Sandback creates captivating spatial situations, keeping the viewers experience at the center of his artistic practice. In response to the exhibition, artists, performers, dancers and musicians working from different creative disciplines and sources, provide interpretations of their intimate encounters with the void.

CLOUD/Danslab – Jerome Meyer – Interpretation of space

Jérôme Meyer is a dancer, choreographer and co-founder of the dance company MEYER- CHAFFAUD in collaboration with Isabelle Chaffaud. Together they set up CLOUD/Danslab at the DCR in The Hague, a platform for research and knowledge exchange in the field of dance and performance art. In response to the exhibition Fred Sandback: The measurement of space, Jérôme Meyer developed the ‘Interpretation of Space’. The work of Fred Sandback focuses on space.

How do you interpret this as a choreographer?

Humankind is constantly defining space in its most infinitely large and infinitely small forms: from exploring the universe and it planets to the smallest particles within the structures of atoms. In dance and, especially in classical dance, you see how dancers want to master verticality, for example by using pointe shoes as an extension of the body. This fascination is typical for humanity in general.

And in relation to the works of Sandback?

Sandback creates spaces that consist of present and absent aspects. The question I filter out of the work is: where is the empty space and where is the filled space? As a spectator you are invited to relate to this question and to position yourself physically. In my practice I work a lot with these ideas of presence and absence in relation to the body.

How did you approach the space?

I prefer to work intuitively. This often starts with an impression or emotion that provokes a work of art, only to undergo an intellectual journey afterwards. As a dancer I am very aware of the physical space around me – my anatomical space – as well as the emotional and more inner or mental space. Sandback defines the space at a specific place and time, playing with the visible and invisible space. The dance is improvised and shot in one take. The silence was very interesting, because the silence is never silent. With my body I gave shape to the emptiness and constantly changed the (in-between) space around Sandback’s works. It has become an immersion of 25 minutes of complete presence and supreme concentration.

What role does the emptiness play in this?

The fact that at first sight the space seems static and empty is something I find very strong about Sandback’s work, because if you look longer the space seems to vibrate and the need to move arises. The empty space feels full of awareness of nothingness.