Choreographic statements are part of the Temporary Slovene Dance Archive’s exhibition programme hosted by +MSUM's Draught Series. Documentation and archiving process present such kind of use of time in dance work that inventories the individual phases of the relevant choreographic process and its developmental logic.
In Choreographic Statements Snježana Premuš presents the foundations that underpin her work. She entitled them Physical Manifestations: The Body as an Archive. The body as a Repository. Not only what is evident, useful, available to the body, but also what is stored within: the potential, unrealised, latent.
The body as a repository. This dimension of the body is two-fold; it could suggest unacknowledged, unapparent, concealed, misplaced, dormant, but nevertheless available psycho-physical potentials sedimented in individual bodily specificities as well as a catalogued kinetic warehouse: a stock of visible movement figurations, styles, behaviours and actions that the body accumulates during the process of socialisation, schooling and last, but not least, ideological training. Even though both aspects of this archive are manifested materially, through the body, they are mutually exclusive. This time around, the different ways towards expulsions and balances of corporeal repositories as realised in the body of work and practices of Snježana Premuš evolved through collaboration with Rok Vevar, and shed light on a specific stage of their encounter and work between 2016 and 2018. Both their purpose is to sharpen the dance theory and practice through intensive joint work in the studio.
In the context of Choreographic Statements a part of the process of Physical Manifestations will be transformed into the format of an exhibition that will incorporate the existing documents of choreographic work: approaches that are initially stored in dance workers’ bodies and only subsequently available through various media.
The theme of the body as an archive directly transpires from such work method and deals with various modes of documentation. It puts a spotlight on the hidden continuity of choreographic work and the significance of revealing imperceptible bodily processes. During the exhibition the processes and images will be promptly stocked in the exhibition space, documenting choreographic workshops, lectures and conversations that will, together with the available materials, constitute Choreographic Statements. Work as the mode of accumulation and documentation of experiential materials.
