Performance
EMBODIED IMAGE
Performance by Hiie Saumaa - Video by Chris Lee
in echo to the exhibiton Beyond the Frame : Image in action
Hiie Saumaa – dancer, choreographer
Chris Lee – videographer, editor
“In this video, I performed an embodied exploration of the artworks exhibited at “Beyond the Frame: Image in Action.” I focused on each of the works by each of the ten artists
I bring bodily sensations, intuitive physical responses, and embodied, somatic wisdom to the experience of viewing art. I animated the artworks and the gallery space with movement. The video presentation draws attention to the importance of physical sensations, kinesthetic imagination, and the dancing mind in how we respond to works of art.
At the heart of this project lies few questions, "What happens when we respond to visual art by using the whole body? Is there a different kind of knowledge that arises in us when we add movement and dance to how we respond to visual images? What does the experience of this kind of embodied wisdom feel like?"
Hiie Saumaa - November 2020
About Hiie Saumaa
Hiie Saumaa (Ph.D., Columbia), is a dance writer/scholar and movement educator. Her dance writings explore interconnections between dance, movement imagination, and creativity. She is currently working on a book on the unpublished writings and artwork of the choreographer Jerome Robbins. Her articles have appeared or are forthcoming in Dance Research Journal, Dance Chronicle, the Journal of Dance, Movement & Spiritualities, Somatics Journal/Magazine, Journal for Alternative and Complementary Therapies, Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, and Routledge Companion to Dance Studies.
As a certified instructor of Nia dance, the BodyLogos© Technique, and JourneyDance™, Saumaa teaches courses and classes in sensory-based dance modalities, creative movement, expressive arts, meditative strength training, and somatic awareness. In 2017, she was a fellow at the Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. In 2018-2019, Saumaa was an inaugural fellow at Columbia's interdisciplinary Institute for Ideas & Imagination in Paris and was doing a residency at Cite Internationale des Arts, where she collaborated with other artists on movement and art projects. In 2019-2020 Hiie joined faculty of the Paris College of Art, and became one of the local artists co-hosts for the L’AiR Arts Residency.
About Chris Lee born in U.K. Chris Lee is a British photographer and filmmaker
with an observant curiosity into different cultures and with a deep passion for storytelling, his work spans multiple disciplines inspired by story archetypes, human values and the collective unconscious. It is the nature of photography that provides him with an illusion of truth whereby he can begin to dissect reality, reflect life and create new tells. Before obtaining a Master’s Degree in Photography and Image-Making at Paris College of Art, he attended Central Saint Martins University of the Arts in London 2006 - 2009, studying Visual Communication, and later achieving a Visual Storytelling diploma at Les Gobelins, Paris, 2019. Moving to a foreign country enabled an immersive, long term project exploring urbanism and the city life in depth from the outsider’s perspective. Chris‘s Faux Paris project that juxtaposes urban and natural scenes of Paris, was presented as part of “Beyond the Frame: Image in Action” exhibition alongside other photographic artists.
Presentation by the artists
Partners
Yong Hee Kim - Tokyo Train
Chris Lee - Faux Paris
Artist's projects
Valerie Smith - Counterpoints
Una Laurencic - What Happens if We Stop Looking Through Possession of Information and
Start Looking With Our Eyes Instead?
Sofyan Syamsul - Below the waves
Peggy Stevenson - Sister Dreams In Color
Chris Lashbrook- Ceiling Theatrics
Cara Coombe - Hung out to dry
Candice Inc - In Betweens
Barbara Boissevain - Salt Pond
visual: Cara Coombe - Self Portrait
Beyond The Frame: Image In Action is an exhibition that brings together ten international photographic artists, presented at Mémoire de l'Avenir, from October 17 to November 15, 2020. These artists were selected by a reviewing committee for an international residency in Paris hosted by L’AiR Arts. The exhibition is held as a collaboration between the artists, L’AiR Arts, and Mémoire de l’Avenir—the Humanities, Arts and Society’s curatorial team and supported by the City of Paris.
The exhibition aims to pose questions about the roles and the responsibilities of images within today's global society and their power of action, going beyond the space of presentation and representation. Within visual language and as a “signifier”, an image can shift ways of seeing and change perceptions. Photography enables a framing of political, societal, and personal narratives through distinct perspectives, providing insight for viewers to gaze through the photographer’s lens and interact with new viewpoints. In doing so, images call into question the position of the artist, and the role they may enact in society.
An image is also an agent of encounters and of dialogue. Its interpretation does not depend solely upon the person who produces it, but also engages the understanding of the person who looks at it. Throughout this cross-dialogue between the photographer and the viewer, an image can open up a multitude of possibilities in the field of experience, thought, and reflection.
The artists included in this exhibition propose narratives and experimental processes that bear witness to current environmental and social issues by seeking to portray the mysteries and overlooked understandings that surround us. In this way, the exhibition sheds light on the links that bring human beings and nature closer together.
In her Salt Pond project, Barbara Boissevain has composed quasi-conceptual images with striking bi- or tri-chromes, by which she engages in a significant discourse on environmental management and the ecosystem of the Ravenswood region in California. Cara Coombe investigates the image of the body in the state of anxiety through her series of self-portraits. She does this by visually manipulating parts of her body to create an abstract representation of the burden and influence of mental illness. In Tokyo Train, Yong Hee Kim looks at the recording of natural phenomena, in particular the interactions between light and speed. He created images that investigate this relationship during a train journey through the suburbs of Tokyo. Candice Inc dives into an archive of images from her childhood, presenting a series of distorted images through which she seeks to articulate her experience of the emotional extremes of bipolar disorder. Chris Lashbrook, invoking the spirit of El Duende to, elicits strong emotional responses, and engages the viewer in a conversation between naturally-produced colours, light, and forms and the visual abstractions that are possible in photography. Una Laurencic’s work was created around abandoned castles in Estonia. Her images reflect the unplanned and unsettled destiny of the buildings, representing distorted or even delusional representations of these sites. Chris Lee‘s Faux Paris project juxtaposes urban and natural scenes of Paris. The series is drawn from an urge to create empathy between environment, people, and the impact of urbanism. By bringing together music and dance, in Counterpoint, Valerie Smith creates a dialogue between landscapes, natural forms and choreography. She questions the influence of our contemplation as much as that of nature on human creativity. Peggy Stevenson has been documenting the city of Chicago since 2008 using colour and black-and-white film. She seeks to capture the energy of the city as well as its diversity and struggles. In Below The Waves, Sofyan Syamsul reflects on sustainability and threats to the environment by exploring the depths of the oceans troubled by human waste.
Photography can be seen as an effective instrument of research and documentation, yet one that is not constrained by the conventional boundaries of “reality”. The photographic medium, as practiced here, allows artists to navigate through poetry and introspection, guiding spectators toward new ideas and imaginings. Passed through the filter of the subjective vision of the author, the photographic image can reach beyond mere representation. The possibility of transcending reality can lead the viewer into a perceptive realm, influencing opinions, changing mentalities, and questioning facts, with the image as a powerful tool for awareness and engagement.
Marie-Cécile Berdaguer - Margalit Berriet
Curators
In partnership with Mila Ovchinnikova
Director and founder of L'AiR Arts
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BEYOND THE FRAME
image in action
17.10-15.11
Barbara Boissevain - USA
Cara Coombe - UK / Australia
Yong Hee Kim - Korea / USA
Candice Inc - USA
Chris Lashbrook - Canada
Una Laurencic - Serbia
Chris Lee - UK
Valerie Smith - USA
Peggy Stevenson - Philippines / USA
Sofyan Syamsul - Indonesia
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