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M. Kuźmiński is working in Lithuania for the first time. Together with the staff of the Šeikas Dance Theater, Klaipėda is putting on the show “I”, which has grown for almost two and a half years. When the choreographer met, he praised Klaipeda’s laid-back atmosphere, saying that medium-sized cities like it more than large ones.
In Poland, M. Kuźmiński also lives in a medium-sized city, but this does not mean that life is calm or sedentary. Since 2014, the performances created by M. Kuźmiński managed to travel to 20 countries, were screened 150 times and won various awards. The choreographer not only creates presentations, but also works as a guest speaker.
I think we are already living in a transhumanist era. He seems to be talking about incredible things, like consciousness transfer, but in part this is already happening. We already live in social networks. It is an extension of the human experience and it happens gradually.
The Polish dance network that he founded three years ago also needs attention. Currently, the organization unites 17 cities and 21 theaters. “Poland is very big, but the world of dance is smaller, you would be surprised how little and how little is financed. The emergence of the network was a huge boost for the developers, they realized that they could come together and do something together that would have a lasting impact, ”said M. Kuźmiński. We spoke with the choreographer about the upcoming performance, the atypical circumstances, dictated by the pandemic of its construction, and the costumes of the dancers who recall the science fiction work.
– Tell us about the job that brought you to Klaipeda, about “me”. How did the idea for this performance evolve?
– I am interested in existential issues: identity, interior space and individual space in society. This work is a continuation of this interest. One of my first works was on identity, its search, with equality. The play was called Difference and Repetition, and I resisted the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s concept of difference and repetition. One demands the other.
I notice that when everyone covered and still covered their face, I became even more relevant. Adherence to social distance has become the norm, we are in a world of new normality, where posthumanistic circumstances are becoming more and more real.
– Are you saying that the pandemic helped crystallize the ideas that emerged during the development process?
– Perhaps not so much to crystallize as to provide a new relevant and inevitable context. Whatever happens, the people who see the performance, dancers in costumes that cover the whole body and face, will think of a pandemic when they had to cover their faces, when social distance was forced, but a reality. On the one hand, it has to do with what I’m doing anyway, on the other hand, it has to do with a new context created by myself.
– Transhumanism is mentioned in the description of the work. How do you interpret this term yourself?
– I am more interested in the experience than the technological context. What does it mean to be human when cavities open up in our experiences (for example, social exclusion, gradual fragmentation of the entire history of life). Experiencing and absorbing so many images and personality variations that in the end all you are is just a broken mirror.
But it is an exciting and extreme body experience, this is how we become more and more. As the world becomes more and more, everything is more and more.
Zygmunt Bauman wrote that modern Western communities tend to focus on risk assessment. A person can drive, but not too fast, he can invest, but it is important to have a safety net. Safeguards are in place to limit behavior that could endanger yourself or others. We live in a society of forced observation, imposed rules, and at the same time we see a growing passion for excitement and risk. People parachute because they want to feel alive. They behave in risky ways because they expect to experience the sensation of an unexpected ending, which in turn brings them closer to the experience of life.
We feel open the cavities of experience that we are trying to fill with technology. The programs are getting more animated. We can talk on your phone and the phone can answer. Send a smile to a friend and the friend will smile at you. He looks at the glowing screen with the symbol and considers her his representative. That change is less and less noticeable. I wonder how individuals and small communities handle these changes. At the end of the day, in fact, it only accelerates this fragmentation, we are in a space of extremes.
– Enthusiasts of technological development would say that in fact all technologies extend to us, because man, even primitive man, has always used some kind of tools. What do you think about this?
– The most important goal of transhumanism is to transcend human limitations: mortality, cognitive limitations. It may never be successful, but a considerable increase in perception is already taking place. Do you remember the phone numbers of your friends? You don’t even need it, everything is protected by technology.
– Transhumanism is not limited to theoretical considerations. There is no shortage of practitioners who work in laboratories and look for ways to, for example, move consciousness, some call the body a biological substrate. How do you see the imagined future of the transhumanists?
– It is interesting to mention these terms, we use some in our exercises. We have several sequences where you need to feel without a body or how to feel your body as new, or how to feel another body. Interestingly, dance can explore existential philosophical ideas in a very bodily way.
