Trisha Brown's dance company (first left) in an archive image of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Babette Mangotte
American dancer and choreographer Trisha Brown (1936-2017) renewed the world of dance with her postmodern dance and her method of structured improvisation.
With it, dance strips away a narrative in search of the essence of movement.
Texas visual artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) abandoned abstract expressionism to surprise with his
combine-paintings
, in which he mixed everyday objects with paint until he became one of the world's leading figures in pop art.
Trisha Brown's scenic goodbye
Trisha and Rauschenberg met in the studio of Merce Cunningham, a key name in contemporary dance.
She was a fellow dancer and choreographer and he collaborated with her scenography and choreography.
They agreed to work together and the result was the choreography
Glacial decoy,
which premiered in 1979 in the US and is now an object of worship, as evidenced by the exhibition that opens this Thursday at the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern.
The IVAM curator Teresa Millet confirmed the use of some of Rauschenberg's works in the museum's collection in the scenography prepared for the choreography and was pulling the thread to put together
Case study, Glacial decoy, Robert Rauschenberg-Trisha Brown.
Until April 18, the exhibition exhibits pieces by the also precursor of the so-called Neo-Dadaism, by some of his colleagues, such as Jasper Johns or John Cage, as well as recordings of choreographies, photographs and documents of the time.
The validity and actuality of the then called postmodern dance is surprising.
Rauschenberg and Brown's creative alliance resulted in a freer concept of dance, observing it in its purest form and challenging traditional understanding of choreography, eliminating many theatrical elements such as narratives, elaborate costumes, stage sets or formal dance techniques. Millet pointed out.
Glacial decoy
was also called a "dance concert", although it was a concert without music, because Trisha Brown demanded absolute concentration in dance, added the curator. "Trisha was directed towards the abstraction of dance and eliminated the narrative discourses, "he added. Of the 620 photos of Robert Rauschenberg that appear in the projection of the exhibition, nine are in the museum's collection and can be seen in the exhibition. The artist was also in charge of the costumes and lighting.
The director of the IVAM, Nuria Enguita, recalled that the intersections between dance, choreography and art were very important in the fifties, sixties and seventies in New York: “It was a seminal moment in the development of the performing and performing arts in relation to the plastic arts.
His legacy is still a source of inspiration today. "