The
bangaloREsidency-Expanded@Weltkunstzimmer was my first residency experience outside India, which took place in
Düsseldorf in collaboration with the dance company
Freiraum and
Goch in collaboration with the
Goch museum in Germany. It gave me every opportunity to fully immerse myself in the project's study and practice while also exposing me to a wide variety of contemporary art practices in Germany.
© Deepanwita Roy
During my residency, I was given 24x7 access to a studio (exclusively for my use) for my dance practice, movement exploration, and generation, allowing me to practice at any time of day without any constraints. In Weltkunstzimmer, I could also delve into the architecture and vacant spaces of the exhibition halls, which inspired a range of movement patterns in my practice. Apart from that, the residency aided me in visiting numerous museums, exhibitions, and art organizations both within and outside of Düsseldorf and Goch, as well as seeing performances, exploring places, and conversing with local art practitioners from various disciplines. This, in turn, enabled me to directly observe socio-cultural environmental politics as an outsider, which has a significant influence on my current research.
© Deepanwita Roy
The ongoing gentrification in Düsseldorf piqued my interest, leading to a focus on the invasive nature of humans. I chose a specific site for performance where I installed soil and experimented with shifts in my movement approach as the soil properties changed through the rehearsals. The researched work with the working title “Erosion Story” performed at the Residency presentation featured looped movement paths, on-the-spot walks in large and small circles progressing into intense running, mapping of the area with active eyes, and a repeat movement sequence of going to and coming out of the floor. The observation during my stay and presentation also made me think about the conventional structure of performing in a particular set or specific site, challenging the reach of the artworks to the larger populous.