rissumriss

dance and photography: christina ciupke and gisela dilchert
 

when do illusion and perception blur together in the space behind the eyes?
when does seeing follow habit?
when does vision succumb to the undertow of desire?

the project 'rissumriss' works with the expansion and completion of visual perception in the moment of seeing. seeing is faster than the duration of an event and filled with the pitfalls of expectation. when perception and expectation are separated, one becomes irritated and experiences a shift in the subjective choice of the eye. the unexpected provokes and completes the expected. in the mind of the observer, real and unreal mix in the unfocused realm of observation, perception and reflection.
 
sensitization to space and change in perception itself is the focal point of gisela dilchert' s and christina ciupke' s work together. the body concentrates and expands the perception of space with presence, linear speed and time dynamic. the photographs reveal the space on a thematic level and open a dialogue between the polarities of abstraction and individuality.
 

credits:

concept: christina ciupke, gisela dilchert
in collaboration with kerstin follenius
choreography, dance: christina ciupke
photography: gisela dilchert
artistic assistance: kerstin follenius
artistic advise: petra roggel
 
duration: 50 minutes
 
production investitionsbank berlin, soziale künstlerförderung on behalf of the land berlin with the support of fonds darstellende künste e.v. and theater am halleschen ufer.
 

press
 
frankfurter allgemeine zeitung
thursday april 5th 2001 nr.81
almost a dream-pair

a new choreographic work by christina ciupke
christina ciupke's newest work 'riss umriss' belongs to this rare category of dance in which the odd member of the dancer's guild still manages to track down new aspects of the craft and to shake the observant audience out of its trance. in short-sharp doses, she playfully moves around the viewing eye with paradox light effects. in the completely darkened hall of the theater am halleschen ufer, slide projectors cast three narrow beams of light - after one another laterally/vertically, frontal and diagonally/horizontally. in machine-like slow-motion, the dancer enters the fragmentary contour of her body into these hair-thin fissures in the darkness. the surface of her skin and muscles is caressed with shadows and vividly distorted - and nonetheless, it is withdrawn from gaze. the contradiction of showing and hiding emphasises the volume of the body and emphasises its pictorial surface - swimming in current of light into which everything sinks.
franz anton cramer
 

arts reviews saturday, 31st march 2001
christina ciupke dances out of the shadows and into the light

all earthly trifles she has discarded. no material scenery, no costume, no music distracts from the conceived idea. in 'riss umriss' premiered at theater am halleschen ufer, bared skin is put into use from head to foot for an original aesthetic- experiment without comparison; it is as well-balanced as it is atmospheric.
a strip of light glimmers into the darkness, clambering up the wall from the floor. in fragments, dismantled into strips - the figure dances in oriental slowness through space as though on air. variously arranged sources of radiance make possible every kind of different light-shadow-composition, as no rembrandt could have better conjured. every danced contortion creates effects that enable a new view of the body. after a good three-quarters of an hour, before the effects have overrun their course, the cunning and refined light-effects conjured up in co-operation with the photographer gisela dilchert, come to an end, outdoing every other metropolitan-made production.
volkmar draeger
berliner morgenpost
 

berliner zeitung 31. 03. 2001
dance-image 'riss umriss' in theater am halleschen ufer

for the last few years the artist, gisela dilchert and the dancer christina ciupke have been working together. consistent, they enquire a new into the relationship between image and body. into the way the body presented on stage trickles into a likeness, how this likeness is duplicated and becomes independent. that is how it was in 'raum wird haut' (space becomes skin); that is how it is too in the new work 'riss umriss' (line outline) which is now showing at theater am halleschen ufer. only the whirring of the slide-projector can be heard; the stage itself is dark, save for a narrow light-crack. in this strip, the body of the dancer seems to really take a bath. only ever clippings can be seen Ð of the spine, the legs or the arms. in theater am halleschen ufer one already encounters the first likenesses of christina ciupke's body, in the entrance to the foyer which is transformed into a small exhibition room. five different illuminated boxes - two column-like and three flat, greet the audience in almost life-sized photographic images of the body. they are nothing more than blurry outlines, quadrupled and quintupled, lit from within, which completely emphasise the immaterial. in these works, the photographer has reproduced blueprint-type images reflecting skin and texture. after already more than half an hour of the performance has passed, the image unfolds - projected onto the back wall of the stage - a tremendous effect. it is as though ciupke and dilchert make the sensation visible through slowing-down and reduction which means the amalgamation of time. 'riss umriss' is their best piece of work for a long time and the unirritating radicality with which the two artists pursue their subjects of interest is astonishing. it seems strange in a world in which artists too have to be industrious, to achieve success. ciupke and dilchert do not have the success which they deserve.
(ms)
 

ballet-tanz 6/ 2001

they have been working together for absolutely ages: the dancer and choreographer christina ciupke and the photographer gisela dilchert. "bild-bewegung" they named it seven years ago. today it is called "rissumriss": choreographed pictures, the dancer in the nude. in the weak light of heavily concealed transparencies, ciupke very slowly shows off the contours of her body, while body contours photographed onto transparencies are superimposed and likewise seem to dance. the well-known berlin theatre, the theater am halleschen ufer, in which the projectors are humming quietly, becomesn a sacred darkroom of a nude photographer, who declared the magazine "twen", the anti-playboy of the 1970s, to be art. thirty years later it is such a self-assuredly captivating piece of photographic history that one wishes to see less sacredness, more illuminating contrast, so that the early piece of work can once more emerge out of the darkness to an aesthetically contemporary place.
aw
 

light nudes
riss umriss - dance and photography by christina ciupke and gisela dilchert

it is as though you look through a key hole into the dark. a single ray of light opens the view onto intimacy. the body of the dancer seems to float, not to be there. slowly she moves, almost like a phantom, along the light. she becomes an illusion which blurs more and more in the eye of the beholder. in their project "rissumriss", the choreographer and dancer christina ciupke together with the photographer gisela dilchert challenge the visual perception of the audience. the lightness of the dance, the glowing contours of the strained movements overlap with the projections of the implied body. ' seeing is thoughtout before happening. ' what can be seen? exactly what one might imagine, a chimera or what really happens on stage? for a moment the legs slide along the popped-up arms, then only the snake-like form of a female silhouette can be seen. the photographs begin to move, become a stripe ot a shadow. soon it is not certain anymore, whether the rotation of the dancer becomes a mirror-image of the projection. both artists manage to transform photography into dance and dance into photography. already in the foyer the pictures by gisela dilchert relate the deceptive lightness and the rapid disappearance of movement. the outline of the female body is somewhat reminiscent of light-play a la man ray. "rissumriss" is a wonderful tale of vision. a magnificent act of perception.
andrea philippi
 

dance europe
aoât/ septembre
2 / 3

.... another woman, german christina ciupke, naked, moves in more mysterious ways. the stage is totally dark save for either horizontal, vertical or diagonal strips of light in the air. the optical effects expose her sliced body as bigger or smaller than she is or voyeuristically as through a door ajar. rissumriss is a beautiful exercise in slow-motion body control that goes on for well nigh an hour. talk about a woman on the razor's edge and some of the audience on the brink of a nervous breakdown. (presented at rencontres choregraphiques internationales de seinesaint-denis, 2002 )