Aby Warburg's art theory epic Mnemosyne Atlas isn't the top of most people's reading list. Thankfully, it was at the top of artist Jeremy Millar's. When he mentioned it to choreographer Siobhan Davies, she revisited the Atlas' colourful pages, and was moved to use them as the basis for her latest performance.
Held in The Curve gallery, which arches around the Barbican Centre's ground floor, the exhibition draws on Warburg's practise of collecting symbolic images from different times and places, discovering hidden connections between them. Davies applies this idea by linking the work of an eclectic bunch of contemporary artists and performers, including Millar, conceptual artist Efrosini Protopapa, and London-based design duo Glithero. The performance is an extension of Davies' contribution to Doug Aitkin's epic 'Station-to-Station: A 30-Day Happening' which took place at the Barbican in the summer of 2015.
Siobhan Davies Dance material rearranged for the Barbican's Curve gallery.
Davies was keen to discover how a group of artists could interact within the same space. 'This is why I wanted artists of different disciplines to work together,' she explains. 'I wanted us to inhabit a gallery, making choices, while allowing the audience to make their own choices too.'
Indeed, the audience can move and interact in whichever way they please - in shoulder-brushing proximity to the dancers. Dressed in everyday clothes, the dancers blend into the audience, before slipping into abstract flourishes of movement. They manoeuvrer between screens and movable walls, upon which a live-stream of films and photographs of the dancers are projected. These screens serve to divide the curved gallery, making the audience curious to see what's happening concurrently, just around the corner.
Installation view of ’Datum’, by Glithero, 2017.
Tim Simpson and Sarah van Gameren of Glithero open and close the show with their 'plumb bobs' - created specifically for the installation. These weighted, tapered silver ornaments are suspended from the ceiling by string, causing a pendulum-like focal point for the dancers to work around, enhanced by a moody, metronomic backing track. Davies explains how keen she was to have the duo on board. 'They're an extraordinary pair,' she says. 'They see dancing as drawing.'
But here they decided to take it one step further still. They said, 'why not literally make a mark in the space?' In response to this, Davies and her dance partner delicately skirt across the gallery's curved wall, tracing a parabolic line of chalk on the floor as they go. Although you don't realise it until the end, the two pendulums are being visually linked by this dusty line. The result is intriguingly therapeutic.
’Datum’, by Glithero, 2017.
In an age when we're seeing a lift in the quality of design-dance collaborations (think Wayne McGregor, OMA and Rick Guest) Glithero's intimate partnership with Davies provides a unique perspective on the way performance and design can merge. When Davies was asked why she thought contemporary design was becoming increasingly integrated with dance, she replied, 'Why ever not?'
The dance company has rearranged material especially for The Curve gallery. In one performance, dancers trace a parabolic line of chalk on the floor as they move through the space
Installation view of I+I Variations on Alteroception, by Emma Smith, 2017.
Detail of I+I Variations on Alteroception, by Emma Smith, 2017.
Disputatio II, by Efrosini Protopapa
Installation view of Melancholy Mobiles, by Jeremy Millar
INFORMATION
’material / rearranged / to / be’ is on view until 28 January. For more information, visit the Barbican website
ADDRESS
The Curve
Barbican Centre
Silk Street
London EC2Y 8DS
-
The bespoke Jaguar E-Type GTO melds elements from every era of the classic sports carECD Automotive Design’s one-off commission caters to a client who wanted to combine the greatest hits of Jaguar’s E-Type along with modern conveniences and more power
-
Casa Sanlorenzo debuts in Venice as a new hub for contemporary artThe luxury yachting leader unveils a stunning new space in a palazzo restored by Piero Lissoni – where art, innovation, and sustainability come together
-
Once vacant, London's grand department stores are getting a new lease on lifeThanks to imaginative redevelopment, these historic landmarks are being rebonr as residences, offices, gyms and restaurants. Here's what's behind the trend
-
Get lost in Megan Rooney’s abstract, emotional paintingsThe artist finds worlds in yellow and blue at Thaddaeus Ropac London
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt was a jam-packed week for the Wallpaper* staff, entailing furniture, tech and music launches and lots of good food – from afternoon tea to omakase
-
London calling! Artists celebrate the city at Saatchi YatesLondon has long been an inspiration for both superstar artists and newer talent. Saatchi Yates gathers some of the best
-
Alexandra Metcalf creates an unsettling Victorian world in LondonAlexandra Metcalf turns The Perimeter into a alternate world in exhibition, 'Gaaaaaaasp'
-
Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska’s new show at Kettle’s Yard will uncover the missing narratives in everyday life storiesThe artists and partners in life are collaborating on an immersive takeover of Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, in an exhibition that delves into a lost literary legacy
-
Sexual health since 1987: archival LGBTQIA+ posters on show at Studio VoltaireA look back at how grassroots movements emphasised the need for effective sexual health for the LGBTQIA+ community with a host of playful and informative posters, now part of a London exhibition
-
Ten things to see at London Gallery WeekendAs 125 galleries across London take part from 6-8 June 2025, here are ten things not to miss, from David Hockney’s ‘Love’ series to Kayode Ojo’s look at the superficiality of taste
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this weekThis week saw the Wallpaper* team jet-setting to Jordan and New York; those of us left in London had to make do with being transported via the power of music at rooftop bars, live sets and hologram performances
