Reflecting on routine, rehearsal and ritual, Johanna Billing’s video works place an emphasis on the fragility of individual performance and the power of collective experience
Her new work, ‘I’m Lost Without Your Rhythm’, was commissioned by Camden Art Centre, Modern Art Oxford and Arnolfini, as part of the 3 series: 3 artists, 3 spaces, 3 years. Shown alongside other work, this exhibition was Billing’s first major solo exhibition in a public gallery in London.
This work was based around the recording over several days of choreography workshops involving amateur Romanian dancers and acting students in Iasi during the Periferic 8 Biennial of Contemporary Art Art as Gift in October 2008. The project was performed live, in an attempt to explore with the participants and the audience, what contemporary dance can be, or means today, especially in relation to a developing country and economy such as Romania.
The film links several days’ activity into a continuous process, in which dancers were watched by an audience who were free to come and go as they pleased.
The work became about movement in general; choreography closer to everyday life than might first be imagined, bringing the whole together through editing. Music often contributed to the atmosphere of Billing’s works, its rhythm and lyrics adding to her complex network of references from history, art and politics. This can be seen in her previous works Magic & Loss (2005) and This Is How We Walk On The Moon (2007).
