Julie Ramos

Professor, Université de Strasbourg

On Exhibition in Dance. Figuration and Defiguration of the Moving Body (in French)

Francesco Bartolozzi, Jason et Medée Ballet tragique (1781)
Credit : Victoria and Albert Museum

In 2006, the artist Tacita Dean asked Merce Cunnigham to imagine a performance in tribute to the composition 4’33’’ by John Cage. The dancer and choreographer called it STILLNESS: seated on a chair in front of the mirror of one of his dance school studios, he remained still according to a duration equivalent to the three parts of Cage’s piece, changing only his position in between them. The six recordings made by Tacita Dean were projected on six screens in the CENTQUATRE space in Paris. On the basis of this reflection on the tension between a pose and movement, scenic apparatus and exhibition apparatus, the presentation will review the history and theorization of the choreographic painting in 18^th century texts to compare them with some contemporary pieces. While the mastery demonstrated by dancer destines dance, more than any other performance, to achieve a “becoming painting,” its occurrences in contemporary dance question its supposed “anti-theatricality” and its capacity to interrupt movement.

Julie Ramos is a professor in history of contemporary art at Université de Strasbourg. Her research fields range from German, English and French romanticism, to intermediality and transculturality. As a scientific consultant at the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art de Paris from 2009 to 2013, she edited multi-author volumes on the practice and theory of the tableau vivant, the role of objects and decorative arts in Proust’s writing and on the notion of social art in the 19^th century. She also edited the book Renoncer à l’art. Figures du romantisme et des années 1970 (2013) and co-authored, with the geographer and poet Nathalie Blanc, an essay accompanied by selected artist interviews on contemporary art and ecology (Ecoplasties. Art et environnement, 2010). She is the editor of the Franco-German online art history and aesthetics journal Regards croisés.

https://arche.unistra.fr/equipe/membres-titulaires/julie-ramos/