Blut Ist Im Schuh

BLUT IST IM SCHUH

Painting and Dancing–Performance
With Sasha Waltz, Postmodern-Dancer, Choreographer

Akademy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe, 1982

Sasha Waltz and I lock ourselves in a room for a week. I want to document what happens between us through painting. Sasha’s body has fascinated me for a long time. For a long time she has been my model. She has a round elasticity, a compact suppleness and dances like a goddess. The claustrophobic state corners us, the “model” takes on a life of its own, claims space, no longer holds still, movements accelerate. Harmony grows into aggression, erotic tension gradually turns into a power struggle. The black figures, painted and conceived as reclining figures on paper, webs stand up and develop an unexpected life of their own. Growing tension between us manifests itself in abruptly changing formal solutions, dance turns into struggle.

Now it’s Sasha’s turn. She is a postmodern dancer, i.e. just like in painting, architecture and other media, dance is all about citing, the break in style. Dressed in white, she climbs through an open window on the first floor of the academy building and throws marbles on the floor in front of her. Only their clicking can be heard. With three slide projectors, the black figures of the painting phase are projected in different directions of the academy corridors. In slow, convulsive movements, Sasha now dances in front of these projections without music. She herself becomes the canvas, the brushstrokes come alive. One of the beams of light leads up a wide staircase. Lying down, she fights her way up. Lying down, she slowly rolls down again, merging for seconds with one of the black figures on each step and thus revitalizing the painterly process – coming full circle. The staging has something evocative about it, reminiscent of a strange, hesitant ritual from an archaic future.