Film-screening & Discussion: The Utopians
Image: Christina Gangos
FEBRUARY 18 | 6:30 PM
TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE IN DUE COURSE
Join us for a film screening of “The Utopians” – a social choreographic performance work based on a theater play by Austrian writer Robert Musil.
About the Event
Join us for an engaging evening with choreographer, scholar and artist Michael Kliën, He’ll set the stage with insights and context, offering a glimpse into the briefings typically shared with audiences before his live performances. Following the introduction, immerse yourself in a captivating 40-minute screening, and stick around afterward for a thought-provoking discussion with Caroline Lillian Schopp, an expert on Austrian performance art from Johns Hopkins University and Austrian composer and artist Volkmar Klien, The project collaborated with the renowned integrated performance ensemble “En Dynami” and was developed in collaboration with the Laboratory for Social Choreography at the Kenan Institute of Ethics, Duke University.
A social choreographic performance is a type of art that blends movement, people, and ideas to explore how we interact and connect with each other in society. Instead of focusing on traditional dance moves, it looks at how groups of people move and work together, creating meaningful experiences and conversations through these interactions. Klien uses choreography not just for performance but as a way to explore social issues, relationships, and how we can build better communities. It’s less about watching a performance and more about being part of an experience that makes you think and feel differently about the world around you.
About the Panel
Michael Klien: Choreographer and artist Michael Kliën’s work has been situated around the world. He is widely considered as one of Europe’s foremost thinkers in the field of contemporary dance and choreography today. Kliën’s artistic practice encompasses interdisciplinary thinking, critical writing, curatorial projects, and centrally, choreographic works equally at home in the Performing as well as the Fine Arts. He has been awarded a PhD from Edinburgh College of Art in 2009 and in 2017 Kliën was appointed Professor at Duke University. Image Credits: Christina Gangos
Caroline Lillian Schopp: Caroline Lillian Schopp is Assistant Professor of modern and contemporary art at Johns Hopkins University. Her work focuses on performance and body art, art and the critique of violence, and feminist historiography. In her book, In-action: Viennese Actionism and the Passivities of Performance Art, she attends to gestures of hesitation, vulnerability, and withdrawal within one of performance art history’s most scandalizing episodes. The book is forthcoming in fall 2025 with University of Chicago Press. Image Credits: B. Lewis Robinson
Volkmar Klien: Volkmar Klien is a composer and artist. He makes music, installations, software and performances. His works have been presented at institutions across the globe. In his artistic work Volkmar Klien can draw on experience gained in academic research. Having received a PhD in electroacoustic composition from City University London he has held research positions at the Royal College of Arts in London, the Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (OFAI) and the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He is a professor for composition at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz (Austria).