Rachel Krische: What is our Archive?

Artist and Table of Contents performer Rachel Krische explains how she has approached the new ICA project by Siobhan Davies Dance, which explores and questions the concept of archiving dance. A preview video from a Table of Contents rehearsal can be watched above.

Memory: recalling what is seemingly not there and placing it in the space.

As movers and makers we are always working with physical memory. Often, one of the main jobs of the thinking body in dance is to accumulate detailed information - movement coupled with conceptual thought processes. This is collated over thousands of hours of ‘doing’ in the studio. Ultimately, this information is crafted, then offered, momentarily, to an audience.

It’s there, then gone.

However, this information remains stored in our bodily hard drives – an archive of accumulated information contained in the physical tissue of our brains/bodies. The information often comes from or through other bodies. Information from one body is passed to another, to be contained within another body - then it’s passed on to another, then another – much like an oral tradition.

Collectively, the six collaborators in Table of Contents share approximately a combined total of 140 years’ worth of studio ‘doing’. We bring along our biographies that are still in a perpetual process of accumulating, processing and sharing information.

If we carry this, our bodily archive into the gallery space, how can we make it visible and available?

Table of Contents runs from 8 to 19 January in the ICA Theatre. Entrance is free. There is also an associated programme of events:

Culture Now: Siobhan Davies & Ramsey Burt - Fri 10 Jan, 1pm

Jonathan Cole: The Dreary Ooze - Wed 15 Jan, 6.45pm

Friday Salon: Archiving the Today - Fri 17 Jan, 3pm

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Tagged with: Siobhan Davies, Table of Contents, Archive