Maria Hassabi: I'll Be Your Mirror

Artist-led Workshop for Dance Professionals

Maria Hassabi: I’ll Be Your Mirror

Artist-led Workshop for Dance Professionals

Tai Kwun Conversations: I’ll Be Your Mirror — A Dialogue between Maria Hassabi and Xue Tan

Date & Time

29 Oct 2023 3:00pm – 4:30pm

Location

Block 01, Duplex Studio

Price

Free of charge

General

In conjunction with her first solo exhibition in Asia, I’ll Be Your Mirror, the artist and choreographer Maria Hassabi will be leading a workshop for dance professionals from Hong Kong. Please join this rare opportunity to learn, in person, alongside the artist, and discover more about her iconic choreographic practice in stillness and deceleration.

Maria Hassabi’s signature choreographic style, defined by sculptural physicality, stillness, and quietness, explores the relationship between the live body, still image, and objects. Frequently involving dancers moving at a glacial, barely perceptible pace, Hassabi’s works confront visitors as living sculptures. By meticulously crafting her material—every action, even the gaze, is subject to counts and cues—a constant negotiation between the body's relation to gravity, time and space reveals the physical side effects of labour; in this way, her live installations anchor both dancers' and viewers' awareness to the present moment. Her works bring the performing body into theatres, museums, and public spaces, which shift the boundaries between visitors and performers, subjects and objects.

Dance professionals from all genres are welcome in this workshop, which will be conducted in English. Please register online by filling out the form; selected candidates will be contacted.


Artist Bio

Maria Hassabi

Since the early 2000s Maria Hassabi (b. Cyprus) has carved a unique artistic practice based on the relationship between the live body, the still image, and the sculptural object. Her works reflect on concepts of time and the human figure, while employing a variety of media to emphasise the complexity of formal organisation. In most of Hassabi's works the performing body is the main subject, often embedded within imposing installations. Through meticulously crafting her material—every action, even the gaze, is subject to counts and cues—a constant negotiation between the body's relation to gravity, time and space, reveals the physical side effects of labour, anchoring both dancers' and viewers' awareness to the present moment. Her works are always in dialogue with a site's unique architecture, while conventions and hierarchies common to theatres, museums, and public spaces are taken into consideration. Her sculptures, photography and video works use her live performances as a point of departure, while the use of technology is employed to override the limitations that occur within the format of liveness and realness.

Maria Hassabi has had numerous solo exhibitions and presentations around the world, including LUMA Arles; OGR, Turin; Secession, Vienna; Centre Pompidou, Paris; K20, Düsseldorf; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; The Kitchen, NY; documeta14, Kassel; Performa, New York; 55th Venice Biennale amongst others.