STF 2024: Figuring Age

“Figuring Age” is a transgenerational, immersive and haunting performance-installation set at the liminal space between film, dance and theater. In a fictional ghost séance visitors encounter three elderly dancers: Éva, Irén and Ágnes –aged between 90 and 101– were once part of the development of modern dance in Hungary in the 1930s. Based on recordings of the dancers filmed in their private homes, the artist duo has sculpted a meticulous choreography of embodiment that lets their protagonists return on stage through Börcsök’s body and voice. 

Retracing how each of the women transformed their life and dance practice to survive the socio-political changes of the 20th century, the artists explore how resilience, silence and trauma are inscribed in the body and in the movement. 

Boglárka Börcsök (*1987) is a performing artist and choreographer who grew up near the Romanian and Serbian border in the lowlands of South-East Hungary. She studied contemporary dance at Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz, and at P.A.R.T.S. (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios) in Brussels. Currently, she is based in Berlin and Budapest.

Her work draws from archival research, personal encounters and the practice of listening and looking.  She is interested in how memory and history is accessible not only in archival form but can be expressed through voices, gestures and movements, as a coexisting dimension of the present. As a dancer and performer, she participated in the works of Tino Sehgal at documenta (13), Stedelijk and KIASMA – Contemporary Art Museum. Börcsök has been performing and collaborating with Eszter Salamon for several years in her acclaimed MONUMENT series shown at RuhrTriennale, Centre Pompidou, Festival d’Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts and Tanz im August amongst others. Since 2016, she has been featured in several editions of 20 Dancers for the XX Century by Boris Charmatz/Terrain. Currently, she is touring with Still Not Still, a dance piece by Ligia Lewis. 

Filmmaker and producer Andreas Bolm (*1971) was born in Cologne, Germany, to a Hungarian mother and a German father. After working as musician and sound engineer in Manchester, England, he began to experiment with photography, sound, and video. He studied film at the film academy FAMU in Prague and at the documentary department of the University of Television and Film in Munich. 

Andreas is currently working between Germany, Hungary and France. His films portray people in their social and familial environments, examining the fine line between documentary and fiction. His works have been screened at many festivals worldwide. His short film Jaba (2006) was presented at the Festival de Cannes and won the “Golden Mikeldi” for best documentary at the Zinebi film festival in Bilbao. In 2009, Andreas attended the renowned Cinefondation Residence Festival de Cannes where he developed his first feature The Revenants (2013), which premiered at the 63rd Berlinale, and presented at MoMA in New York. In 2014, Andreas was invited for a fellowship at the artist-residence Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, where he developed and shot his second feature film Le Juge with the French actor and film director Jacques Nolot in the leading role.

Bolm and Börcsök have been collaborating since 2017. They made the documentary film The Art of Movement, a portrait of three over 90-year-old dancers from Budapest. Their performance and video installation Figuring Age, based on the film, was presented at Moving in November Festival Helsinki and ImPulsTanz Festival in Vienna among others, where it received an honorable mention and was awarded the Rudolf Lábán Special Prize by the Hungarian independent performing arts scene. The project was selected as part of the Aerowaves ‘Twenty23 Artists’ network and SHOWCASE 2023 at Impulse Theater Festival and is currently touring across Europe. 

Performance supported by: Die Irritierte Stadt Festival of Arts, Montag Modus, Goethe Institute

Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, PACT Zollverein Atelier No.63 – Experimental Platform for the Arts, Hellerau – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste – Residency Program, Neustart Kultur – an initiative for the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media as part of the support program DIS- TANZEN, an Umbrella Association for dance in Germany. 

Part of the work was developed in the frame of the performance exhibition “20 Dancers for the XX Century” by Boris Charmatz/Terrain.

Video founded by: Tanzfonds Erbe – an initiative by German Federal Cultural Foundation, La Musée de la Danse, Rennes, Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Berlin

Special thanks: the title of this work is borrowed from the Anthology: Figuring Age – Women, Bodies, Generations edited by Kathleen Woodward and hereby we would like to express our debt to all the authors of this book. 

Read more about Sõltumatu Tantsu Festival (STF) HERE