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Christina Ciupke, Nik Haffner and Mart Kangro’s latest piece can be seen as a continuation of their last piece together in 2012, “wait and see”. Back then the three performers explored the intimate layer(ing)s of physical and verbal communication and examined how individual actions influence and emerge out of the collective. The current collaboration began with the question, ‘to what extent is every individual replaceable?’ This starting point shifted during the research process to ‘how is it possible to grasp what makes a person?’.

The performance devises a playful dialogue structure of algorithmically alternating questions between the performers. In reference to a personal archive – of experience, memory, thought – something of what and who we are is revealed. These questions are never uttered audibly in the space. Written on paper, they lie silently on the table which constitutes the actual stage. In a mutual activation of this archive a space is given for a brief moment before a thought unfolds itself, before a story becomes concrete. It is a moment of searching and of doubt. A thought in development and a memory standing by are reconsidered a second time. They are always both things – a present and a memory.

The interplay of the remembered, experienced, hoped and the responses to the silent questions, circles around something that is almost a “no-go” regarding todays ingrained skepticism in art and society towards all forms of essentialism: which is human identity. This identity is not intended as pure projection, but certainly as something that “makes us” and also emerges out of the act of “telling- something-about-you” intenting to find out about the other. The simple serial game structure makes each question a further facet in which Christina Ciupke, Nik Haffner and Mart Kangro take turns to choreograph each others portraits as self- and othered images.
(translation: Daniel Belasco Rogers, Arzu Saglam)

Christina Ciupke is a performer and choreographer based in Berlin. In her artistic practice she develops projects in collaboration with artists from dance and other disciplines. Within this frame she investigates the correlation and area of conflict between the notions of “projection, retrospection and speculation” focusing on performative moments in a broader context. Ongoing collaborations maintain with film-maker Lucy Cash, composer Boris Hauf, visual artist Lars Ø Ramberg, choreographer Nik Haffner and Mart Kangro and dramturge Igor Dobričić. From 2003 to 2004 Christina Ciupke is guest artist at the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe. In 2013 she receives her M.A. in Choreography from the Amsterdam School of the Arts. Her works e.g. “kannst du mich umdrehen” (2011), “wait and see” (2012) and “undo, redo and repeat” (2014) tour national and international.

As dancer and choreographer Nik Haffner is involved in projects that he often develops together with others. This interest has led to collaborations with artists from many disciplines and educational projects. Since 2008 he has been teaching at Interuniversity Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT). In 2012 he has been appointed Artistic Director of the HZT Berlin. Until 2000 he was dancing in William Forsythe company Ballet Frankfurt. During this time he co-developed the media-publication “Improvisation Technologies” in cooperation with ZKM, Centre for Art and Media Technology in Karlsruhe. In 2011-13 he worked together with Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion on their online score “Seven Duets” as part of the web-publication MotionBank.org.

The choreographer Mart Kangro lives and works in Tallinn. After dancing for several years at the Estonian National Opera, he dedicated himself solely to his own artistic work, in which he often performs himself. Since that time he is closely associated with Kanuti Gildi Saal. Mart Kangro has several times collaborated with Thomas Lehmen, Christina Ciupke and with the composer and soundartist Taavi Kerikmäe, with whom he investigated the role of the performer in contemporary live music. In 2012 his performance “Talk to Me” was presented in the frame of the Festival Foreign Affairs. In the most recent years he created two performances for the infamous NO99 in Tallinn.