(Ankoku-Buyou)
Butoh dance photography

Opening: Friday, 7 February 2020, at 7pm
7 February – 10 March 2020

Butoh, an avant-garde performance art, which arose in postwar Japan, spread throughout Europe towards the end of the last century. The international dance and theatre scenes included and adopted butoh, which soon became part of popular culture as well. No wonder that some years ago we could see a butoh-style dance performance even in the video “Mein Teil” by German band Rammstein.

Fascination or enthusiasm for butoh is also shown in the works of three Vienna-based photographers at the exhibition Dance of Darkness. Butoh dance photography in Photon Gallery, which opens on 7 February.

Laurent Ziegler produced his project and the photo book on Butoh called »A Sea of Being« in 2015 as a result of an artistic collaboration with the dancer Mirjam Morad. With this project, Ziegler and Morad were “searching for ways of re-living, re-embodying memory that is within our boundaries of perception.”

Brasilian artist Willian Lopes had been researching the idea of “Brazilian Butoh” with a group of dancers, actors/actresses and performers in Brazil. In the “Vienna Portrait Butoh” installation, Will Lopes presents three pictures from the essay realized in 2008.

“Missing Portrait” by Dino Rekanović presents a chance encounter with the local butoh scene in Vienna. The floating bodies of the dancers are witnessing on the fragility of the human body and showcasing the traditional Japanese dance of darkness.