What does it mean, to live in a room? Is to live in a place to take possession of it? What does that mean? As from when does somewhere truly become yours?
Fragment from Species of spaces and other pieces (ch. 3.3.) by Georges Perec (1974, translation by John Sturrock, 1997).
The lightweight tissue that connects habit and home stretches in both directions. As habit forms the home in it’s familiarity and repetitiveness, it would simultaneously seize to exist without it.
A parallel as such could be applied between movements performend in the domestic space and the (repetitive) act of drawing. Sketches are usually considered of the same habitual kind, becoming almost invisible to the subject performing them, merely seen as a ‘tool’. Yet through their familiarity and gesture-like character, they are equally connect to our body (the hand) and the space surrounding it (the paper).
This kitchen is for dancing is a personal research project on movement and familiarity in the domestic sphere, consisting of four interwoven parts. The practice-oriented experiments have a specific focus on an “imaginary” kitchen, formed from different kitchens from my tangible memory.
Pt. 1 - Data accumulation
Pt. 2 - Model try-out (1:1)
Pt. 3 - Forming a reflective companion
Pt. 4 - Visual translation
These first two parts react on the specific character of the kitchen and transformed the site into an equally intimate testing ground. The present 1:1 model worked as an informal stage for analysis, drawing and dialogue. During this spatial intervention (Feb. '25), the floor was covered with paper. Subconsciously this registered all actions in the space: how people moved, paused, hesitated, dreamed and danced in a given period of time. These movement patterns form the blueprint for a new ceramic work to be realized, intended for exactly the same imaginary space.
Édouard Vuillard, Intérieur aux tentures roses III, lithographie, 36,7 x 30 cm, 1899.