Pokrov

In May 2020, loc­ked down, I am cons­truc­ting Pokrov: the cube 2x2 m, in which I can walk, wearing it as a gar­ment and mobi­le shel­ter. I am wearing it on the stre­ets and sur­ro­un­ding lan­d­s­ca­pe of my nati­ve town (Izhevsk, Udmurtia, Russia). Revisiting the pla­ces that hold memo­ri­es of my chil­d­ho­od, I am hid­den from the sur­ro­un­din­gs and gazes to con­tem­pla­te my cur­rent iden­tity and belon­ging to this land in inti­ma­te touch with its soil. The begin­ning of the war in Ukraine col­lap­sed my ide­as of coming back the­re to live, work and love. From then on I knew that my futu­re was to beco­me a noma­dic European. Pokrov fled the coun­try of ori­gin; this chap­ter was fil­med in Sakartvelo (Georgia) near the Russian bor­der. What does it mean “to belong” now, here, if you are for­ce­ful­ly dis­pla­ced by war and a car­ri­er of cul­tu­re and lan­gu­age of bygo­ne colo­ni­zers and cur­rent occu­pants of the land? 

The event is a pre-pro­gram of the fes­ti­val Improspekcije, and is orga­ni­zed in col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with gal­lery Novo, Metamedia Association and Object of dan­ce asso­ci­ati­on. Improspekcije is an ini­ti­ati­ve, star­ted in 2007, dedi­ca­ted to the deve­lop­ment and affir­ma­ti­on of the impro­vi­sa­ti­on sce­ne in Croatia, as well as orga­ni­zing inter­na­ti­onal and inter­di­ci­pli­nary exc­han­ge in the field of impro­vi­sed per­for­man­ce. The pro­ject takes pla­ce thro­ugh the form of per­for­man­ces, wor­k­shops, rese­ar­ch plat­for­ms and ongo­ing open conver­sa­ti­ons and it cul­mi­na­tes in an annu­al fes­ti­val format.

a: Nazar Rakhmanov

Nazar Rakhmanov is a Tatar-Russian cho­re­ograp­her and dan­ce maker based in Amsterdam. Nazar obta­ined his bac­he­lor’s degree in ‘Comparative Religious Studies’ from Moscow University. Furthermore, he gra­du­ated from the SNDO (Shool for New Dance Develpment) in Amsterdam. His work explo­res the inter­sec­ti­on of move­ment, tec­h­no­logy, and unse­en pre­sen­ces, pushing the boun­da­ri­es of how the sta­ge can host other­ness and the non-human. With a bac­k­gro­und in butoh and physi­cal the­ater, he inves­ti­ga­tes how dan­ce can reve­al not only the cor­po­re­ality of the human body but also its entan­gle­ment with other spe­ci­es, enti­ti­es, and for­ces. He views the per­for­ming body as an are­na whe­re dif­fe­rent powers clash and com­min­gle, ques­ti­oning the visi­ble and the invi­si­ble. Rakhmanov has expe­ri­men­ted with per­for­man­ces in com­ple­te dark­ness, medi­ated thro­ugh video came­ras, and his work often incor­po­ra­tes scre­ens, infra­red ima­ging, and cho­re­ograp­hic tec­h­niqu­es for embodying other enti­ti­es. His gra­du­ati­on piece, Pokrov, mer­ged per­so­nal and geograp­hic ori­gins thro­ugh a three-chan­nel video ins­tal­la­ti­on. Inspired by his tra­vels in Indonesia, he inte­gra­ted ele­ments of the Jaranan tran­ce dan­ce into his prac­ti­ce. In Yurodifice, he explo­red the poli­ti­cal and per­so­nal dimen­si­ons of war and exi­le thro­ugh a fic­ti­ona­li­zed moc­ku­men­tary for­mat. His work has evol­ved from an intros­pec­ti­ve focus on his own body and his­tory to an expan­si­ve enga­ge­ment with other bodi­es and col­lec­ti­ve nar­ra­ti­ves, sha­ping a unique cho­re­ograp­hic lan­gu­age of tran­sfor­ma­ti­on and hybridity.