This event is accompanied by a soundtrack which can be accessed using an internet-enabled mobile device with headphones. Please follow this link to access the soundtrack.
The work takes place outdoors in February so please wrap up warm. It is best viewed from directly across the road outside Edinburgh Central Library – please be mindful of traffic when crossing the road and seek a spot unencumbered by scaffolding. Please do not block the road for other pedestrians.
“Dancers float like astronauts. Or maybe as ghosts, with fluttering clothes instead of spacesuits…It looks beautiful.” – Dick van Teylingen, Theaterkrant
Projected onto the front of the National Library of Scotland each night of the Festival, UN-retained is a project by Sandman – a collaboration between choreographer Sabine Molenaar, multimedia artist Gertjan Biasino and composer Jochem Baelus. They combine dance, audiovisual production and digital techniques such as projection mapping and holographic projection to form an enthralling synergy. With each presentation this video mapping installation is molded in tune with that specific in – or outdoor location, creating a timeless and weightless story of being human.
Bodies – floating and pliable at about ten meters high between the buildings in the city center. Timeless,weightless. We stand still and look up. As a matter of course we breathe with the breathless apparitions.
Then they dissolve in the vacuum. A poetic visual story that brings silence into an overwhelming world, let us forget time, space and gravity; it slows our heartbeat and plunges us into a universe of tranquillity. The experience that both overwhelms and invites contemplation becomes tangible through a seamless combination of the everyday familiarity of real bodies and hidden technical ingenuity.
A spectacle of calm and modesty. Grand and at the same time intimate.
This project is a partnership with the National Library of Scotland and Central Library Edinburgh and supported by Warpro.
Production Credits
Concept & Choreography: Sabine Molenaar
Technical Concept: Gertjan Biasino
Composer: Jochem Baelus
Performers/freedivers: Gunther Polle, Corentin Dockx, Thierry Dockx, An Meirsman, Thibault Dockx, Sabine Molenaar + Umiko Dockx Molenaar
Freediving advice: Thibault Dockx
Production manager: Filip Timmermans
Camera: Alexandra Brixy
Camera: Cinediving/ Wim Michels
Camera-assistent: Adrien Lengrand
Safety freediving: Jeroen van Haudt
Postproduction/ Video mapping: Gertjan Biasino
Dramaturgical advice: Nienke Rooijakkers
Production: Sandman
Executive producers: DansBrabant & Kosmonaut
Coproduction: DansBrabant, GLOW Eindhoven
Image Credit: Sandman