ART Habens
Spyros Kouvaras
One of the hallmarks of your work is the capability to create a direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context?
What is more important to me is the orchestration of the space, the venue, where the choreography and the performance will be presented. This is important and affects the establishment of the project. It is quite different to work on a project for an exhibition room than for a theatrical context, although there is a clear line in my work no matter what the presentation framework is( theater, public space, museum or gallery). There are always common elements, for example, most of my works tend to be relatively « quiet », the sculpture naturalness of the body is always present, as well as the immobility that we acquire as performers-dancers, and the paradox of this choreographic immobility. What changes each time is the approach to the viewer, the duration of the project and the general idea if there is a clear start and end of the performance.
It ' s no doubt that collaborations as the one that you have established over these years for the Synthesis 748 Company, established in May 2008 in Paris, are today ever growing forces in Contemporary Art and that the most exciting things happen when creative minds from different fields of practice meet and collaborate on a project... could you tell us something about this effective synergy? By the way, Peter Tabor once stated that " collaboration is working together with another to create something as a synthesis of several practices, that alone one could not ": what ' s your point about this? Can you explain how your work demonstrates communication between several artists?
I truly believe in artistic synergies but in quite closed circles. It sounds paradox, but what I mean is that I seek to work and collaborate with people with whom I share common, human and artistic visions and aesthetics. There are not too many, you know. The composer Giorgos Kouvaras and the performer Korina Kotsiri work with my company since 2010. Their artistic contribution in many of my works has been vital and fundamental for the realization of these projects. There are also other artists who have collaborated with the Synthesis 748 Company depending on the project each time. What I like in collaborations is the possibility to work with someone in more than one project, to evolve our practices together. This is really interesting because I see how easily the quality of each artist is adapted each time in my concepts.
Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Spyros. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?
Right now, I work on the development of my workshop « Choreographic Installations », which is addressed to professional dancers, performers and visual artists and I also spend time with the Company to promote my last creation, « 3 Mountains not to Climb ». In my new performance for 2017 which is still in research and progress, I would like to work the choreography and the whole installation with at least six bodies-dancers and just one objectmaterial in a large volume. Usually, until now, I preferred to work with many objects and no more than three bodies and I think it is time to change this « protocol ». Actually, it is always a question of changing things …
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