CHOREOGRAPHING THE LIVING CITY: RESEARCH RESIDENCY

New AECFest Supported Residency: Choreographing the Living City

The AECFest residency programme supports artists by offering dedicated research periods that allow for creative exploration and collaboration. In 2025, the programme will provide Polish choreographer Karol Tymiński with a residency at the Manggha Museum in Krakow, where he will engage with the museum’s collection and urban spaces as part of his ongoing research. This residency will provide him the opportunity to explore the connection between Poland and Japan in the context of his project Choreographing the Living City.

The project seeks to explore the dynamic interplay between the human body and the urban environment through choreography, text, and music. Drawing inspiration from Henri Bergson’s Matter and Memory, which suggests that our interactions with physical spaces are influenced by the actions they provoke, the project challenges conventional perceptions of the city as a static, utilitarian space. Instead, it positions the urban environment as a vibrant organism, alive with the forces of architecture, technology, and nature that shape daily movement and behavior. Choreographing the Living City will consider how spaces, staircases, and passages guide behavior unconsciously, creating choreographies in our everyday lives. The project aims to shift this view, inviting participants to engage with the urban space in a more active, sensory, and intimate way. The research will focus on how different elements—both human and non-human—coexist and interact, shaping the ever-evolving identity of the city.

The project draws on concepts from neuroscience and empathy theory, which explore how humans attribute life and energy to their surroundings. It also incorporates aspects of Japanese animism, which believes in the vitality of all things. This fusion of contemporary and traditional philosophies aims to guide participants toward a heightened awareness of their own presence as material matter, attuning them to the vibrancies of the world around them.

During his residency at the Manggha Museum, Tymiński will have the opportunity to immerse himself in the museum’s collection and spaces, using them as a source of inspiration for his research. His time at the museum will deepen his exploration of how urban spaces influence movement and human behavior, while incorporating the museum’s architecture and exhibits into his creative process.

The residency will culminate in a cross-cultural collaboration with a Japanese musician, who will create a soundscape that interacts with both the dancer and the surrounding environment. This fusion of dance and music will emphasize the interplay between human presence and urban vitality.

The performance will take place in the garden of the Manggha Museum in June 2025, offering a unique contrast between natural and urban elements. This setting reinforces the themes of transformation, attunement, and the blending of the organic and the man-made, offering an opportunity to reflect on the ways in which the natural world and human-made environments interact.