Moved bodies
The book is a conclusion to Moved Bodies. Choreographies of Modernity, an exhibition held at Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, Poland between November 18, 2016 and March 5, 2017, and a conference entitled How Does the Body Think? Corporeal and Movement Based Practices of Modernism organized in partnership with Professor Małgorzata Leyko (from the Department of Theatre and Drama, Institute of Contemporary Culture, Faculty of Philology, University of Łódź) December 3-4, 2016. The collection opens with a visual essay documenting the exhibition (whose scenography was created by Karolina Fandrejewska) and performances that were an essential part of the project, as well as an essay written as an overview to the artistic (or, more broadly the cultural), social and political themes which were the focus of the exhibition. Exhibition: Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, Poland (18.11.2016- 05.03.2017). With its starting point in the sculptural theory and practice of Katarzyna Kobro, the exhibition raises a question about the bodily and movement-related experience of modernity. The theme is tackled through an interdisciplinary approach: in the context of dance, choreographic and theatrical practices. The objective of the exhibition is to confront the sculptures by Katarzyna Kobro with choreographic and dance practices of the first half of the 20th century, building up the context for Kobro's artistic practice. Similarly to female modernist dancers and choreographers, in her theoretical works Kobro was asking questions on the nature of movement and its spatial relations. Working with the sculpture matter, she undertook the theme of rationalisation and functionalisation of movement in daily life. The key narrative of the exhibition is meant to give the viewers - via a number of archive films and photographs - an insight into dance and choreography experiments. Yet, the exposition is not only of archive nature: its layout was arranged in cooperation with an opera and dramatic theatre stage designer, Karolina Fandrejewska. Instead of architecture, she proposes the scenography creatively appropriated from the archive material meant to serve as an inspiration for performative activities by artists, such as Tomasz Bazan, Marysia Zimpel, Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group, Noa Shadur. Artists: Akarova, Tomasz Bazan, Busby Berkeley, Fred Boissonnas, Giannina Censi, Chamber Dance Group, Rosalia Chladek, Émil-Jaques Dalcroze, Sonia Delaunay, Jane Dudley, Isadora Duncan, Noa Eshkol, Karolina Fandrejewska, Loïe Fuller, Martha Graham, Kurt Jooss, Katarzyna Kobro, Zygmunt Krauze, Rudolf Laban, Wsiewołod Meyerhold, The New Dance Group, Gret Palucca, Leni Riefenstahl, Józef Robakowski, Valentine de Saint-Point, Oskar Schlemmer, Edith Segal, Noa Shadur, Vera Skoronel, Władysław Strzemiński, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Helen Tamiris, Jean Weidt, Mary Wigman, Maria Zimpel.