VENUS
Pre-premiere: 20/12/2020, Spanski borci cultural centre, Ljubljana, SI
VENUS: between captivity and flight is based on Botticelli’s painting The Birth of Venus depicting the moment of her emergence from sea foam. The birth of Venus occurs as a cut that distinguishes between heaven and earth, thus creating an in-between, wherein creation occurs continuously. Without a cut, there is no gaze and no creation. Only inertia.
The painting is the starting point for the text and the dance material which, each in their own way, offer the possibility of different readings and meanings. The performance juxtaposes the two worlds simultaneously present. The world of dream images constantly interrupts the here and now of the body, inhabiting it, challenging it, and transforming it. The space between is one of boundless creativity, from which a multitude of forms and their variations emerge. They create a visual poem in time, one that poses questions about corporeality, sentience, relationality, the gaze and the fertility and transience of nature. The film’s imagery invites us to contemplate the constant birthing into space and time, creative imagination and the beauty of creation.
VENUS: between captivity and flight is a reflection on the relationship between image, body and dreams. The key question that has guided the whole project is how we can, through the images, move beyond the images, into a more direct experience of life, of nature in its constant becoming. The format is a whirlwind of images, of spoken poetry written from dreams and of music performed live by cellist Kristjan Kranjčan. The starting point for the creation of dance material and lyrics is a painting by the Renaissance artist Sandra Botticelli The Birth of Venus. Using lucid dreaming techniques that address the image as an open question, the specific themes of the painting are revealed; body, gaze to which the image calls us, relationship, desire as the driving force of all creation in its becoming, nature as creation. These are the themes the performance is dealing with.’ (Mala Kline MESTO ŽENSK SEDEMINDVAJSETIČ | Radio Študent)
Concept, choreography, text and performance: Mala Kline
Film direction: Mala Kline, Hana Vodeb
Visual dramaturgy: Mala Kline, Petra Veber, Hana Vodeb
Scenography: Petra Veber
Light: Jaka Šimenc
Camera: Hana Vodeb, Darko Herič
Video sinchronisation: Darko Herič
Film edit: Hana Vodeb
Live music: Kristjan Kranjčar
Costume: Mala Kline, Petra Veber
Set assistance: Omar Izmail, Špela Škulj
Executive production: Ajda Kline
Production: ELIAS 2069, Mercedes Klein
Co-production: Center kulture Španski borci/Zavod EN-KNAP, Mesto Žensk, Kino Šiska and Nomad Dance Academy in the frame of CoFestival
Supported by Ministry of Culture of Slovenia, City of Ljubljana, Department for Culture
Thanks to Domen Hajnšek, Vid Martinčič, Katarina Morano, Blaž Celarec, Gašper Puntar and Matija Zvezdan Puntar Kline.
Onstage, we see Mala’s live and recorded body or several bodies; projections on the veiled surface create layers of images, playing with shadows, (in)visibility, image multiplication, decomposition and composition, thus conjuring up dream-like imagery. – Nika Arhar, Med resničnostjo imaginacije in realnostjo odra: Uprizoritvena praksa Male Kline, Prehodi, 2022
‘Because of all the wonderful events, one gets lost in the dance and hypnotic visualizations that direct one’s attention to the complexity of the image, and in the voice and music that carry one’s thoughts from Venus’ naked body to the contemplation of the boundaries of the physical world. You forget you are watch a movie because your feelings become an integral part of the atmosphere. At least for a moment, you find the essence in the goddess’s loving gaze, in the homage to fertility and desire… Mala Kline suceeds to revive Botticelli’s classic work without succumbing to predictability in the process or losing his artistic voice. She creates aesthetic poetry, through which she blurrs the boundaries between the dream and the physical, between the presented and the present, between the untouchable and the tangible.’ Lara Lovric, Mesto žensk: VENERA: med ujetostjo in letenjem | Koridor – križišča umetnosti
‘Kline’s dream sphere is an uveiling fairytale behind which lies an existential reflection on love, art, happiness, nature and the body. The artist enables us to transverse between different ideas, avoiding issues and confronting them at once. It allows us to experience dynamic and static art at once. It builds bridges and takes us across them into self-reflection on our conception of ourselves, the one we love most strongly. It shows us the connections between the theater boards, the easel and the strings.’ Neza Vengust, Znotraj strahu – sama ljubezen – Odrišča