In addition to work facilities, Spacelab offers a regular programme of workshops and lectures for members of IG Tanz Essen and interested artists from the region - the Spacelab encounters (2021), The flow work (2022) and space|lab is running (2022/23). We also organise festivals and other events and help coordinate the activities of IG Tanz Essen.

„A DIGITAL HABITAT FOR (MEMORIES OF) MOVEMENTS PAST – loading“

The remains of the dance – showing and sharing event of a work in-progress with artist talk in space | lab, on Friday, 15 December 2023, at 6pm

The 366 scores from choreographer Foteini Papadopoulou's Movement Journals/Moving Journals of the year 2020 are currently exhibited in the Tanzmusuem (Museum for Dance) of Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln (German Dance Archive Cologne). At the same time the choreographer is planning a digital exhibition of the complete work. This encompasses the 366 aforementioned notated movements plus further 366 remembered movements photographed by Christian Clarke as well as texts contextualizing/reflecting on the work and the process. The website shall not merely statically show what has been done, but rather invite the visitor to approach the work via a special vertical and horizontal navigation concept. This „digital habitat for movements“ shall also anticipate the editions of Movement Journals/Moving Journals to follow: in 2024, 2028, 2032, 2036. On Friday, 15 December in space | lab Foteini Papadopoulou together with her collaborators in this project, designer of the website's prototype, Uwe Ernst (Essen), and dialogue partner for curation and dramaturgy, Florence Freitag (Berlin), will offer a tour to parts of the exhibition. An artist talk and Q&A will follow. Further exchange and a relaxed conclusion to the evening will go on over snacks and drinks.

Note: The event will take place in German and/or English, depending on which language most audience members/participants are fluent in.

The entry to the showing is free; we kindly ask you to register for the event by emailing Foteini at post@foteini-papadopoulou.de

A DIGITAL HABITAT FOR (MEMORIES OF) MOVEMENTS PAST – loading

a project by Foteini Papadopoulou

Funded by Kulturamt der Stadt Essen (Cultural Affairs Office of the City of Essen)

cooperation partners: Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln (German Dance Archive Cologne); space | lab – Forschungs- und Co-Working-Raum in Essen (space | lab – research and co-working space in Essen)

Artistic direction, choreography, exhibition concept: Foteini Papadopoulou

Photography: Christian Clarke

Design of the website prototype: Uwe Ernst

Curatorial and dramaturgical dialogue partner: Florence Freitag

Graphic design: Valentina Boneva

Press and public relations: Daniela Endrulat

“It’s more than Bilingual”

In space | lab on Saturday 16 December at 18:30 for a screening with snacks and drinks!

from December 16th to December 30th on Youtube

In their dance film "It's more than Bilingual" Nene Okada and Ching-Mei Huang explore their differing artistic processes and singular perspectives influenced by their distinct cultural upbringings.

Individually choreographed but recorded in the same space and on the same piece of music, intertwining and overlapping their movements, the artists bridge the gap between their cultures while the set design quite literally offers a frame in which to reflect on their individual histories and find a common narrative.

"space|lab is running 23 - one theme, two perspectives".

In this series of talks in space|lab and in our immediate neighbourhood, we want to talk to artists and specialists from teaching, research and science about their expertise and socially relevant topics. Which parallels exist in art and science, how and what can we learn from each other?

FRI, 10 FEBRUARY 2023, 19:00 [Start in Kunstraum jETZT, Weberstraße 8, Essen]
Archives - A task for eternity? - with Foteini Papadopoulou, freelance choreographer & Dr. Claudia Kauertz, head of Haus der Essener Geschichte/ Stadtarchiv

WED, 05 APRIL 2023, 19:00
AI - About Cyborgs, Chatbots and Chthuluzän - with Till Bödeker, visual artist & Anne Küper, Researcher in the DFG post-graduate programme “The Documentary. Excess and Withdrawal”, Ruhr-University Bochum

WED, 03 MAY, 2023, 19:00
Sounds of Our City - Noise or Signal? With Anna-Luella Zahner, dramaturge and translator & Frank Niehusmann, composer

Fri, 02 JUNE, 2023, 19:00
Assembly - How do we want to live together?

• We invite you to a dinner where different perspectives on a future life in the city will have space. How do we want to live? How do we imagine the city and urban society in the future?
• Admission free, pre-registration requested: spacelab@polymerdmt.com

space | lab is running 2022

The summer festival of IG Tanz Essen

DAY 1: JULY 29, 2022 - to start.

• 11:00 - 16:00, space | lab [not public] – Internal Sharing of the IG Tanz artists and the space | lab residents with representatives of the art and culture scene NRW. With: Alberto Curci, Marlene Helling, Marie-Lena Kaiser, Josephine Kalies, Gustavo Leite, Fang Yun Lo, Kati Masami Menze, Foteini Papadopoulou, Robert Schulz, Giovanni Zazzera Z Art Dance Company mit Enora Gemin
• 18:00, Gitterraum – Opening space | lab is running, drinks and food
• 19:00 - 21:00, Gitterraum – DJ Set

DAY 2: JULY 30, 2022 - we are running.

A tour through Essen's City Nord, transformed through dance, performance, music, film and exhibitions by dance and performance artists from IG Tanz.

• 14:00 START (in the order of the tour)
  • space | lab: “Octupus.” by Pin-Chen Hsu, “Salz ||: im Blut” by Camila Scholtbach, “STAND BY” by Lara Pilloni/ music by Alvaro Severino (video works)
  • Gitterraum: “now we're talking” by Josephine Kalies in collaboration with Kati Masami Menze, Paloma García de Juan, Elisa Spina and Tristan Berger (performative tryout / photo work)
  • Weberplatz: “Frauen.Frieden.Flügel” by Anca Huma (dance performance)
  • Konsumforum 2nd floor: “Untouch” by Alexandra Krutikova and Jan Chris Pollert (dance performance)
  • Gitterraum: experimental concert by Marco Girardin
  • Kopstadtplatz: “Zwei alte Damen” by Claudia Mauerer and Mariela Rossi (street performance)
  • Kunstraum jETZT: “MOVEMENT JOURNALS/MOVING JOURNALS” by Foteini Papadopoulou and Christian Clarke (photo work)
  • former Restaurant Mayflower: “Asia Restaurant” by Polymer DMT/Fang Yun Lo (video installation)
• 16:45 Picnic at the Weberplatz

DAY 3: JULY 31, 2022 - to finish.

Film screenings and discussions about choreographers' and dancers' engagement with film

• 11:00 - 14:00, space | lab
  • Talk about the video installation "Asia Restaurant" with the artists of Polymer DMT/Fang Yun Lo
  • Film screening "Die Erde ist gewaltig schön, doch sicher ist sie nicht" by SKORONEL RELOADED
  • Film screening "Vale of shadow" by Annalisa Palmieri and Stsiapan Hurski

Spacelab is an initiative by Polymer DMT / Fang Yun Lo, in cooperation with IG Tanz Essen and Sabina Stücker Kulturproduktion, supported by BUREAU RITTER/TANZPAKT RECONNECT, which is funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of the NEUSTART KULTUR initiative, and by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia - Spitzenförderung Tanz
.