Suomenlinna | Gropius: Two Contemplations on Body, Movement and Intermateriality

Paula Kramer's book "How can we dance here - so the aliveness of everything past and present can surface and shimmer?" explores her embodied research into intermateriality, addressing how movement and choreography emerge in collaboration with site. The book is based on a 3-year site-based research project on Lanskari and Martin-Gropius-Bau in Helsinki and Berlin, and includes narration, poetry, and theory born out of specific experiences of moving-dancing, being, eating, choreographing, performing, and in and with the two sites.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 168 pages
Publication date: 15 April 2021
Publisher: Triarchy Press

How can we dance here - so the aliveness of everything past and present can surface and shimmer?

Paula Kramer's captivating and evocative contemplations transport us on a double journey that begins with "Site" (one in Helsinki and one in Berlin), proceeds to "Practice," and concludes with "Performance." Drawing from a three-year site-based research project (a post-doc at Uniarts Helsinki's Centre for Artistic Research), the book delves into her embodied exploration into intermateriality. It addresses the central question that guided her research: how does movement and choreography emerge in collaboration with site? More specifically, how do bodies, materials, sites, organisms, history, tuning, training, phenomena, events, and the weather intertwine and communicate, giving rise to what we may later label as movement, dance, or choreography?

The two sites explored in the book are Lanskari, the wildest and least populated of Helsinki's Suomenlinna islands, and Martin-Gropius-Bau on Berlin's Sudplatz. Located near the Berlin Wall, the House of Representatives, and the former headquarters of the first Stasi, the former SS, and the Gestapo, Martin-Gropius-Bau holds a rich history and significance. The book explores narration, poetry, and theory that arise from specific experiences of moving-dancing, being, eating, choreographing, performing, and inhabiting these two sites. The author engages in conversations with experts in history, geology, and performance, inviting us to perceive and experience sites, dance, and movement in fresh and transformative ways.

Weight: 308g
Dimension: 168 x 189 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781913743246