Transdisciplinary project grant “Insectopolis”
How can art and science cooperate to realign the relationship between insects and humans?
Performance “I don’t hear Bugs in the City” at Grüneburgpark, 8.7.2024
Inspired by the nuances of everyday encounters between insects and humans, Anno Bolender's solo performance creates an extraordinary visual and sonic experience. Bolender's artistic research uses the medium of dance to look at the topic of co-existence with the insect world through the prism of the body. The performance was created during the transdisciplinary project grant “Insectopolis”, which has been awarded to Anno Bolender by ISOE – Institute for Social-Ecological Research as part of the interdisciplinary research project SLInBio.
With “I don't hear Bugs in the City - A choreographic reminder of the small creatures among us”, Anno Bolender takes a close look at the relationships between humans and insects in cities. Bolender explores the movement of the human body, inspired by the theory of “deep listening” by composer Pauline Oliveros.
The project grant facilitated the transdisciplinary dialogue between researchers of the participating partner organizations of the SLInBio project, such as the Palmengarten of the City of Frankfurt am Main or the Senckenberg Nature Museum, and the artistic-aesthetic perspectives. The dialog followed the project’s objective of developing new narratives for the urban coexistence of humans and insects. The artistic research creates poetic interpretations of nature and, in dialog with scientific research, questions established concepts, viewpoints and habits regarding the coexistence of humans and insects in the Anthropocene.
Anno Bolender developed various motifs and movements in three participatory workshops with people from Frankfurt, including researchers as well as a primary school class. Via collective exploration during the workshops, the diverse perspectives of the participants on insects and their soundscapes have been incorporated into the choreography of Anno Bolender's solo performance.
Anno Bolender presented the dance performance in June and July at various public spaces in the city of Frankfurt am Main.
Anno Bolender
Anno Bolender is a performance and dance artist, producer and activist who deals with the social and political concerns of communities affected by marginalization. Bolender combines theory and practice to promote the development of a more solidarity-based society. Bolender’s works have been shown in Frankfurt, Offenbach, Porto, Madrid, Bochum, Stuttgart, and at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin.
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How did you approach the topic of insects in the city as a dancer and choreographer?
“Dancing is first and foremost movement. The contact improvisation dancer Steve Paxton coined the term “small dance” meaning movements that your whole body makes, even when you think you're standing still. But a living body never stands still. Our bodies are always in motion, they are continuously “dancing” at all times. And the same goes for our living environment: There are small movements all around us. I find that to be a fascinating and beautiful approach to the world. Everything around us is alive, so to say dancing, all the time. But we tend to forget that far too often. In a crowded world such as ours, we take notice mainly of re the biggest and the loudest things. Yet every movement, no matter how quiet and small, is incredibly important. My idea is therefore to choreographically amplify these small, inconspicuous movements, which are no less important, but perhaps even much more basic and profound, and to make them heard. If you listen and look around carefully, you can experience so much beauty.”
How can humans and insects find a better co-existence?“I think we humans – mind and body – need to learn again that we are just a tiny part of our ecosystem. I get the impression that we behave as if none of our environment can affect us: neither the climate and biodiversity crisis, nor the floods or the insect extinction. But we know that it does. I am saying: We need to realize our connectedness again, to transform this knowledge into embodied knowledge, and we have to learn anew to actually feel this knowledge as well. We have to get angry when we hear that 75% of insects have disappeared in just three decades. We need to grieve when it comes to what this means for us. We need to relearn the fascination, enthusiasm and gratitude that we have for these creatures. Only then will we really want to change something about this situation.”
What kind of insights do you expect from your artistic research, being primarily concerned with the sound of insects? What role does one’s own body play in this?“Our own body is a resonance chamber for what we experience every day, for our relationships with other people and with our environment. Adrienne Maree Brown speaks of “fractals” – patterns that reflect on a small scale what happens on a larger scale. Of course, I can't stop insect extinction with my performative research. But my research always arises in a collective confrontation with other bodies and entities (in this work, it will also be the sonic waves that bodies make). In the preparatory workshops, we will explore together on a small scale what might be required on a larger scale: really listening, comprehending movements, dissolving categories such as “small” and “big” – and all this with our own bodies. We need to use our bodies to begin to understand, immerse ourselves and transform our knowledge, experiences and memories into embodied knowledge.”
The Performance
Film “I don’t hear bugs in the city”, 2024, Balduin Mund (Director & Kamera), Anno Bolender (Choreography & Performance)]
Choreography: Anno Bolender
Artistic curation: Nina Queissner
Scientific curation: Florian D. Schneider
Costume: Isabella Koeters
Sound composition: Cat Woywod
Dramaturgy: Nicole Berns
Media and public relations work: Verena Rossow, Dominik Opalka, Nicola Schuldt-Baumgart, Melanie Neugart, Pia Ditscher, Iris Dresler, Harry Kleespies
Photography: Christin Picard
Video: Balduin Mund
Produktion assistants: Christina Trujillo Frede, Frithjof Mohr
Flyer design: Iris Dresler
Cover artwork: Nina Queissner and Frithjof Mohr
We would like to thank the jury members Ellen Wagner, Brigitte Franzen, Patricia Germandi, Nina Reichert, Carolin Sommer, Bina Perl, Marion Mehring, Lukas Sattlegger, Melina Stein, Deike Lüdtke, Nicola Schuldt-Baumgart, Verena Rossow and all other researchers of the SLInBio project. Thanks also go to Bina Perl, Carolin Sommer, Nikolai Ignatev and Massimo Terragni for the exciting guided tour through the entomological collections of Senckenberg , to Lasse-Marc Riek for advice on the soundscape of insects and for providing insect sounds as well as to Hilke Steinecke for providing insights into the diversity of insects in Palmengarten Frankfurt.
Also, we thank Offenes Haus der Kulturen and the AStA Frankfurt for their cooperation, Dörthe Krohn and Naxoshalle for access to their studios, and the estate management of Goethe University Frankfurt.
Many thanks to all the workshop participants as well as to class Flex-C and their teacher Lisa Hagenauer at the Freiherr-von-Stein-Schule in Rodgau-Dudenhofen for their inspirational contributions. And thanks to all artists for their submissions of project ideas for the project grant “Insectopolis”.
