Asia-Europe Cultural Festival: 2024 | Last Portrait

A contemporary dance performance evoking feelings of loss, grief and distance.

Contemporary Dance
Saturday, 31 August 2024
5:00 PM and 10:00 PM
MOM Officina, Rovereto, Italy

Countries: Germany, Italy, Singapore

Weaving together text, sound, dance, and visual poetry, Ashley Ho (Singapore) and Domenik Naue (Germany) presents a new performance-installation on loss, grief and distance. In a world of rapid change, it feels like collapse is a spectacle we are watching collectively. Part of a generation hyper-aware of loss, we track change obsessively, also knowing that when we document what is present, we are pointing out everything that can disappear. How can we move forward, not stuck in nostalgia or paralysed by the fear of losing?

The law of conservation of energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only converted from one form to another. Buddhism tells us that if you go down, deep down, there is not birth and no death, only continuation. Despite knowing these, we are still shaken by the feeling of losing, at every turn. The 2 artists' collaboration will look into this brutality in its flesh, to cradle it for what it is, through a nostalgic, poignant contemporary dance performance.

Intercultural dialoguing is integral to ashleyho+domeniknaue’s collaboration. They have been working with Pietro Marullo (Italy) for 6 months thanks to online sessions and on-site residencies both in Indonesia and Italy. Their work is an on-going conversation that develops where it travels through: Over het IJ and Dansateliers in the Netherlands, Studio Plesungan in Indonesia, Oriente Occidente in Italy, and Dance Nucleus in Singapore. With intermediate public presentations, the performance always remains an open question and an offering.

A Q&A session with the artists will take place after the performance.

Concept, performance, graphic and sound design: ashleyho+domeniknaue

Scenography: ashleyho+domeniknaue in collaboration with Lena Michel van Drie and Pam Sikkink

Dramaturgy: Elowise Vandenbroecke

Artistic coach: Gabriel Pietro Marullo

Styling: Cara Cain Insa Wittenhaus

Technical Support: Finn Borath

Production and Support: Dansateliers

Co-production: Over het IJ

Residency and financial support: Asia-Europe Foundation, Dance Nucleus, Studio Plesungan, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Janivo Stichting

Thank you roelroel for the sound support.

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The event is part of the Asia-Europe Cultural Festival 2024, organised by ASEF with the financial support of the European Union. For the full programme, CLICK HERE.