Diana Sirianni / Naama Ityel
Collage as an attitude
Workshop/Seminar (English/Deutsch), 2 SWS, 2 LP
Freitag, 14-19 Uhr, am 23.10., 30.10., 6.11., 20.11., 4.12., 18.12.2015, Einsteinufer 43, Raum 203

“In collage reality is revoked.” (T. Schriefers) The question behind this workshop is related to the practice of collage and aims to present its potential extent as a dynamic, performative principle and not as a static discipline or technique. In the common understanding collage is related exclusively to the sphere of visual arts. The workshop aims to present it as a more general system of knowledge opposed to the logical, syllogistic one, which is linear and rooted on a direct cause-effect relationship. Collage is production of sense based on the juxtaposition of elements apparently heterogenic that unexpectedly reveal new perspectives on reality. The practice of collage is in the same time deconstructive and creative, since it disarticulates those layers which build our understanding of the world and reassemble them in a new way. In this extended interpretation collage becomes a relativistic tool, an anarchistic discipline of disobedience to subvert axiomatic hierarchies, a political exercise to redefine reality. Because of its inner flexibility, collage is structurally anti-ideological and escapes every attempt of objectification. It is constantly renewable, fluid and playful.
The workshop will be led by Diana Sirianni, a visual artist dealing intensively with collage, and Naama Ityel, a dancer, choreographer and yoga teacher. It will be articulated in some shared readings (see the list below) and the comment of the production of different artists. The workshop’s main focus will be on visual arts yet its vocation is interdisciplinary, as a practice in contemporary dance will underline. Because of this interdisciplinarity the workshop is addressed to students from all “Studiengänge”, which after understanding the principle transmitted in the workshop can contribute with the experience taken from their own field.

The contemporary dance practice plays an important role within the workshop due to the fact that it invites the subject to a direct, physical, emotional involvement, addressing her/him as self, as a unity of mind and body. This aspect has been especially investigated in dance starting from the 70's in the practice of improvisation and the exercises offered in the context of the workshop will relate to it. The participants led by Naama Ityel will experience through a concrete practice divided in three sessions how can the body become a space for a collage to happen.
The theoretical, visual reflection jointed to this physical commitment wish to convey the idea of collage as an attitude, a moral disposition, eventually a way of being in the world.

Group Readings:
A reader will be provided to the participants. A still provisional list of the text is following:
- “Formless: A User's Guide”, Rosalind Krauss and Yve-Alain Bois
- Extracts from texts of Robert Morris, Yvonne Rainer
- Plato, extracts from Symposium

Artists in focus:
Abraham Cruzvillegas /  Eli Cortinas /  Gilad Ratman /  Gordon Matta-Clark /  Sarah Sze

Leistungsanforderung für den unbenoteten Studium-Generale-Schein: continuous and active participation.

Diana Sirianni is a visual artist. Meisterschülerin by Gregor Schneider at the Universität der Künste Berlin in 2013, before moving to Berlin in 2008 studied Esthetics and Philosophy at the university of Rome in Italy "La Sapienza". Last Exhibitions: “Konkret mehr Raum!”, Kunsthalle Osnabrück. “House Hold Fold”, Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London. “Raumhippogryph II”, Art Cologne, New Positions, featured by Philipp von Rosen Galerie (2015). “Raumhippogryph. Ein wirklich Wesen und kein Zauber war”, Figge von Rosen Galerie, Cologne. “Neubarock”, Cappella Santacroce-Aldobrandini, Rome. “Desorden en Palacio”, Italian Cultural Institute, Madrid (2014). MARTa Herford Museum “Ruhe Störung. Streifzüge durch die Welt der Collage” (2013). More information on www.dianasirianni.com.

Naama Ityel was born in Tel-Aviv 1987. She graduated in the High School for Arts in Tel Aviv “Mate Asher Dance Academy“ and SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance); danced for “Emanuel Gat Dance Company“, Colette Sadler, “Dana Ruttenberg Dance Company“, “Angela Vadori“, Shai Faran and more in Israel and Europe; created a piece for “Mate Asher Dance Academy“, co-choreographed the piece, “One E on Edge“, that premiered in Tanztage festival; collaborated with LaborGras, co-choreographed the piece “Do you come here often…?“, performed in Tanzimpuls, Austria. Choreographed the solo "Tracy", performed in “Lake Studios”, in "Contact energy festival" , in “Acker Stadt Palast” and won the third price and the critics award in the "Festival of choreographic miniature", Belgrade. Since 2011 she is based in Berlin and works as a dancer and as a dance and Yoga teacher. She is currently studying to become a Feldenkreis practitioner. More information on www.naamaityel.wordpress.com.