Between Riot & Choir

HECATOMB II  – movements and rituals for the renewal of the world

As part of SOCIETY: OR INFINITE REHEARSALS, we present Between Riot and Choir – a series of interconnected solo performances in which dance and movement-based practitioners consider and respond to the conceptual proposals of this exhibition and research project. The performance series, which takes its title from a text by Fred Moten on the social nature of dance and movement, materialises the connections and histories that each dancing body, even when it dances alone, is inevitably linked to.

We think here about specific cultural traditions of movement; choreographies learned through and via the particular abilities of a body; somatic practices, contact improvisation – and overall, the relationality built into dancing alongside another (or anothers) in groups that might move with the asymmetrical, turbulent rhythm of a riot or protest as well the harmony of a choir.

For the second iteration, we welcome Martha Hincapié Charry. Her performance is based on eco-somatic / ecofeminist perspectives with a focus on Planet Earth, the Earth as a woman. A woman who has been subjected to global-north extractivism and the abuses of corporations, the biggest drivers of climate change.

The proposal attempts to decolonize stage practices by creating a space for reflection on the relationship of humans with nature and the consequences of everyday actions in terms of the disappearance of habitats, species and groups of native inhabitants, as is still happening, to give just an example, in the 9 countries to which the Amazon rainforest belongs. 

HECATOMB II – Movements, and rituals for the renewal of the world takes action, focusing on the knowledge that indigenous peoples protect 80% of the world's biodiversity, even though they make up only 5% of the world's population. This second part of the trilogy aims to open a dialogue between ancestral cultures, visions and wisdoms. 

Martha Hincapié Charry  is a BIPoC Colombian artist, curator, choreographer, performer, and researcher. She earned her Master’s degree in Arts from the University of the Arts, UdK Berlin. She studied dance in Colombia and completed her dance theatre and solo dance studies at the Folkwang University in Essen under the direction of Pina Bausch. In 2019, she received the prestigious Pina Bausch Fellowship.

Her creations have been showcased at festivals and venues across Europe, Asia, and the so-called Americas. She serves as the artistic director of the Plataforma/SurReal Berlin Festival. Her curatorial practice examines (de)colonial processes and the survival strategies of artists migrating to Europe or engaging in local utopias. In 2021/22, she was an associate curator at Radialsystem Berlin.

Hincapié Charry has developed several unlearning spaces focused on underrepresented BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) expressions. She facilitates a dialogue between continents through a transversal reflection on the body, addressing themes such as climate chaos, extinction, the human/more-than-human relationship, and the interplay between the visible and invisible worlds.