear in the discussions, as we will try to illuminate age from diverse perspectives (cultural/social theories) and speculate on the future of aging bodies.
— Andreea Novac
The artists' attachment to the theme of loss emerged during a residency at PerfocraZe International Artist Residency in Kumasi, Ghana in 2020, which resulted in the performance See You Soon, reiterated at Diptych Art Space and the National Dance Centre Bucharest, an exhibition and a series of related events. Drawing on personal experiences of loss, the artists explored connections between Ghanaian and Romanian rites of passage, later extending the research to other territories.
The experience of loss and rites of passage are a point of intersection between collective/social reality and personal/emotional reality that stimulate community practices of mutual care and understanding. At the cultural level, rites of passage are constrained by silence, submission to traditions and customs, with no room for expression of their personal dimension. From the actions carried out by the artists in collaboration with researchers in the field of cultural studies, it appears that this theme is a robust basis for the development of intergenerational and intercultural dialogue. In this way they have encountered similar practices and research by artist Siegmar Zacharias, with whom they will continue to develop performative practices that support personal experiences.
— Alina Ușurelu