A hybrid improvised music concert and dance performance by Beno Novak, Boštjan Simon, and Elvis Homan, awarded as the best performance of the 12th Biennial of Slovenian Contemporary Dance Art Gibanica 2023.
A pre-determined object, navigated by algorithms, at the same time one that tries to be a free individual, a subject-body persists in existing in the physical world. The trio Novak, Simon, and Homan, the first as a contemporary dancer and the other two as musicians, met on the Spider Festival’s stage in 2021. This meeting was neither by chance nor completely predictable because every contact between dance and musical creativity establishes a fieldof paradoxes, exchanges and intersections, and especially that of an experiment.
The hybrid improvised music concert and dance performance, Resurrection 2.0, takes as its starting point and driving force the very paradoxes of the meeting between the artists who create the performance. The age of digital hyperconnectivity is driven by algorithms and predetermined commands which further co-shape social choreographies both in the virtual sphere and in material reality. At the same time, the physical presence of the body is built from the physical experience of contact, the experience of time, bodily and social rhythms, and the exchange of chemical and physical elements. A constantly pre-determined object and at the same time one that tries to be a free individual, a subject-body persists in existing in the physical world. The meeting between a dancer, a musician, and another musician is, therefore, a spatial event. It is a place of the visible and the invisible, the audible and the (in)audible, a space where there are no coincidences and surprises, but where these bodies nevertheless build them. The space of in-betweenness. A search for a balance between silence/stillness and movement/sound, digital and the analogue, the full and the empty. And there occurs resurrection.
CREDITS
Authors: Elvis Homan, Beno Novak, Boštjan Simon
Performed by Beno Novak (body), Elvis Homan (drums), Boštjan Simon (saxophone)
Backing by Matej Kejžar
Producer Žiga Predan
Production Pekinpah
Co-production Qulenium
Duration of the performance: 45’
PREMIERE
24 June 2022, Kalejdoskop festival
Beno Novak (Kranj, 1991) is a dancer, choreographer and teacher. After graduating from the Art Gymnasium SVŠGUGL, he graduated from SEAD in Salzburg and is completing his master's degree in choreography at the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp. He has danced in award-winning international companies, such as the Gary Clarke Company, and has collaborated with numerous established choreographers. In 2023, for his participation in the performance VSTAJENJE 2.0 (Pekinpah, 2022), he received the award for best performance at the Gibanica Biennale and the Ksenija Hribar Award for a promising artist. He is the executive director of the Kaleidoscope Festival.
Boštjan Simon (1982) (instrumentalist, educator, producer; education: University of Ljubljana, Amsterdam conservatory) is a founding member of Kaučič’s international band “Orkester brez meja” and artistic co-director of Sax Go International Saxophonists’ Meeting. He is regarded as one of the best saxophone players in Slovenia and works regularly around the globe.
Elvis Homan (1991, Slovenia / The Netherlands) is a drummer, percussionist, sound designer, composer, and educator. He holds a master's degree in Live Electronics/Modern Composition from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where he studied under the supervision of Jos Zwaanenburg, Marcel Wierckx, and Jorrit Tamminga. He earned his bachelor's degree in drums from Codarts Rotterdam University of the Arts, under the guidance of Hans van Oosterhout, Joost Patocka, and Mark Schilders.
Elvis has received numerous awards, including two Erasmus Jazz Prizes, the Leiden Jazz Award, and the Best Performance Award at the Gibanica Biennial. He has performed at various prominent festivals and is a member of several musical ensembles. Additionally, he leads the Rotterdam Electronic Improvisers Orchestra (REIO). His focus lies on software environments such as Ableton Live and Max/MSP, as well as connecting acoustic drums to modular synthesizer systems.
©Urska Boljkovac