Choreographers Snježana Premuš and Anja Bornšek are concerned with the nature of communication: they understand it as an interplay between "action-dialogue" and "situation-encounter".
They are aware that the main connection comes from physical touch and see the latter in the broadest sense. Together with visual artist Špela Škulj and musician Ida Hiršenfelder, along with the visitors to the installation, they extend the dialogue to the various spheres of "touch" (tangible, perceived/felt, material/transient, intimate/shared, haptic/visual/audible). The spaces or spheres of encounter foster our understanding of boundaries, while also creating safe passageways for us to turn to another.
The dance installation Touch Tissue Fabric deals with "encounter". The artists open up the encounter as a space that co-creates and needs outside space, but also touches and transforms inner spaces. It is a kind of movement, a state of deep mutual concentration ensuing from the sensual-contemplative-physical, that reacts to all the present elements.
"Snježana Premuš and Anja Bornšek weave a field of meaning in the inventive dance practices through continuous and systematic exploration. By creating an inclusive and participatory environment that gives artists and others the opportunity to explore their own somatics, perceptions and manifestations, they create a unique social body that adorns the Slovenian art scene like the most precious of fabrics /.../." (Taken from the text Prostorsko-koreografske skice [Spatial-Choreographic Sketches] by Erika Šešek, published at https://koridor-ku.si)
Snježana Premuš is a choreographer, dancer and researcher of somatic principles and has been working in this field for 25 years. Her projects are challenging spaces of participation that do not submit to representation but transcend it as a possible model for a different contemporary society. The work of Snježana Premuš focuses on the exploration of the body, corporeality and the question of how we perceive the body. She creates fascinating performance formats in which she co-creates shared spaces of observation, perception and experience with the audience. In 2017, she was awarded the Ksenija Hribar Prize as a choreographer.
Anja Bornšek graduated from the Salzburg Experimental Academy for Dance (SEAD) in 2007 and completed her Master's degree in Contemporary Dance Education at the HfMDK in Frankfurt in 2014. She has collaborated with various artists (Delak, Premuš, Podrzavnik, Ferlin) and also works on her own projects. Over the last eight years, she has intensively developed a format for the public called Physical Introduction.
Ida Hiršenfelder (beepblip) is a sound artist and archivist. Using analogue electronics, homemade modular sound synthesisers, field recordings and computer manipulation, she composes immersive psychogeographic soundscapes. Her interests include bioacoustics as well as experimental and microtonal music. In 2023, she completed her Master's degree in Sonology at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague.
Špela Škulj is a visual artist. She works in the field of photography and video. Her main interest in her work could be described as personal documentation; often focusing on ecology and the environment as well as the irreversible impact of humans on nature. She is active on the contemporary dance scene as a lighting designer and theatre technician.
Production: Zavod Federacija, Ljubljana Coproduction: NAGIB Maribor, Inštitut MA, Maribor Puppet Theatre
