What moves humankind? In the multi-year art project Motus Mori, Katja Heitmann collects and preserves human movement. Since 2019, more than 1,000 people have already donated their personal movement to this embodied archive, an ever-growing foundation from which the choreographer creates new artworks.
In the 'movement opera' RELIQUIEM, you experience other people's motions in the most direct and touching way possible: through your body. In an intimate ritual, you put yourself in the shoes of the archive's many donors and incorporate their personal "movement relics" into your motion repertoire. Katja calls this 'kinetic empathy'. Which movement would you like to inherit?
Katja Heitmann is fascinated by the human attempt to escape their own mortality. This paradox is the muse of the movement archive Motus Mori. As movement goes and vanishes, we are at the same time epi-central master of our own life ánd just a spark in eternity.
With RELIQUIEM, Katja Heitmann takes her archive research to the next level; creating a collective shared movement heritage to secure it for the future. The archive will be transferred to 'everyone'. After all: doesn't every human being want to keep moving, for eternity?
Come experience RELIQUIEM as part of Hybrid Tales For Hybrid Times at MU from August 24th until August 27th. The experience is roughly 75min. in length and can be experienced in Dutch or English. Regular admission is €8.00, for students and people with a museum card it is €5.00 and for We Are Public cardholders the experience is free. Do reserve a ticket via the link below.
The performance is not suitable for people with an auditory impairment. It is suitable for people with a visual impairment if they bring a guide. It is accessible for wheelchair users. It does not make use of stroboscope or other flashes, loud sound (high dB(A), use of heavy smoke.
Order your tickets here.
Katja Heitmann (1987, DE) investigates in her visual-choreographic work what moves humankind in the current era. Katja Heitmann's choreographic work consists of extreme aesthetics, in sharp contrast to human fallibility. Her minimalistic and minutely designed imagery confronts viewers with a frantic flood of insights. This distinct, perceptible tension returns in all her work.
As a choreographic sculptor, Katja is constantly searching for the core of her material. By means of radical concepts and well-considered forms of performance, she strips her artistic material of any noise. Only that what really matters is shown with astonishing sharpness. In every detail of her work lies the grand gesture.
Katja Heitmann wants to move her audience. Through her work she constantly seeks interaction with society, with the city, with people. The universal character of her work makes it possible for anyone who wants to find their own entrance to the work. Katja Heitmann creates unique performance installations and theatrical exhibitions that appeal to an astonishingly varied audience and regularly brings them to tears.
In 2016 Katja was awarded the Prize of the Dutch Dance Festival. In 2020 she was honored with the prestigious Gieskes Strijbis Podium-award, Netherlands' largest performing arts award.
Concept, artistic direction, libretto: Katja Heitmann
Concept, music, dramaturgy: Sander van der Schaaf
Production: Stichting This is not a show
Interviews, editing: Eva Geia Huisman, Josefine Patzelt, Wies Berkhout, Moene Roovers, Ornella Prieto, Eleni Ploumi, Karolien Wauters
Artistic advice: Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink, Marijn Meijles, Jan Ruts
Scenography Taciser Sevinc [TACISER.S ART AND DESIGN]
Photography Hanneke Wetzer
International development: Fanny Martin | Art of festivals
Supported by: Fonds Podiumkunsten, Gemeente Tilburg, Provincie Noord Brabant
Co-production partners: SPRING, Korzo, DecemberDance, tanzhausNRW
