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SWANTJE LA MOUTTE
 
Möhnesee, Germany (2017)
Kunstverein Arnsberg, Germany (2017)
Mar Tirreno, Italy (2018/2019)

οὐ γάρ τις νήσων ἱππήλατος οὐδ' εὐλείμων,
αἵ θ' ἁλὶ κεκλίαται· Ἰθάκη δέ τε καὶ περὶ πασέων.
(Choreographien, Möhnesee) 2017
(Coreografie e partiture, Mar Tirreno) since 2018
Natural elements and forces, movements/spaces/times, buoys, boulter, fishnet, water pipe, glass vessels, cork, laid papers, pastel and oil crayons, gestalt
Dimensions and durations vary constantly
Exhibition view Möhnesee and Kunstverein Arnsberg, Germany
Impressions of continuance with the Mediterranean Sea, Italy


Fulfilling a wish for the writing and practising of infinitesimally anthropogenic choreographies, empty bottles were equipped with white paper and crayons in five different colors (referring to the five longest anatomic lines of the human body; legs/feet, arms/hands, spine/head). During the first part of an exhibition —named Odyssey*— in summer 2017, which took place at a vast lake, papers and crayons in corked bottles became susceptible to numerous pre-existing substances including their imponderable dynamics: Constantly agitated water, changing thermal as well as temperature, several thunderstorms, a whirlwind, various kinds of rain, a.o. In a rather organic than conceptual rhythm the bottles, loosely fastened on a buoy in the middle of the lake, were replaced by freshly prepared ones; while the collection of papers with inscriptions by versatile traces of highly complex movements grew.
A selection of these unicums was shown within the ensuing exhibition's part indoors.
At the lake as well as in the garden of the exposition's architecture, two of the emerged choreographies were executed open air without added sound or stage by an anonymous silver-veiled human figure; who silently appeared out of the blue, conveyed a movement-sequence, and vanished discreetly.

Since summer 2018 this processual work continues at a Tyrrhenian shore.
The vehemence of given dynamics leaves adventurous traces on all involved materials. Several filled bottles disappear in riptides during squalls, while other papers are launched repeatedly with changing crayons. Their choreographic decipherment is influenced by humbling reminders of life's fragility; simultaneously evoked by continual hazards of the Sea's violent savageries, as much as by moving experiences of its immense and sublime beauteousness. Here, finitude and aeon reveal their intrinsic inseparability without cease.


The work‘s title cites a passage of Homer‘s eponymous epic*. Attempts to translate it to English comprise e.g.:
None of our islands have much level ground,
suitable for horses, and Ithaca least of all.
/ None of those islands that slope sheer to the sea
are rich in meadows fit for herding them, Ithaca least of all.


Vitally supported by Graciela González de la Fuente, Vlado Velkov, Familie von Danïels, and myriads of anonymous fellow creatures.