I think we are already living in a transhumanist era. He seems to be talking about incredible things, like consciousness transfer, but in part this is already happening. We already live in social networks. It is an extension of the human experience and it happens gradually. I find it interesting through a social prism: how it arises, how it affects an individual’s identity, how identity is broken and re-elected. I’m not talking about schizophrenia, but the phenomenon of self-evaluation, which occurs when you have different sets of traits that you show to different people, different connections. How you behave when you are anonymous. How can you build yourself according to the lifestyle models advertised in the media? It is about identity, but also about the almost imperceptible changes in society that we are used to. When you look back, you realize that it was a huge change. COVID-19 illustrates it well – everything has changed in two weeks – it will seem strange if you want to shake or hug your hand, although it was normal two weeks ago.
– Tell me, how does the “I” bet process work?
– We work very openly with the entire team. I try to leave as much freedom as possible, not to dictate what everyone has to do. I share my creative work in half with the dancers. They have a lot of room to explore. For me, this working method is the most interesting. I am very opposed to the belief that dancers are contracted bodies. If you delve into dance theory, they are artists. I always present dancers as performers and creators.
I don’t learn his dance steps; we meet, we discuss what interests us, how they feel about the task. So far, we are investigating, testing things. Anything can happen. Interestingly, due to quarantine requirements, three weeks of work have been spent in the online space. So the transhumanist experience has just become this performance.
– The dance seems very contact – How did you manage to work alone?
– Everything differently. I didn’t know what Zoom was until recently, and now I have a paid membership. When we communicate online, I cannot make adjustments. I can talk about the concept of giving homework, but the dancers work for themselves. I think that the work of a choreographer is related to creating an atmosphere: when working online, the dancers have to create that atmosphere themselves. And then you have to send the result. I comment on the result, I return to give new tasks. Send it again. Interesting things have happened, but virtually you can’t even go into the second stage of creating a performance, which is research and development, not to mention development and handling, set design and positioning.
Being a choreographer means being part of a creative network. Dancing is a community activity. Sometimes you don’t even need words to feel people, their bodies. Everything happens in a space of time that we feel together.
– In the performance, the dancers will wear costumes that completely hide their identity. What is its meaning?
Costumes are a concept. The concept is wardrobe. With different costumes, the performance would be completely different. We started with the costume, then everything else was gone. I worked very closely with costume designer Slavna Martinović. We wanted the costumes to completely cover the dancers, but for the dancers to see those around them, a kind of observational capitalism. When we started working with the dancers, from day one they were in costumes. From a practical point of view, dancers have difficulty breathing, they need to learn to inhale through the mouth and exhale through the nose. We usually breathe backwards. But if you breathe normally, you won’t see anything, the inside of the mask will be foggy. One mistake and voila. Also with the pretty hot costumes.
The dancers experience the environment with their body, skin, sometimes even dancing barefoot. There are even exercises during which our skin tries to feel the air, its movements. “I” is a totally confined suit. But it allows a different experience. The dancers say it is an inspiring feeling and that it brings the character closer. I would say that the work is impregnated with purely physical experience, it was not in the idea of the work, but that it was born by itself.
People in suits become architecture, landscape. When not moving, sculptures.
The wardrobe is here more important than the existential dimension than the narrative.
– The costumes are very specific, where did you get inspiration for their design?
– If we look at the content of science fiction, we will definitely see that it has been investigated and considered, seen somewhere. But one can see people or aliens in disguise on a movie screen and quite another: in front of them, in the subway. This is out of balance. In that moment, you realize how uncomfortable it is not to see someone else’s face, even though you know it’s there.
One of the main inspirations was the not so well known film Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010). There is a frame from that movie: a figure and mirrors. Looking at it, there seem to be many shapes, but these are just reflections. We are also inspired by other artists, such as Yayoi Kusama, and the ideas of his endless reflections, also inspired by Stanisław Dróżdż, a representative of specific Polish poetry. I like old science fiction movies. One of my favorites is the first Blade Runner (1982), which tests an Android to see if it is human.
– Mention movies about the world of the future. How do you see it yourself, liberating or threatening?
– I believe that in some aspects the future will be liberating, it will free us from fear. Or at least give it a try. As much as it takes to feel better in our lives, but not enough to stop being afraid of power, of the system. As for other aspects, we will see. Observe trends, phenomena.
I remember a world without the Internet, without smartphones, without computers. Amazing. It was a different reality, but look how quickly we adapt.
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