The dance performance Touch Tissue Texture deals with “meeting”. The two authors open up the meeting as a space that co-creates and needs external space, but nevertheless also touches and changes internal spaces. It is a kind of movement, a state of deep mutual sensory-mental-motor concentration, responding to all the present elements and layers of materiality, such as texture, skin, air, ground, movement, sound, thoughts. Just as the membrane envelops and defines the most basic structure of the cell, it also teaches us about the multidirectionality of our attention. Visitors are invited into this ever-changing structure of “membranes” – spaces of response, boundaries and at the same time doors through which we turn towards the perceived world and the other.
Dance performance in the form of installation is an approximately 30-minute framework where visitors can dedicate their time to the multifaceted, immersive space, that combines different spheres of “touch”: visual/haptic, acoustic/written, intangible, perceived/felt, material/transitory, intimate/communal.
“Touch” (in the broadest sense) therefore exists as a bridge through which the coordination of two or more bodies takes place. It is not a purposeful univocal coordination with a tendency towards similarity, but a qualitative coordination of living, diverse bodies, spaces. Meetings and dialogues (stage moments) that create these spaces and are conditioned by touch (not only in the literal sense, but touch is also contact, tact, desire for contact), bring with them desires, comings and goings, associations, memories and reaching for the unknown.
Co-authors and performers: Snježana Premuš in Anja Bornšek
Artistic direction: Snježana Premuš
Music: Ida Hiršenfelder
Lighting and set design: Špela Škulj
Costume design: Jelena Pirkmajer Cliché
Stage assistance: Bojana Robinson
Design: Sonia Pust
Photography: Marcandrea
Set production: Martin Podrzavnik
Public relations: Urška Comino
Coordination: Katarina Mali
Producer: Barbara Zonta
Production: Zavod Federacija Ljubljana, Anja Bornšek, Snježana Premuš
Coproduction: Festival Nagib, Inštitut MA
Partners: Bunker Ljubljana, Lutkovno gledališče Maribor
Financial support: Ministry of Culture Slovenia, City of Ljubljana, City of Maribor
Snježana Premuš graduated from London Contemporary Dance School in 1998. Snježana has collaborated as a performer or choreographer with many international artists, groups, producers and festivals, such as Sebastijan Horvat, Emylin Claid, Mariela Nestora, Vinko Globokar, EnKnap, Mateja Bučar, Maja Delak, Betontanz, Robin Howard Theatre, London; Theater am Halleschen Ufer, Berlin; Kondenz festival Belgrade, Workshop foundation Budapest, Ufer studios Berlin, Dance Theatre Ljubljana, Multimedijalna koliba Zagreb, Isadora and Raymond Research Centre Athens etc.). In 2012, she studied somatics at Moveus (EAY certification) Berlin. Since then, the somatic approach to movement has deeply marked her artistic development. She has been unfolding somatic and dance research work in the project Physical Manifestations, ( 2019/21, her work was part of the Creative Crossroads project, Creative Europe). In 2017, she received the Ksenija Hribar Award (Slovenia) as an outstanding choreographer for her work. She has also published several publications and collaborates intensively with with visual artists and musicians in the dance video works since 2021.
Anja Bornšek graduated from Salzburg Contemporary Dance Academy, holds a Masters degree in Contemporary Dance Education from Frankfurt University HfMDK and a SME certification in Body-Mind Centering method. Her artistic and pedagogic focus is shaped by the decade long experiences in somatic studies and performative methodologies, which focus on embodiment, deep listening and textures of presence. She creates her own work and teaches at various independant venues as well as institutions such as Zagreb Dance Academy, MA for Contemporary Dance Education – HfMDK Frankfurt, Tanzhaus nrw among other places. In the last decade Anja has also been facilitating and developing a pedagogic/artistic format intended for audiences, called Physical Introduction.Through it she is creating a space for practicing embodied watching and fostering more experience based conversations about dance in the performing arts. She has been facilitating Physical Introduction in Tanzhaus nrw, Tanz im August, Saarländische Staatstheater, HfMDK Frankfurt, Sommer Szene Salzburg, Tanz NRW, Videonalle Bonn etc. In 2021 Anja received the Ksenija Hribar Award for an emerging choreographer.