nothingness is an ongoing practice and collaborative field of research initiated and enacted by Tomislav Feller and Hana van der Kolk. This dance-adjacent work focuses on the eroticism of waiting, the possibility in “stillness,” and the inherent paradox of fullness/emptiness in the void/nothing. In 2018 this research resulted in nothingnessXXX, an hour-long live performance with sound by Steve Martin Snider and advisement from Nikola Knezevic. It was presented at Jacuzzi, Amsterdam (NL) and Zagreb Dance Center, Zagreb (Croatia). nothingness continues as collaborative inquiry and workshop curricula.
“
a forceful demand for slowing + waiting
a mourning of the failure for waiting to save us from our failure
the privilege of waiting + its decolonizing potential
”
“I am in service to the space
waiting
get quite still
action arising from waiting
the objecthood of my body, an offering to the total
object not objectified
means: no decisions, no preferences
plain and simple: seeing, hearing, feeling the shape and sensation
mind defers to alternate ways of knowing
what if I can hear the space, I can hear something else inside the body other than what is most immediately apparent?
periodically give in and ride the wave of an impulse
then waiting
no success/constant state of becoming/being/questioning
action/inaction (deferring to the total)
probably stay longer
surrender reveals the next moment – don’t worry, something is still produced
quietly acknowledge distraction, desire, fear
no success
only potential
”
“cyborgs, the desert, the eroticism of waiting”