first performance at 19:00, second performance at 21:00 NOTES ON UTOPIA Alexander Gerner, Marie Nerland, Lígia Soares Notes on Utopia is a performance which builds a situation for reflecting on contemporary utopia, on public space and on utopian thoughts in art and life. Passing from climbing stairs, to looking at the ceiling or meeting the
first performance at 19:00, second performance at 21:00
NOTES ON UTOPIA
Alexander Gerner, Marie Nerland, Lígia Soares
Notes on Utopia is a performance which builds a situation for reflecting on contemporary utopia, on public space and on utopian thoughts in art and life. Passing from climbing stairs, to looking at the ceiling or meeting the audience seated at a table, this performance approaches utopia through various modes of dealing with imaginary spaces and times.
Previous versions of the performance have been presented in Lisbon and Bergen. Gerner, Nerland and Soares have previously collaborated on the performances Endings for Berlin at Bekarei, Berlin (2006), Let’s do endings again at Lydgalleriet in Bergen (2007) and Endings for Oslo at Black Box Teater/UKS in Oslo (2007).
Alexander Gerner is a German playwright, theatre director and a researcher in Philosophy of Cognitive Sciences, based in Lisbon. He is a member of the Centre for Philosophy of Science at the University of Lisbon (CFCUL) and holds a PhD on „Philosophical Investigations of Attention“ (2012). At the moment he is head of the CFCUL thematic research line ”Philosophy of Human Technologies” and a Post-Doc Researcher at the CFCUL on the topic of ”Philosophy of Cognitive Enhancement” with an FCT research grant. He investigates how technologies constitute, magnify, amplify human experiences, but can also enslave or put human experience and life at risk. He explores questions raised by human, cognitive, virtual and social ”enhancements” and critically envisions social or individual utopias (Bostrom, Kurzweil etc.) of human experience and their transformation that challenge policymakers and the public in general today or have to be prepared for in the near future. From 2015 onwards Gerner approaches the outreach of scientific and philosophical debates into public space on the (u-)topia of Human Enhancement in extended (artistic) ”peer reviews” such as by this new edition of the Notes on Utopia performance project.
Marie Nerland is an artist and curator based in Bergen, Norway. She holds a master in theatre studies from the University of Bergen and in creative curatorial practice from the Bergen Academy of Art and Design. She has been working with performance since 1999 in different collaborative projects. She was co-editor of the performing arts magazine 3t (1997-2007) and the Norwegian Art Yearbook (Pax Forlag, 2010-2014). In 2008, she founded Volt, a curatorial project for contemporary art based in Bergen.
Lígia P. Soares is a Portuguese choreographer and playwright working in the field of performative arts. She started her work in 1997 with Companhia de Teatro Sensurround in Lisbon. Since 2001 she created more then 20 pieces a solo or in collaboration. Her work has been developed and presented both nationally and internationally. From 2004 to 2006 she was artist in residency at TanzFabrik in Berlin. She took part in several programs of contemporary dance and artistic residencies in Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Danceweb, PRACTICE (UferStudios), Fabrik Potsdam, Point-Éphémère, Centre National de la Danse, Alkantara, Nomad Lab Dance Academy, Guimarães 2012 among others. She is co-director of “Máquina Agradável” (Lisbon) since 2001 and co-mentor of the program “Demimonde” since 2011. http://www.maquinaagradavel.com
The presentation of the performance in Ljubljana, is funded by Arts Council Norway. Notes on Utopia was made with support from Bergen center for electronic art, Arts Council Norway and City of Bergen. Alexander Gerners (CFCUL) research is supported by a FCT grant SFRH/BPD/90360/2012.
Free entrance. Limited number of participants. Reservations: andreja.bolcina@kinosiska.si
NOTES ON UTOPIA performance is in english.
