Boglárka Börcsök, performing artist and choreographer, and Andreas Bolm, filmmaker and producer, have been collaborating since 2017. Their work draws on archival research, personal encounters and practices of listening and looking. They are interested in how memory and history are accessible not only in archival form but also expressible through voice, gesture and movement as a coexisting dimension of the present. They made the documentary film The Art of Movement, a portrait of three dancers from Budapest, each over 90 years old. Their performance and video installation Figuring Age, based on the film, was presented at Moving in November Festival Helsinki and ImPulsTanz Festival in Vienna, where it received an honorable mention. The project was selected as part of the Aerowaves Twenty23 artist network and is currently touring across Europe.
The recovery of genealogical lines and modes of transmission of somatic practices were central axes of the 2023 edition of Festival Sâlmon. As a gesture of commitment and continuity with this research, we invite Boglárka Börcsök to present Figuring Age, a performance derived from the documentary The Art of Movement (2020) which appeared at Festival Sâlmon 2023.
Figuring Age is a transgenerational, immersive and haunting performance-installation set in the liminal space between film, dance and theater. In a fictional séance, visitors encounter three elderly dancers: Éva, Irén and Ágnes—aged 90 to 101—were once part of the development of modern dance in Hungary in the 1930s. Based on footage of the dancers filmed in their homes, the artist duo has sculpted a meticulous choreography of embodiment that lets their protagonists return to the stage through Börcsök’s body and voice.
Retracing how each of the women transformed their life and dance practice to survive the socio-political changes of the 20th century, the artists explore how resilience, silence and trauma are inscribed in the body and movement.
Concept, choreography & production: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm / Elderly dancers: Éva E. Kovács, Irén Preisich, Ágnes Roboz / Performance: Boglárka Börcsök / Light & sound: Andreas Bolm / Costume & scenography: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm / Production assistant: Martyna Bezrąk / English translation: David Robert Evans / Performance produced by: Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm / Performance supported by: Die Irritierte Stadt Festival of Arts, Montag Modus Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, PACT Zollverein Atelier No.63 – Experimental Platform for the Arts, Hellerau – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste – Residency Program, Neustart Kultur – an initiative for the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media as part of the support program DIS- TANZEN, an Umbrella Association for dance in Germany. Part of the work was developed in the frame of the performance exhibition “20 Dancers for the XX Century” by Boris Charmatz/Terrain / Video credits: Andreas Bolm & Boglárka Börcsök (editing), Lisa Rave (camera), Elisa Calosi (production manager). Video commissioned by: Montag Modus/ MMpraxis/ Video founded by: Tanzfonds Erbe – an initiative by German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes, Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Berlin. / Special thanks: the title of this work is borrowed from the Anthology: Figuring Age – Women, Bodies, Generations edited by Kathleen Woodward and hereby we would like to express our debt to all the authors of this book.
