- Dance
- SPRING coproduction
- NL premiere
Kono atari no dokoka (Somewhere around here)
Accessibility
Three artists meet on stage to revisit their early careers. Mapping how artistic creations and biographies interweave, they embark on a journey through time and space in search of the past and its meaning today. Touching and infused with subtle humour.
In exploring the remnants of dance beyond the stage, the collaborative project Kono atari no dokoka (Somewhere around here) navigates the artistic relationships of Japanese-Austrian performance-maker Michikazu Matsune, French choreographer Martine Pisani, and Dutch painter-performer Theo Kooijman. Focusing on their activities from the 1980s and 1990s, this venture examines the interplay between archives, personal memories, shared anecdotes, and imaginations.
Martine Pisani’s poetic and humor-infused body of work, initiated in the mid-1980s, intertwines movements, words, and performative acts. Michikazu Matsune, blending documentarist and conceptualist approaches, collaborates on this project, recording the trio’s shared history. Theo Kooijman, Pisani’s real-life partner and longtime performer, reimagines her early works for the project.
The fictional setting of Kono atari no dokoka brings the spectator to Japan, inviting reflection on local and global contexts and histories. The performance weaves together anecdotes from the trio: Pisani’s encounters with choreographer Odile Duboc, Kooijman’s arrival in Paris and fascination with tango, and Matsune’s youth in Kobe and subsequent move to Europe. Pisani’s life took a dramatic turn during this period due to an illness, adding another layer to the collective memory.
From Kobe to Marseille, Paris to Vienna, the performance constructs a composite present from personal stories, blending simplicity, poetry, humor, and tenderness. Kono atari no dokoka becomes a journey through time and space, revealing a shared history that lingers in the gaps and universality between continents, generations, and individual narratives.
http://www.michikazumatsune.info
http://www.ciemartinepisani.fr
Reviews
“I had to cry at the end of the documentary performance Kono atari no dokoka (Quelque part par ici – Somewhere about here), when French choreographer Martine Pisani spoke her lines.” – Fransien van der Putt in Theaterkrant.
Read the full review here.
"Their journey through time and space blurs borders, reduces distances, superimposes eras and combines languages in the eternal present of the imaginary"
This performance is made possible by:
Share
Michikazu Matsune
Martine Pisani
Theo Kooijman
Credits
Concept: Michikazu Matsune in dialogue with Martine Pisani
Based on the early works by Martine Pisani
With: Theo Kooijman, Michikazu Matsune, Martine Pisani
Light: Ludovic Rivière
Video: Michikazu Matsune, Maximillian Pramatarov
Artistic feedback: Miwa Negoro, Ludovic Rivière, Anne Lenglet
Translation, proofreading: Marion Schwartz, Brian Haman
Publication concept: Michikazu Matsune, Miwa Negoro
Publication design: Aki Namba
Video documentation: Markus Gradwohl
Management: Franziska Zaida Schrammel, Frauke Niemann
Production: Studio Matsune, La compagnie du solitaire
Coproduction: Festival d’Avignon, Tanzquartier Wien, Maison de la Culture d’Amiens, fabrik Potsdam, SPRING Performing Arts Festival Utrecht
With the support of La Briqueterie Centre de développement chorégraphique national, Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Centre national de la danse (Pantin)
Funded by the Ministère de la Culture Drac Île-de-France, the Municipal Department of Cultural Affairs, Vienna, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sports, the Austrian Cultural Forum Paris, Fonds Transfabrik (France, Germany) and ONDA – The French office for contemporary performing arts circulation
Creation for Festival d’Avignon 2023
Photo credits: Christophe Raynaud de Lage and Fabrice Robin
Also interesting
- Theatre
- SPRING coproduction
- World premiere
- Dance
- Dance
- SPRING coproduction
- NL premiere
collection of
Turkowski & Nowacka
What can a box of family photos from an Amsterdam home contain? An artistic investigation by a Polish duo that takes us into the rooms where the future of the global order was agreed upon, and to small remote villages on the other side of the world.
Spelling Spectacle
Ingrid Berger Myhre
Choreographer Ingrid Berger Myhre comes back to SPRING. Spelling Spectacle is a game where three performers navigate a meticulously devised, yet playful, plan. Sparkling with intelligence and humour, they stage an attempt to look for pitfalls in logic. Should we look at what is in front of us, or see through?
RUSH
Mette Ingvartsen
A wild ride through choreographer Mette Ingvartsen’s works of the past twenty years, many of which have been presented at SPRING. With citations, comments, and unexpected pairings Manon Santkin offers us new insights into the creations, and searches for new connections and contexts. A subversive solo piece celebrating the collaboration.