Opened: 2023
In English

“Breathing is an involuntary activity we naturally perform to stay alive, but it is also a scientifically established way of exercising attention. Changing and controlling the rhythm of breathing affects not only bodily mechanisms but also consciousness (mindfulness) and vice versa. But can listening to somebody else’s breathing alter our consciousness too?

This movement-based conceptual performance started out from the Personal Trainer series developed by Imre Vass, exploring the process of creation from new perspectives and helping us to get into shape in body and mind, on individual and collective levels. The verb ‘to inform’ means to choose a form or a shape and fill it with content, the latter promising a kind of gratification (contentment). In this case, the performance is still a mold, waiting to be filled with audiovisual and corporeal information to become ‘something’. Conventionally, the performer delivers these, but this time, he contradicts the viewers’ expectations by leaving them literally in the dark. Reactions can vary from surprise to shock and comical bewilderment, but slowly, a reversed listening starts to reveal a performance which is the state of permanent flux itself and grants a unique individual experience for each member of the audience.” Orsolya Bálint, curator

CREDITS

Concept and performance: Imre Vass
Sound: Dávid Somló
Costume: Anna Kudron / Pinkponilo, Imre Vass
Photo: János R. Szabó

Co-producer: Katlan Group

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REVIEWS

“The title (in_form) refers to the state of being formed, which is ambivalent in relation to the often elusive formal solutions of the performance as a whole. A kind of duality pervades the whole performance, a constant melting of seemingly insoluble pairs of opposites that vibrate on the boundaries of their meeting points like the membrane of the lungs of the performer during the invisible actions. It is impossible to trace the edges. On the one hand, the static state of being in form, the concrete realisation of the thing, appears, and, through the uncertainty of the privative suffix (in-), its absence appears as well: the substance itself as a mere potential, unable to reproduce the solidity of existence that can be considered constant. This duality characterises the performance, which thus becomes a continuous circulation, a dance. [...] 

The figure thus appears only as a haunting negative, in the light of the device (the prosthesis) that amplifies and multiplies sound, on the threshold of being and non-being. The body as such disappears, or rather recurs as a haunting negative, a kind of phantom. In this situation, it can only present the empty and open space of possibility that is not limited by the power of the silhouette, by form.”
Zsófia Németh, Artportal.hu 

Imre Vass 

… is an independent performance artist, dancer, and choreographer, based in Budapest.  “I host environments for a non-harmful exploration of the comfort zone, to overcome the uncomfortable while tuning in, training, and sharpening the muscles of attention. Playing with expectations, flirting with ambiguities and obvious choices while swerving away from the mainstream, I intend to liberate the energies of the participants of the event.”

Vass graduated from the Budapest Contemporary Dance Academy (BA dancer). He was a danceWEB scholarship recipient (2010), participated in SPAZIO (2012-2013), the Philadelphia Bilateral Artist Exchange Program (2016) and was a member of iCoDaCo (2018-2020). He is part of the artist-partnership programme by Workshop Foundation Budapest and he is supported by the Life Long Burning - Creative Crossroads program (2023-2024). He is a three-time STAFÉTA winner: STANDING GROUND (2017), Game Changer (2021) and RELAX (2023), a two-time Péter Halász Award and a Rudolf Lábán Prize winner. He participated in dunaPart3 (2015) with it comes it goes and dunaPart4 (2017) with taking place. He worked with Patrik Kelemen, Viktor Szeri, HODWORKS, The Symptoms, STEREO Akt and Ultima Vez (BE), Ingri Fiksdal (NO), and United Sorry (AT\NL). He performed his pieces at several festivals in Hungary (Nextfeszt, PLACCC, Sziget, Bánkitó, Kolorádó) and in Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Olomouc, and Sofia. He will premiere his upcoming choreography RELAX right after dunaPart in Trafó.

CONTACT

Imre Vass
imrevassimre@gmail.com
+36705941024

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Instagram ▷▷ _imrevass
Web ▷▷ imrevass.com

SUPPORTERS

AQB, Ministry of Human Capacities, National Cultural Fund of Hungary, Workshop Foundation, Sín Culture Center