Screenshot Denise Luccioni from Around Grand Magasin
Archive Stories: Michel Uytterhoeven in conversation with Denise Luccioni
A conversation between two front-row witnesses of 50 years of performing arts in Europe and the U.S.
Denise Luccioni's video series Archive Stories bears witness to 50 years of life in the performing arts on both sides of the Atlantic. The episodes tell the story of the pioneering Sainte-Baume festival in southern France, Bénédicte Pesle's avant-la-lettre management agency Artservice International in Paris, and the artists with whom Denise worked closely: Steve Paxton, Trisha Brown, Merce Cunningham, Richard Foreman, Grand Magasin and Big Art Group. These are exceptional, “home-made” documents from a direct witness that give us the opportunity to touch that past today. But they are also narratives “in the first person singular” that, inevitably, form a biography of Luccioni herself.
Michel Uytterhoeven is also a witness from the very beginning. As one of the pioneers of Stuc and founder of Klapstuk – the international dance festival whose 1983, '85 and '87 editions he programmed – he was one of the protagonists of the early days of contemporary dance in Flanders. He too worked with several of the artists mentioned above, and the professional paths of Michel and Denise crossed several decades ago.
Michel Uytterhoeven talks to Denise Luccioni about what he saw, learned and thought while watching Archive Stories. What do you see in a mirror that shows part of your own history, but through the filter of someone else's experiences and memories? Does the work contribute new pieces to the puzzle and new perspectives, or does it mainly raise questions? Does today's perspective – nourished by a longer biography and coloured by the reality of the current world – confront us with the otherness of the past? Or do we mainly see continuity?
The video series Archive Stories or Dancing Neurons, Laughing Cells! can be viewed during the entire festival in the exhibition in STUK Studio.
Denise Luccioni (FR) has worked as an administrator, tour manager, curator, translator, and writer specializing in contemporary dance and performance. She began her career with Bénédicte Pesle at Artservice International in Paris, collaborating with leading figures of postmodern performance, including Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, Steve Paxton and Robert Wilson. She later worked in New York as tour manager for the Trisha Brown Company and as assistant to director Richard Foreman. In Paris, she co-founded the Cinémathèque de la danse and held curatorial positions at the Théâtre de la Bastille and the American Center, where she was part of the artistic team under Adam Weinberg. She also initiated the Soirées Nomades program at the Fondation Cartier. Alongside her curatorial work, Luccioni has translated major texts in dance and performance and has lectured and written extensively on postmodern dance, with a particular focus on the artistic developments of the 1960s and 1970s. She is currently developing Archive Stories, a video series in which she recounts, in the first person, her encounters with key figures in performance, weaving together archival material, personal memory, and new interview materials.
Michel Uytterhoeven (Leuven 1957) studied social pedagogy, theatre and architecture studies at KU Leuven. He worked for Stuk for eight years, where he founded Klapstuk, an international dance festival, and programmed the 1983, 1985 and 1987 editions. He then worked, among others, for the Flemish Opera, Antwerp 93 - European Capital of Culture, the Flemish Theatre Institute (VTi), Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods, the City of Antwerp's Department of Culture, Antwerp Open and Art Basics for Children.
This project is realised with the support of Life Long Burning - Futures Lost and Found (co-funded by the European Union).
Location
Price
free or support ticket (€5)
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