Duration: 03:31
Project: Judaica
Song: Fel Sharah
Practitioner: Nazlıhan Eda Erçin, Agnieszka Mendel, Ben Spatz
Director: Nazlıhan Eda Erçin
Videography: Gary Cook
Date: 6 June 2017
Venue: Centre for Psychophysical Performance Research
Source File: J085
Songwork Video
[…] As the exercise progresses, I give verbal instructions to Agnieszka to relax her shoulders, arms and let go. As she holds my hand firmly, I tell her to allow her hand rest on mine without holding it. How can we work with each other’s proposals without pushing them? Can subtle action be forceful? While I am tacking with all these questions in mind, I ask Agnieszka to introduce a new song to me. Through my hand, I try to guide her movement and voice always in relation to my presence in the space. This is the first time I am hearing this song. Yet, I feel like I have always known this melody. I have no idea what it means and have no interest in knowing what it verbally says at that moment. On the contrary, not knowing the song’s meaning and the context allows me to focus on my contact with Agnieszka and observe the song becoming a part of it. The exploration of tactile contact in creative action is an ongoing research within songwork which I continue proposing in our subsequent work. (See ‘back to back transmission’ and ‘entering a song through physical contact’.) […]