Practical Encyclopedia. Detours

The notion of praxis serves as a springboard for Kaklea’s focus on the range of human activities existing beyond the dichotomy “work/leisure.” Her body of work thus registers the social transformations on the European periphery, making a first stop at Aubervilliers, France’s poorest suburb. The interviews on which this project is based attest to the fact that, “our practices are the medium through which we discover and cultivate our identity, build our relationship to our body, and exercise or fail to find freedom.”

Lenio Kaklea appeared on the stage of Stegi for the first time in 2014, in the context of the 1st Young Choreographers Festival, with her solo “Deux·L”, the outcome of her collaboration with the American choreographer Luncinda Childs, on music by the Japanese composer Ryoji Ikeda. Her new work –a co-production of Stegi with European institutions, such as the Pompidou Center in Paris, the Poitiers Biennale, the European festival NEXT and three national stages of France– is located at the intersection of social anthropology and contemporary art practice. Athens is the third stop of the European tour of the performance “Practical encyclopedia. Détours”. Lenio Kaklea was honoured this year for her work with the award of the Institute Hermès Italia and Triennale Milano.

Lenio Kaklea’s work engages the concept of “techniques of the body” derived from the theories of one of the fathers of social anthropology, Marcel Mauss, who demonstrated that existing social orders are produced and maintained through the body. The body thus provides a means for interpreting aspects of the very culture that shapes it.

The term “expansive” choreography refers to the theoretical and practical shift from a pure focus on movement (pure dance) to a broader notion of movement and the body. This shift recognizes dance as a form of knowing that draws not only on the information inscribed on our bodies, but also on the ways in which this information is reproduced and disseminated within the broader social body.

In the context of the performance, Lenio Kaklea creates an exhibition that includes the printed edition of the book “Practical encyclopedia. Détours”, as well as a space where a 15-minute film will be projected. The film presents the encounter of the choreographer with Maryse Emel, philosopher and citizen of Aubervilliers, and poses substantial questions about our body as cultural construction. Moreover, a 150-minute long soundtrack will be available to the visitors in the space of the exhibition, which accompanies the reading of the book and deepens this experience for those who want to.

The book “Practical encyclopedia. Détours” presents, in the format of an encyclopedia, the collection of rituals, habits, exercises, obsessions and professions of the 600 people Lenio Kaklea met in Athens, Poitiers, Nyon, Aubervilliers, Gisenyi and Essen.

The exhibition will last 1 hour before and 1 hour after the performance at +5 The Workspace.
Free admission, on a first come first served basis.