Weightless

ANDREJ BOLESLAVSKÝ

Unity, encounter, destination: A VR experience of contemporary dance, unencumbered by gravity, invites us at Onassis Stegi to translate earthly notions in a weightless world.

How would it feel like to live in a lighter world? Gravity, which keeps us grounded, even if invisible, is one of the main forces that shape our life here on Earth, as is time. If everything had less weight, on a planet like Mars, how much of what we know would be different, and how would our society be reformed? If the absence of gravity caused chaos, how would we manage to restore harmony?

In “Weightless”, presented at the Onassis Stegi Exhibition Hall on 4th and 5th July, Andrej Boleslavský transfers us to this imaginary place, through a VR environment, creating a cinematic experience of contemporary dance. As an art that is directly related to gravity- whether it aims to follow it, or defy it- dance takes on a new meaning when this power is altered.

Offering a window into a possible future world, the artist invites us to observe the dancers as their bodies separate from Earth, and urges us to rethink “from above”, notions such as unity, encounter, and destination.

This project, which is a work in progress, was developed during the artist’s residency at Onassis Stegi in the summer of 2019, as part of the European Media Artists in Residence Exchange (EMARE) program of the European Media Art Platform (EMAP), co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

CREDITS

Artist: Andrej Boleslavský

Choreographer: Chrysanthi Badeka

Scuba Diving Instructor & Underwater Coordinator: Marios Zervas

Costume Designer: Christina Sotiropoulou

Dancers: Emanuela Korki, Anthi Theofilidi, Dimitra Vlachou

Safety Divers: Marios Zervas, Kostas Barlis, Chrysanthi Badeka, Sofia Petridou, Iasonas Petroutsos

Lifeguard: Konstantina Alexiou

Digital Art Support: Constantine Nisidis

Special Thanks: Vitoria Kotsalou, Vasilis Tsiairis, Anastasia Daferera, Alexandros Vichos

With the Kind Support of Nautilus Dive Center, Villa Anasa

Produced by: Onassis Stegi

Andrej Boleslavský

Andrej Boleslavský (SK/CZ) is an award-winning digital artist looking at technology in the fields of new media art, virtual reality, light installations and physical computing. He maintains a strong fascination with the entanglement of nature and technology.

In his past works with digital artist Mária Júdová he explores the boundaries between physical and digital. He has developed numerous interactive installations and lectured on open source and creative coding tools. In addition, he is actively involved as a technologist for other artists and interaction designers.

Throughout the last few years, his collaborative works take inspiration from contemporary dance and digital technologies. By creating interactions between these two seemingly contradictory media, he aims to create confusing, yet artistically meaningful experiences.

THE EUROPEAN MEDIA ART PLATFORM - EMAP

Eleven European partners with the same goal: to support up-and-coming media artists in order to create new works. Onassis Stegi is one them.

Onassis Stegi continues to support artistic practices positioned between art, science and technology through its participation, along with ten other partners, in The European Media Art Platform - EMAP which provides up-and-coming media artists working in the visual arts, design, film, music and sound, with the chance to participate in residencies and to create new works to be presented at festivals and other events in partner-countries.

In partnership with: Werkleitz Centre for Media Art (Germany), Onassis Stegi (Greece), Ars Electronica Center (Austria), Bandits Mages (France), Foundation for Art & Creative Technology / FACT (UK), IMPAKT (Netherlands), Kontejner (Croatia), LaBoral Centro de Arte y Creación Indstrial (Spain), M-Cult (Finland), RIXC (Latvia), WRO Center for Media Art Foundation (Poland)

EMAP is coordinated by Werkleitz Centre for Media Art (Germany)

Information

Onassis Stegi

107 Sygrou Avenue

4 - 5 July 2019 | 18:00-21:00

Exhibition Hall -1

Exhibition: Free entrance

Talk: Free admission on a first come, first served basis. Prebooking: digital@sgt.gr

The distribution of entrance tickets begins one (1) hour before the event.

PROGRAM:

Thursday 4 July

Discussion |18:00-19:15 & Exhibition | 19:15-21:00