PUNKT

Downloads

Here you’ll find everything you need: a short introduction, some memorable quotes, high-res images which you can use free of charge with attribution, the press folder, and possibly some trailers, teasers, and other visuals.

PhotosDossierProgrammeTechnical rider

After the wonderful ICE, in which choreographer Bahar Temiz retraced the steps of the first polar explorers, she is now turning her gaze upwards. For her latest creation, PUNKT, she takes stories of the first balloon explorers as the starting point for her choreography. Spreading one’s wings has always inhabited humankind’s dreams, even though reaching heights was an evolutionary process. Flying initially meant leaving the ground for only a couple of meters and a couple of seconds at a time. Through technology people could reach higher and higher, to float over a growing abyss under their feet. 

The first aerial picture taken by the aeronaut Nadar opened a totally new perspective in the way people perceived space. His point of view – from a higher point in space, in a specific point in time – opened a new era. In his novel Levels of Life, Julian Barnes speaks of this moment as a turning point in human cognition. The perspective from above allowed us to look at our lives and ourselves better - as if the surface of the planet became a kind of mirror in which we saw our own reflection. Height opened the possibility of depth in a way it had not existed before. 

Height and depth are a matter of perspective (a point of view) as well as scale. The painter and theoretician Wassily Kandinsky wonders at what point a point is no longer a point. What are its limits? “Externally, the point may be defined as the smallest elementary form, but this definition is not exact. It is difficult to fix the exact limits of the concept “smallest form.” The point can grow and cover the entire ground plane unnoticed - then, where would the boundary between point and plane be?”

In PUNKT a trio of performers toy with the idea of flying: Bahar Temiz, together with Amanda Barrio Charmelo and Igor Shyshko, walks the lines between dance and visual arts to investigate themes such as elevation, expansion, air, breath and change of perspective. While they explore heights within the limitations of their body, their voices allow them to reach outside their body, towards space. Charo Calvo develops the idea of 3.1 speakers expanding the sound field around the audience. The extreme spectrum of the music reinforces the idea of free fall and gravity. The scenography by Pol Matthé deals with this “smallest elementary form” by developing the idea of a corner, a point as the intersection of three planes. Set against the soundscape and scenography, PUNKT becomes a sophisticated play of highs and lows. The three bodies relate to this metaphorical space of lines and points in a way that each point marks an end but also a beginning.

So let's imagine together

A dot in space that nobody sees
A dot that is gradually dilating
That now, everybody can see
A dot that keeps expanding
A dot that isn’t a dot anymore
But a ball regenerating itself,
that can infinitely expand
Or at any time explode?

(© Bahar Temiz)

Live recording

Live recording on demand via saskia.lienard@kvs.be (programmers) or sebastien.parizel@kvs.be (press).

https://vimeo.com/801623418 

Bio

Bahar Temiz
Amanda Barrio Charmelo
Igor Shyshko
Jot Fau

Credits

You can find the credits here.

'The sound seamlessly matches the transformations in the movement patterns and in space, without being illustrative. It is never a 'tapestry' to helpfully support the theatricality: you see and hear a life torn away from a realistic, referential reality.'

Pzazz

'Alternating between graceful flight, a state of elegant heaviness or finally in the grip of gravity, the three protagonists never seem to reach the ground, concentrating their discoveries and movements in this environment where humans are ultimately just an incongruous element.'

Karoo

Previous work by Bahar Temiz

PRESS OFFICER
Sébastien Parizel
sebastien.parizel@kvs.be
0478 92 09 82

​​(INTER)NATIONAL DISTRIBUTION & TOUR COORDINATION
​​Saskia Liénard
​​saskia.lienard@kvs.be
​​0496 55 19 92

​​PRODUCTION MANAGER
Catherine Vervaecke
catherine.vervaecke@kvs.be
02 210 11 57