18.10.2023 seminar of accidental wisdom: Viktor Čech
Seminar of Accidental Wisdom: Viktor Čech
18.10.2023
So that many in their madness began dancing...
“So that many in their madness began dancing, Which they kept up day and night, Without interruption, Until they fell unconscious. Many have died of it.”
For many of us today, expressive movement, or what we would call dance, is primarily about liberation, sharing our own physicality with ourselves and our surroundings. At the same time, however, in its understanding as choreography, a form written in movement, it is something that can control the human body, steer towards other-dictated expressions, whether purely aesthetic or linked to given social conventions, but also ideological frameworks.
These aspects of movement, as it manifests itself in contemporary art, but also in the social context in general, have been the focus of Viktor Čech's theoretical and curatorial research in recent years. In the creative field at the intersection of contemporary dance, performance and other media, these phenomena are often reflected both in relation to the problems of the contemporary world and through reflection on the heritage of historical cultural forms. Can dance liberate us, or is it just another straitjacket from which we can only helplessly watch the misery of the contemporary world go up in flames?
Viktor Čech is an independent theorist, curator and critic of contemporary art. In his projects he often deals with questions of performativity, choreographic forms, as well as experimental forms of curatorial work. Similar topics are also addressed in his art-historical research. He is the author of the books Choreographic Moment and Choreography of Thought - Effort - Body Movement as a Space Time (Dis)continuity.