Following our highly successful “School of Experience” in 2021, the Ben J. Riepe Company is conceiving “What about the Senses?” – School of Experience, funded by NPN “Stepping Out”, the Ben J. Riepe Company conceives in 2022 for the second time a mediation format for students of different faculties, which shall be dedicated to virulent questions about the reality and relevance of our physical live experiences in a turning point between two crises of humanity, which are accompanied by a development from analog to increasingly digital encounters. The space for reflection on physicality in contemporary (performance) art will be expanded through one’s own sensory experience, and not only vision will be trained, but also a comprehensive experience that foregrounds both a cognitive and a physical-sensory understanding. The digital and analog sessions and workshops, which in the second edition of the SdE will deal, among other things, with the “Ganzfeld effect”, will take place on three weekends between April and July and will be organized by Ben J. Riepe and team as well as specially invited guests and experts from the fields of dance/choreography, visual arts, philosophy, yoga, microbiology, meditation and music/composition. Each day of the event follows its own choreography in terms of sequence and timing, in which the various formats and offerings build on each other, interweave with each other and mutually enrich each other.
Friday, 17 jun 2022
6 pm Opening
6.30 pm Erich Kasten: Input Dream, Nightmare, Sleepwalking
7 pm Mala Kline: Input Poetics of the Imaginary
8.30 pm Echo Ho: Sonic Ambient Concert
Samstag, 18 jun 2022
5.30 pm “What about the Senses?“ – Spaces of Experience with Carolina Rüegg: Breath and Voice, Till Bödeker: Think Outside The Box, studio s:o:m Permeable Sonosphere, Ben J. Riepe Team: Stationen der Sinne
7 pm Film Screening “Land Form” by Li Ning
7.30 pm Isabelle Pabst “Declaration of Love of Freediving”
8 pm Choreographed “Abendbrot”
Our excursion to the Centre of International Light Art Unna led us into the labyrinthine cellars with great light installations.
This Saturday and Sunday we start with the first module, dubbed „Opening up the senses“ with a workshop by Ben J. Riepe & dancers and an input by Prof. Markus Schrenk. We are looking forward to a day of somatic practices, insights on the senses from a philosophical point of view, and fresh food – to connect more with our senses.
Happy to have with us students from Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Department of Art History with Prof. Timo Skrandies and Department of Media – Cultural Studies with Jun.-Prof. Maren Butte as well as young dance students of Prof. Stephan Brinkmann from Folkwang University of the Arts with us.
“What about the Senses?“ – Schule des Erlebens is a project by Ben J. Riepe and Team. Supported by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK – STEPPING OUT, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the framework of the initiative NEUSTART KULTUR. Assistance Program for Dance, as well as the Ministry for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Kunststiftung NRW and the Cultural Department of the City of Düsseldorf.
