Sommerspiele

Eszter Salamon

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Live performance

Maison Folie Wazemmes, Lille
25min
Free

Sommerspiele is a film by the choreographer and artist Eszter Salamon, a surrealist fiction which took place on the former site of the 1936 Olympic Games which took place in Nazi Berlin.

A character closely resembling the avant-garde German artist Valeska Gert moves through an imposing architectural set, a structure built to celebrate fascist values. Her naked body is at once an interloper, an agitator and a disturbing figure, defying the idealogies of the past while examining the violence which affects bodies even today. There are visible traces of Nazi violence on the set, as well as the effect of the complex relationship between the artists and the regime, where certain artists, including Valeska Gert, were considered creators in a “degenerate art form.” In the background are buildings used today for professional sports, entertainment and popular leisure activities, as Eszter Salamon reveals links between the past, the present and the failures of collective memory, activating a new forn of political resistance. Sommerspiele [Summer games] is a powerful exploration of the question of memory and the level of resistance possible in the arts, as well as the relationship between nationalism, fascism and professional sports.

Supported by les Lieux Culturels Pluridisciplinaires de la Ville de Lille

Biography(s)

Eszter Salamon is a choreographer, artist and performer.
She lives and works between Berlin, Paris, and Budapest. She is currently doing her artistic Ph.D. at the National Academy of the Arts, KHiO, in Oslo. She is the laureate of the Evens Art Prize 2019 and winner of La vie bonne call for projects by the National Center for Plastic Arts (FR) and Aware: Archive of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions, in 2020.

Salamon uses choreography as an activating and organizing agency between various media such as image, sound, music, text, voice, bodily movement and actions. Her works evolve through various formats and aesthetics, methodologies and poetics, and put to work a wide spectrum of expressions.

Since 2001 she has created solos and larger scale works that have been presented in performing arts venues and museums internationally, including Centre Pompidou Paris (FR), Centre Pompidou Metz (FR), Festival d’Automne (FR), Avignon Festival (FR), Ruhrtriennale (DE), Holland Festival (NL), The Kitchen New York (USA), The Place London (UK), HAU Hebbel-am-Ufer Berlin (DE), Berlin Documentary Forum (DE), PACT Zollverein (D), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (BE), Kaaitheater (BE), Tanzquartier Wien (AT), Kampnagel Hamburg (DE), Steirischer Herbst (AT), Manchester International Festival (UK), Holland Festival (NL), Nanterre-Amandiers (FR), FTA Montreal (CA), Dance Triennale Tokyo (JP), TheatreWorks Singapore (SG), Panorama Festival Rio de Janeiro (BR), Movimiento Sur Valparaiso (CL).

She is frequently invited to present her work in museums, including MoMA (USA), Museo Reina Sofía (ESP), MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (ESP), Serralves Foundation (PT), Akademie der Künste Berlin (DE), mumok (AT), Kunstinstituut Melly (formerly known as Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art) (NL), Museo Centro Gaiás, Santiago de Compostela (ESP), Fondation Cartier (FR), Museum der Moderne Salzburg (AT), Villa Empain – Boghossian Foundation (BE), ING Art Center (BE), KINDL (DE). Her exhibition Eszter Salamon 1949 was presented at Jeu de Paume (F) in 2014 as part of Satellite curated by Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez. Her performative installation Study for the Valeska Gert Pavilion was presented at the 16th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art 2022.

Credits

Assistant Director : João Carvalho
Additional Images : Ashton C. Green, Minze Tummescheit
Assistant Camera : Viola Zichy, Loup Deflandre, Greta Markurt Gaffer Eli Börnicke, Janne Ebel, Katja Rivas Pinzón, Elisa Daniel
Sound Recordist : Manuela Schininà, Donata Schmidt-Werthern, Marina Funck, Arne Hector
Electrician : Ashton C. Green, Elisa Daniel, Harebell Suzuki, Nikita Znak, Mica Dans, Victoria Bergmann, Sol Astolfi, Héctor Calderon
Drone Operator : Andrea Schmidt, Anne Misselwitz
Set Assistant : Javier Blanco, Santiago Doljanin, Marilou Fiévet
Best Boy : Arne Weiß
Catering : Matthias Halke, Mašiko
Post-production Supervisor : Minze Tummescheit
Foley Artist : Carsten Richter
Foley Mixer : Hanse Warns
Foley Editor : Helene Seidl
Vocal Coach : Johanna Peine
Camera and Sound Equipment : flockefilm GmbH, Florian Brückner, Maier Bros., Camelot Broadcast Services
Foley Stage : Studio Warns
Vocals Recording : Mariia Mias at Viktoria Studios Berlin
Postproduction : Studio cinéma copains
Song : „Vorbei“ (Rolf Marbot / Bert Reisfeld / Mauprey AJ) © Meridian Editions. Courtesy of Edition Marbot GmbH
Production : Botschaft GbR / Alexandra Wellensiek, Studio ES / Elodie Perrin, Institute of Speculative Narration and Embodiment
Production Manager : João Carvalho
Production Assistant : Héctor Calderon, Laura Gönczy, Sonja Schreiber, May Dugast
Supported by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK – STEPPING OUT, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the framework of the initiative NEUSTART KULTUR. Assistance Program for Dance, KHiO – Oslo National University of the Arts Funded by Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Community, the Regional Directory of Cultural Affairs of Paris – Ministry of Culture and Communication, French Ministry for Culture – DGCA (Direction Générale de la Création Artistique)
Special thanks to Verwaltung Olympiapark Berlin, Sommerbad Olympiastadion, Waldbühne Berlin / Ananda Siegling
Special thanks to Akademie der Künste, Svea Immel, Christoph Fey / Von Have Fey Rechtsanwälte, Bojana Cvejić, Lívia Páldi, Franziska Kollinger, Agnes Kern, Paola Yacoub