if time is infinite, then we are in no point in time
if space is infinite then we are at no point in space
– jorge luís borges, the book of sand
"Study the page well. You will never see it again"
In Jorge Luis Borges’ short story, The Book of Sand (1975), we find a mysterious book, that, like the sand, neither has a beginning, nor an end. Pages literally multiply between the pages, and once you open the book you never encounter the same content in it. “The number of pages in this book is exactly infinite. No page is the first; none the last. I don’t know why they’re numbered in this arbitrary way. Perhaps it’s to demonstrate that an infinite series includes any number.”
The book of sand has been conceived as a series of multidisciplinary performative pieces, that set body/movement as a central medium in a spontaneous composition dialogue with visual art, painting, performance and music.
Offering a choreographic reading of the Borgesian concept of the infinite knowledge, the performing body is exposed to the politics of memory – oblivion & expansion – erasure binary patterns.
Led by alina sokulska, the episodes (pages) of the book of sand embrace short and long duration solo, duo and group pieces formats in a cooperation with artists who work with spontaneous composition within their media (painting, drawing, music, performance).
EPISODES / PAGES
page 1:
The first work of the project, written for a solo dancer and a group of live painting and drawing artists, THE BEAUTIFUL FORMULA COLLECTIVE. 8 minutes starting material for a choreographic, music and visual art spontaneous composition is repeating in a loop, until it finds its logical end. The research is placed on how the movement and time changes in the repetition of interpreting the same score differently with each take.
Average duration: 60 minutes
Composition, interpretation, choreography: Alina Sokulska
Music: Steve Coleman’s Natal Eclipse – Dancing & Jabbing
Co-composition, live painting & drawing: THE BEAUTIFUL FORMULA COLLECTIVE – Oleksiy Koval, Veronika Wenger, Daniel Geiger
With the support of: Artist at Residence Munich, the Department of Culture of the City of Munich, Institut del Teatre Diputació Barcelona
[ work in progress ]
Year of conception: 2023
erasure
how the time negates the space and the body, when a matter (body) is erasing its shape under the amount of time that is needed, the gravity and its own weight.
Average duration: 20 minutes
Composition, interpretation, choreography: alina sokulska
With the support of: Artist at Residence Munich, the Department of Culture of the City of Munich
[ work in progress ]
Year of conception: 2023
duo
the duo project, a choreography performed by alina sokulska and Víctor Aicua is one of the episodes (pages) of the book of sand. the composition of the piece is based on the instantaneous reconfiguration of the “infinity score,” written by sokulska, through dance material derived from the symbology of the 16 archetypes of the ilm al-raml divination system. following the logic of divination, the two bodies follow their scores, building random / (not random) relationships, to continue (re)producing, deconstructing meanings, and intangible temporary stories that are created. with the accumulation of the meaning produced, we ask ourselves a question: where is the point at which our cumulative memory begins to erase the fundamental information about ourselves?
duration: 15 – 30 minutes
composition, choreography: alina sokulska
interpretation: alina sokulska, Víctor Aicua
with the support of: Artist at Residence Munich, the Department of Culture of the City of Munich, Institut del Teatre Diputació de Barcelona
[ work in progress ]
year of conception: 2023