The Second Body, Ola Maciejewska
Saturday 11 May 2024 from 7pm to 8pm
Free upon registration
Ola Maciejewska takes Daisy Hildyard's essay 'The Second Body' as a starting point for questioning human disruption of the climate and ecology.
Based on this ambivalence, Ola explores the dissolution of the boundaries between object and subject, animate and inanimate, and observes the inter- and co-dependent relationship between matter and the body as a choreography.
On stage, a body and an ice object: a complex organism made up of muscles, bones and veins - 80% liquid; a solid body made entirely of solidified water. Neither a duo nor a solo, 'The Second Body' invites us to look at the permeability of these bodies of water in constant metamorphosis. The piece is a manifesto about dependence, exteriority and relativity, and affirms the immediate beauty of a felt experience.
Her work is anchored on frictions between materiality and ephemerality, movement and its conditions of appearance. In light of these questions, she produced critical reading of the history of dance. Through working on convergences between dance and visual art, her series of works focalised on serpentine dances invented by Loïe Fuller engage the viewer in reflection on metamorphosis, synesthesia, and the hybrid nature of embodiment.
Her works have been presented at Centre Pompidou - Paris; Malaga; Kanal, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, National Taichung Theatre - Taiwan, Guggenheim Museum - Bilbao, London Royal Opera House, Musée d’Orsay - Paris, 14th Biennale de Lyon, Zamek Ujazdowski - Warsaw, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves - Porto, Reina Sofia Museum - Madrid, Centre National de la Danse - Pantin, Centre Chorégraphique National - Montpellier, Centre national de danse contemporaine - Angers, Rotterdamse Schouwburg, La Ménagerie de verre, Kaaitheater - Brussels, Festival d’Automne, Festival ImPulsTanz, Festival TANZ im August, Teatro Comandini - Cesana, and the Watermill Center founded by Robert Wilson; amongst others. New Settings programme by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès supported both of Maciejewska’s dance projects: Dance Concert and Bombyx Mori. The creation 2025 is supported by Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels.
She was a guest teacher at HEAD School of Art and Design - Geneva, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts - Limoges, and Centre National de la Danse - Pantin during Camping, sharing her artistic research and practice in the frame of masterclasses. In 2023, she created a performance On Time with and for the students of Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris.
Between 2016 until 2018 Ola Maciejewska was associated artist at Centre chorégraphique national de Caen in Normandie. In 2020, she received a grant from International Tanzmesse NRW to realize research on the scenography of Rolf Borzik at the Archives of Pina Bausch Foundation.
In 2022, Ola Maciejewska received a fellowship from Watermill Center, as well as became an artist associated with the project 'Campement artistique pour littoral', in the frame of the program Mondes Nouveaux by Ministère de la Culture. At the end of 2023, she created the solo The Second Body, and is currently preparing a new creation based on serpentine dances for autumn 2025.