A long term project investigating the potential synergy of spatial transformation and performance. The project responds in three acts to the architectural, political and cultural factors imposed by the process of renovation of the Alte Reithalle in Aarau, Switzerland.
Act 2 (False Start), a performance and video installation opened up a long axis, a pathway connecting two characters: One nude sitting by a pond (video) the other one exposed on flat wooden steps. Their game of hiding and exposing creates a never-ending loop. Trying to connect with each other their voices before they get lost in the gaps and cracks of the debris - the echo of the deconstruction.
Collaborators
Elias Kurth (Direction/Performance/Video-Edit), Daniel Steiner (Live-Sound:), Nik Friedli (Light), Anouk Gyssler (Communication/Dramaturgy), Noah Schweizer (Assistant), Elias Raum, Wernli Performance (Production), Patrik Felber (Camera)
Length
Three hours - two years
Co-Production
Bühne Aarau
Supported by
Aargauer Kuratorium, Stadt Aarau, Godi Hertig Stiftung, Hans und Lina Blattner Stiftung
Further Support
Stadtbauamt Aarau, Barão-Hutter.Atelier, FARA (Freunde Alte Reithalle Aarau)
Year
2020
‣ December 19
The Infinite Gesture (Premiere)
Performance by Ixchel Mendoza Hernández
December 19, 19H, Radialsystem Berlin
Performances 20 / 21 / 22 December, 19H
Elias Kurth (b. 1984 in Aarau, Switzerland) is an artist, choreographer, performer and architect based in Marseille and Aarau. Working across these disciplines, Elias Kurth explores the tensions between fictional and factual spaces, between individual fantasies and societal realities.
The projects vary in scale, duration and media, and always draw from the human body as a source of knowledge. Using movement as a thinking tool, Kurth develops intersections between performance, architecture and visual arts. His curiosity for the yet unknown and a strong sense for spaces and emotions create situational poignant experiences. The work, ranging from sensitive gestures to brute physical acts, reveals his playful reading of internal and external realities and their conflicts.
Elias Kurth graduated from London Contemporary Dance School ‘The Place’ (2009) and worked with several choreographers such as Lea Anderson, Requardt&Rosenberg or Compagnie Shifts. He graduated as an architect from the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin (2018) where he studied amongst others with Jean-Philippe Vassal, Enrique Sobejano, and Alexandra Ranner. He has worked as an architect for Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation and Compagnie KHZ. His own work has been shown in the United Kingdom, Poland, Germany and Switzerland.
© 2024 Elias Kurth
Website by Liebermann Kiepe
Contact, CV, Newsletter, Vimeo, Instagram