transience
ŠEIKO DANCE COMPANY | MACIEJ KUŹMIŃSKI COMPANY
Transience is a site-specific living installation choreographed by Maciej Kuźmiński in collaboration with dramaturg Paul Bargetto and produced by Šeiko Dance Company based on the performance “i”. In the piece, a group of faceless visitors occupy a part of the local urban landscape as a form of living sculpture. Their intervention in contemporary reality creates a dissonance and invites the public to engage in a situation where the familiar is suddenly made strange and open to reinterpretation and contemplation.
Conceived as trans human beings from the future or from another world, the “visitors” operate on several levels of meaning in the contemporary urban environment. The most important idea is the concept of transience. We live in very uncertain times, and the idea that everything can change profoundly and quickly without warning is one of the central features of our current zeitgeist. We constantly evolve, increasingly upgrading ourselves with the latest achievements of technology, adapting to the social and ethical norms that shift accordingly, we gradually becoming the orphans of the contemporary world.
This living installation is durational, spread over many hours, allowing the beings to become living sculptures, to fully inhabit a location and provide the public time to contemplate. Their intervention in contemporary reality creates a dissonance and invites the public to engage in a situation where the familiar is suddenly made strange and open to reinterpretation. An important goal is to make visible to the public and encourage them to contemplate the essence of our time - the habits, routines, social norms, behavioural patterns, and, finally, the almost invisible objects that inhabit urban space, like trees or signs.
In the current pandemic environment, where mask wearing and social distancing are mandated policies, the beings also present the possibility of a worse, apocalyptic situation, where helmets and full body suits become necessary for survival.
On the performative level the visitors represent a maximum otherness. Their motivations, and the meanings of their movements are purposefully inscrutable and hidden, and they make no or little attempt to communicate with or directly interact with the public. They are simply present. On this level, the performance brings the public into a confrontation with their own attitudes towards strangers and their tolerance for otherness.
transience artists
performance
Mantas Černeckas
Marija Ivaškevičiūtė
Darius Berulis
transience
ŠEIKO DANCE COMPANY | MACIEJ KUŹMIŃSKI COMPANY
direction
Maciej Kuźmiński
co-creation
Paul Bargetto
costume design
Slavna Martinović
performance
Oksana Griaznova, Evgenij Kalachov
Niels Claes, Gintare Ščavinskų
Mantas Černeckas, Marija Ivaškevičiūtė
Inga Kuznecova, Darius Berulis
photos
Modestas Endriuska
intern assistant choreographer
Emile Boer
producers
Goda Giedraityte, Maciej Kuźmiński, Aleksandra Machnik
production
Šeiko Dance Company, Lithuania
Maciej Kuźmiński Company, Poland
M7 Productions, Poland
duration
3-5 hours
premiere
25 September 2020, Vilnius, Lithuania
during the Culture Night event
UPCOMING EVENTS
Requiem | Talent on the Move tour
Netherlands, Vlaardingen
Stadshoorzaal Vlaardingen
21 March 2024 | 7:30 PM
Requiem | Talent on the Move tour
Netherlands, Nijverdal
ZINiN
22 March 2024 | 7:30 PM
Memoryhouse
Austria, Linz Landestheater
Schauspielhaus
23 Mar 2024 | 5:00 PM
Dwa / Zwei – Premiere
Germany, Osnabrück
Theater Osnabrück, main stage
30 March 2024 | 7:30 PM
Requiem | Talent on the Move tour
Netherlands, Hardenberg
Theater de Voorveghter
04 April 2024 | 8:15 PM
Requiem | Talent on the Move tour
Netherlands, Weert
Munttheater
05 April 2024 | 8:15 PM
Memoryhouse
Austria, Linz Landestheater
Schauspielhaus
06 April 2024 | 5:00 PM
Requiem | Talent on the Move tour
Netherlands, Brielle
Brestheater
06 April 2024 | 8:30 PM
Resistance Movement | Solo Dance Contest Winners Gala
Poland, Gdańsk
Żak Club
07 April 2024 | 19:00
Requiem | Talent on the Move tour
Netherlands, Houten
Theater aan de Slinger
10 April 2024 | 8:15 PM
Requiem | Talent on the Move tour
Netherlands, Veendam
Vanberesteyn Cultural Center
12 April 2024 | 8:15 PM
Memoryhouse
Austria, Linz Landestheater
Schauspielhaus
13 April 2024 | 7:30 PM
Dwa / Zwei
Germany, Osnabrück
Theater Osnabrück, main stage
13 April 2024 | 7:30 PM
Dwa / Zwei
Germany, Osnabrück
Theater Osnabrück, main stage
19 April 2024 | 7:30 PM
Requiem | Talent on the Move tour
Netherlands, Hoogezand
Theater Kielzog
19 April 2024 | 8:15 PM