Stalin Blake i Claire Huber | Artists in Residence | Kamov Residency

Photo: Dražen Šokčević

• Biography
• The Project
• Organized by

• Stalin Blake i Claire Huber

  Claire Huber’s work invests the crossroad of oral poetry, choreography, sound and new music. She studied philosophy at EHESS, Paris, and choreography at Tanzfabrik Berlin and P.A.R.T.S., Brussels. More importantly, she traveled extensively, in Western-Africa, where was revealed her taste for orality and the presence of the body that says, and in South-Eastern Europe and the Middle-East, where she developed long-lasting artistic collaborations. She is founder of “Inflexions”, a platform for those exchanges and experimentations, with an emphasis on searching for new artistic forms.

  Stalin Blake is a musician of Kurdish origin, guitarist and singer. He learned music “by ear”, and through oral transmission. He studied classical guitar at the Russian Academy of Damas, as well as flamenco. His music is a sunny blend that draws on traditions of the Middle East, flamenco and contemporary music, with a particular taste for improvisation. Stateless in Syria, he made the long journey that brought him to Belgium twelve years ago. There he plays everywhere, down in the streets just as much as up in famous concert halls such as Beursschouwburg, Ancienne Belgique, KVS, Muziekpublique… He also creates music for theater pieces (Bronks, DeSingel).

• As we drove short short horizon-lines

  19.-23.11.2024.

  II. TranziT - European Festival of Contemporary Theatre Practices 

  As we drove short short horizon-lines - performance by Claire Hubert, Stalin Blake and Nastasja Štefanić Kralj

  November 21, 2024 at 7:00 PM, HKD na Sušaku, Rijeka

  "As we drove short short horizon-lines" is a sound and choreographic piece by Claire Hubert that intersects choreography, poetry, sound, and music, focusing on listening as a key perceptual principle. The creator conceptualizes her work as “choreographies for listening,” encouraging the audience to engage with dance, poetry, and sounds, revealing the connection between the essence of a place and the voices of its inhabitants over time.

  This piece is a collaborative creation involving the French-Belgian poet and choreographer Claire Huber, Croatian dancer and musician Nastasja Štefanić Kralj, and Syrian-Kurdish musician Stalin Blake. It traces the nuanced experiences of long journeys from the Middle East, through the Balkans, to Western Europe, navigating the increasingly short lines that divide our horizons. The performance aims to express differences—artistic and cultural—without blending them, instead fostering bridges between them.

  Crafted as a live score featuring various voices, languages, instruments, and bodies, the intimate work draws on the human experience of perpetual change, prompting the audience to “listen” and shape their perceptions over time, while also being attuned to what may not be immediately apparent. It serves as a tribute to the transient nature of bodies that are never grounded for too long.

  Concept, direction, and text: Claire Huber 

  Performance: Stalin Blake, Claire Huber, Nastasja Štefanić Kralj 

  Costume: Zdravka Ivandija Kirigin 

  Sound and lighting design: Emmanuel Desmyter 

  Scenography: Stalin Blake and Claire Huber 

  Administrative and production support: France Morin 

  ---

  AUDIENCE IN TRANSIT is a program consisting of workshops, discussions, and films aimed at the audience. 

  Listening as the Cultivation of Otherness - contemporary theatre workshop 

  Workshop leaders: Claire Huber and Stalin Blake 

  For whom: Interested audience of up to 20 participants 

  HKD na Sušaku, Strossmayerova 1, Rijeka 

  Wednesday, November 20, 2024, from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM 

  This workshop will delve into the concept of “listening” as a vital component of the creative process. Listening extends beyond simply hearing; it embodies a method of perception that is both attentive and receptive, seeking what is not readily apparent, presuming the unknown, and valuing uniqueness and diversity. Participants will engage in tuning their ears and senses through physical and bodily approaches, exploring how specific rhythms and sounds influence performance, dance, vocal expression, and navigation in time and space.

  The workshop will confront questions of where we “create” and where we “listen.” Participants will question collective creative methods that lean towards predetermined ideas or actions, steering closer to an approach that nurtures what exists. This philosophy fosters an ethic of embracing otherness, avoiding the imposition of concepts too early in the process, and allowing experiences to unfold organically from our engagement in the work.

  Production: Creative Laboratory of Contemporary Theatre KRILA 

  Financial support:  Kultura Nova Foundation, City of Rijeka, Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County. 

  Logistical support: HKD in Sušak and Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Kamov Residency) 

  Media sponsors: ArtKvart, La Voce del Popolo, Novi list, teklic.hr 

  www.krila.org

• Arts organisation KRILA

  → https://krila.org

  Arts organisation KRILA is a laboratory for contemporary theatre promoting progressive practices and creating engaging art works for local communities and citizens of Rijeka as well as supporting professionals and small independent European cultural operators in the field. In the development of our audiences: 1) we use unconventional theater spaces, 2) we engage the audience in the creative process and/or performance, 3) we approach the process of audience segmentation as an articulation of values. The strategic goals of the organization are:

  - to ensure stimulating conditions for the work, research and strengthening of the capacities of domestic freelance contemporary performing artists and raising the quality and visibility of their artistic production.

  - to develop and implement international cooperation projects with a special focus on contemporary performance practices, connecting and cooperating with international artists, educators, organizations and institutions.

  - to contribute to the improvement of the personal and professional development of children, young people and adults through educational theater content that meets their needs, relying on contemporary, collaborative, engaged and inclusive theater practices.