Georg Kolbe Museum presents a live performance and, from March 15, 2024, the exhibition No Time to Dance with works by Noa Eshkol, Yael Bartana, Omer Krieger, Sharon Lockhart and Ayumi Paul. The Israeli dancer, choreographer and artist Noa Eshkol has spent her life exploring movement and composition. The result was dance without music and textile arrangements: she created minimalist choreographies, captured in a complex graphic movement notation and color-intensive tapestries. To mark her 100th birthday, the Georg Kolbe Museum is dedicating a comprehensive exhibition to her multifaceted work.
Above: The Chamber Dance Quartet (Ensemble 1) dances Spring by Noa Eshkol in the Ohel Theater. In front: Noa Eshkol. At the back (from left to right): John G. Harris, Mirhal’e Sharon, Naomi Polani. Photo: T. Brauner, 1954-1956 © The Noa Eshkol Foundation for Movement Notation, Holon, Israel
For Noa Eshkol (1924-2007), dance was an art form in its own right. She wanted it to do without stage sets, costumes or music – her aim was to concentrate absolutely on the essentials. With a deep understanding of body and space, she developed choreographic works in which body parts were treated as separate instruments. She encoded her choreographies with a unique notation system that enabled the comprehensive analysis and written recording of movement of the human body, but also of animal or machine movements, which she developed in the 1950s together with the architect Abraham Wachmann: the Eshkol-Wachmann Movement Notation (EWMN).
The counterpoint to Eshkol’s minimalist choreographies, movement analyses and graphic dance notations in the exhibition are her large-format and color-intensive tapestries. With the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Eshkol began to create abstract textile compositions from collected and donated scraps of fabric. The quote that gives the work its title, “No time to dance”, also dates from this time: at the beginning of the war, one of the dancers in her ensemble was called up and she decided that “this was no time to dance”. Eshkol used the scraps of fabric in their original form and arranged them into textile compositions, which she sewed together with her dancers.
Another part of the exhibition is dedicated to works by contemporary artists inspired by Eshkol’s practice, such as Yael Bartana (1970, Kfar Yehezkel, Israel) Omer Krieger (1975, Tel Aviv, Israel), Sharon Lockhart (1964, Norwood, Massachusetts, USA) and Ayumi Paul (1980, Giessen, Germany), who is developing a new commissioned work for the presentation.
The new publication of the first Eshkol-Wachmann movement notation, produced by KW Institute for Contemporary Art, builds a bridge between the performances Pause: The Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group, which were shown at KW in summer 2023, and the exhibition at the Georg Kolbe Museum 2024. The book will be presented on March 17, 2024 as part of the opening weekend at the Georg Kolbe Museum.
To coincide with the exhibition, the Georg Kolbe Museum is also opening a new themed presentation of the collection. It provides an insight into the theme of dance in the first half of the 20th century, connecting points and ruptures. It shows sculptures, drawings and photographs from the museum’s collection, as well as Georg Kolbe’s connections to well-known dancers of the time, such as Gret Palucca, the teacher of dancer Tile Rössler, who also taught Noa Eshkol there after emigrating to Tel Aviv.
On February 28, 2024, a performance by the Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group will take place in Cholon, Israel, to mark the 100th birthday of Noa Eshkol (* February 29, 1924). The performance will last approx. 40 minutes and can be followed live via Zoom from 18:20.
WHEN?
Opening: Thursday, March 14, 2024, 6-9 p.m.
Exhibition dates: Friday, March 15 – Sunday, August 25, 2024
Wed-Monday 11am-6pm
Closed on Tuesdays
Live performance by the Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group:
Wednesday February 28, 2024, 6:20 p.m.
WHERE?
Georg Kolbe Museum
Sensburger Allee 25
14055 Berlin
Live performance by the Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group in Cholon, Israel via Zoom, participation with link
COST?
Regular: 8,00 €
Reduced: 5,00 €
