Katja Davar

In “Electric Spinning Gaze” Katja Davar examines the process of metamorphosis, on the stage as well as in nature, by way of the processes of folding and unfolding, of the opening and closing of wings, thereby making clear the connectedness of the two spheres (culture and nature). The point of departure is the Serpentine Dance of the American dancer, choreographer and inventor Loïe Fuller (1862–1928), who shortly before the advent of film developed abstract choreographies using expansively billowing silk costumes, coloured light and laterna magica projections. In Katja Davar’s project the silk fabric, filmed by a high-speed camera, becomes a dynamic projection surface on which – fusing the motor forces of natural development with digital illusion – the artistic studies of light and colour together with the lyric poetry of the period are reflected. A series of large-format abstract pencil drawings – inspired by Matthias Grünewald’s drapery studies (c. 1511) – complements the filmic material and places figures on the stage in which the winding pleats appear to have taken the place of the human body. In her review in Kunstforum (8/2019) Annelie Pohlen concludes: “This undeniably clears the stage for a subversive role play of the female sex. What shines above all in this staging, however, is Davar’s complex pulverisation of all attributions of form and content.”

Exhibitions:
Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl, 16/6–22/9/2019
Kunstverein Heilbronn, 18/10–29/11/2020