Naoko Tanaka (Japan - Germany)

“Die Scheinwerferin - A Projectora”

ESPAÇO ALKANTARA
23, 24, 25 May at 11pm (Thursday, Friday, Saturday)

Concept, visual and sound design, production, performance: Naoko Tanaka Dramaturgic collaboration: Mariko Harigai Management: Christine Peterges Co-production: TANZTAGE BERLIN/Sophiensaele Supports: NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ (NPN) Coproduction Fund for Dance, which is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media on the basis of a decision by the German Bundestang, POLA Art Foundation, Japan Foundation, PACT Zollverein Essen Acknowledgments: Manabi Murata / Gallery Murata & Friends Photographs: Wiebke Rompel, Naoko Tanaka Technique: Full-view manipulation and shadows For audiences over: +12 Running time: 30 min. Language: Without words

Co-presentation with Alkantara

What is appearance? Outward manifestations like make-up, colour, light and shadow... A transient, “empty“ surface which allows people not only to notice one another, but also identify one another and even fall in love. In her solo “Die Scheinwerferin“ visual artist and performer, Naoko Tanaka, employs light and shadow to reveal new dimensions of “appearance“ and “reality“. Carrying a torch, Tanaka departs on a fictive journey into her inner self. Using simple means, she thus creates fascinating imaginary images - images of suppressed memories, of a rampant forest that appears to grow under a simple dining table. Her powerful “illusory world” of light and shadow takes over the whole space, flows, disappears and reappears again.

”With Die Scheinwerferin, Naoko Tanaka astutely flicks all the right switches.” - Katja Schneider Tanz yearbook 2011

  

BIO

Naoko Tanaka studied visual art in Tokyo University of the Arts. In 1999 she was awarded a scholarship at the Academy of Art in Dusseldorf, Germany. Since then she has created performance pieces and installations in which choreography and visual art are intimately related. Tanaka, together with the choreographer Morgan Nardi, founded the Ludica - artist collective, which was invited to the German Dance Platform (Tanzplattform Deutschland) in 2010.

In 2011 Naoko Tanaka created her first solo piece "Die Scheinwerferin" which is performed successfully around Europe. The show received in Novi Sad at the INFANT Festival the jury’s prize of the jury for exceptional expression, it received the Prix Jardin d'Europe 2012 at ImPulsTanz and it received the ZKB Acknowledgement Prize 2012 at the Zürcher Theaterspektakel.

With the performance and installation Naoko Tanaka created a specific and artistic language. The second part of Tanaka’s shadow trilogy, "Absolute Helligkeit" premiered in July 2012 in SOPHIENSÆLE Berlin. Tanaka developed further her artistic language. She was responsible not only for the concept of the installation and performance but also the visual and sound design.