'WHAT HAPPENS WHEN BODIES COME TOGETHER ? Or, how i learned to dance that summer.' presentation by ASHKAN SEPAHVAND THE BARBER SHOP 19 June 19H This is a presentation about transformation. When bodies come together, energies and attention are exchanged, negotiated, and directed towards something. In his presentation, Ashkan Sepahvand will address some of those somethings - from the real experience of dancing at a party or joining a demonstration to the imaginations afforded by collective bodies: the desire for a revolution, instances of altered perception due to music (or even, drugs), or far-flung proposals from quantum physics (plausible or speculative) concerning atomic (re)composition. The presentation will look at a few projects that approach transformation from the perspective of "social choreography," that is, the premise that the "social" is an activity consisting of principles applied to the movement of bodies, principles that can be studied (as materials, gestures, or habits ) as well as proposed anew (as scores, sequences, or choices). Charting a rough proposal for further research, this presentation intends to address the embodied possibilities of a body-politic, at once a molecular imagination as well as an ecstatic encounter. _ ASHKAN SEPAHVAND is a writer, editor, and translator. His work has been exhibited at Former West 2013, Qalandiya International 2012, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Jerusalem Show V, Sharjah Biennial X, Home Works 5, and MACBA. He participated in dOCUMENTA (13) with the research publication + workshop series "seeing studies", co-edited and in collaboration with Natascha Sadr Haghighian, with presentations in Kassel, Kabul, Utrecht, and Poughkeepsie . Recent choreographic collaborations have been realized at Tanz im August (Berlin), Khalil Sakakini Cultural Foundation (Ramallah), and the Musée de la danse (Rennes). He is currently a research fellow at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin) for “The Anthropocene Project”. More info: www.thisisthebarbershop.blogspot.com
