short project-description

short description

 

"A Piece For You" - "Ein Stück für Dich"

Thomas Lehmen

 

In this project Lehmen will make a series of short dance pieces as gifts for people he will meet in Europe and Asia.

The project stations in 2013 are Oberhausen, Tallinn, Warsaw, Bologna, Gießen, Sofia, Chennai, Dhaka and many other places on route in between. The continuation of the project is planned in other continents from 2014 onwards.

 

One of the distinct characteristics of the project is that each of the short pieces will be developed in direct collaboration with the people because a high level of reciprocity (the understanding of oneself in and through the other and vice versa) is needed to make each one unique. Therefore Lehmen will spend time with the presentees to include them dialogically in the dramaturgy. Themes and contexts and not least issues of individual importance to these people provide the base for each single piece. The resulting form of each performance is similarly influenced by the encounter.

 

The project’s target presentees, who Lehmen meets in both planned and unprompted encounters, will include the broadest range of people possible. No exclusions will be made on thematic, social or political grounds.

 

In the final performances the presentees are always present. The performances take place in their immediate surroundings, living rooms, gardens, public places, and only in special cases in theatres.

 

The overall project concept also includes workshops and projects with other artists, lectures and a short introduction piece that can be performed anywhere. There will also be an accompanying internet presence providing films of the pieces and written contributions.

 

Essential to the whole project is an individual means of transportation that’s flexible and also allows the focus to fall on the various destinations which lie between the centre locations. Rather than traversing the globe by airplane, Lehmen will cover the distances with a motorbike. This lends the project an appropriate perception of time and offers the challenging immediacy necessary for surprises and getting in touch with people on route.

 


For the continuation of the project in 2014, many invitations have already been received from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, China and the Americas.

 

 

Contact: thomaslehmen@thomaslehmen.de                                                                              © Thomas Lehmen 2013