National Chain 2020/social practices is about practicing ways to connect and to build relationships. Exploring ways of owning space, making space, relating space, moving space, opening space. Practicing ways of connecting to self, to the other, to the National Chain, to Jan Dibbets window.

The National Chain becomes the boundary where we begin to feel ourselves, to discover and inquire a new place of being.

Choreography: Alexandra Waierstall; Team Alexandra Waierstall: Scott Jennings, Harry Koushos, Karolina Szymura; Dancers Fontys Dance Academy: Jolanda Bazzi, Katya Vershinina, Joana Pereira de Sà Carvalho, Dazza Schouten, Emma Versluys, Emma Hanekroot, Roberta Çekinskaitè, Lara de Ruyter, Myrthe Marchal, Henna Männikkö, Antti-Pekka Pudas; Music: Stavros Gasparatos

Production: De Pont Museum, Tilburg
Photos: Rene van der Hulst, Danielle van Broekhoven
Video: Jeanne van der Horst

www.instagram.com/nationalchain_socialpractices

De Pont Museum presents National Chain 2020/Social Practices, a special project by the American artist Rita McBride, the German-Cypriot choreographer Alexandra Waierstall and students from Fontys Dance Academy.

National Chain 2020/Social Practices is an aluminum construction which is suspended in space and divides it into segments of equal size. On a daily basis National Chain 2020/Social Practices is activated by students from Fontys Dance Academy. The movements of the dancers are developed in workshops with choreographer Alexandra Waierstall, Scott Jennings, Harry Koushos and Karolina Szymura. The choreography takes shape completely online, via closed Zoom sessions among the dancers, choreographer and artists. A unique virtual creation and an extraordinary collaboration between international and local artists of different generations and disciplines.

Alexandra Waierstall I
Alexandra Waierstall II
Alexandra Waierstall III
Alexandra Waierstall IV

„Wat McBride en Waierstall met de opnames gaan doen, weten ze nog niet. Daar gaat het nu ook niet om, belangrijkste is dat het werkt. Ze hebben de kunst in onze tijdlijn, in ons hoofd, in het museum, van de pauzeknop gehaald.“ Joke de Wolf, Trouw, 21.04.2021

„Wat de bezoeker in 1997 kon ervaren, beleef je nu mee via de camera’s die sommige dansers in hun hand hebben. Hoe je boven en onder het raster uit kunt kijken. Hoe je opeens met je neus op de museumvloer ligt. Hoe je naar de andere aanwezigen kijkt, die filmpjes maken. Je bent in het museum.“ Joke de Wolf, Trouw, 21.04.2021