Maze: Jasmin Vardimon joins forces with Turner Contemporary in Margate

Published: 27 March 2015
Reporter: Vera Liber

Maze Credit: Ben Harries

Maze, an immersive new performance presented by Turner Contemporary and Jasmin Vardimon Company choreographed by director Jasmin Vardimon with collaboration from artist, designer and architect Ron Arad and artist Guy Bar-Amotz, brings together the two worlds of dance and visual art.

This major collaboration between Jasmin Vardimon Company and Turner Contemporary is one of their most ambitious projects to date. Staged in Margate’s caves within the Winter Gardens, Maze will occupy a foam structure of industrial proportions conceived for the performance by Ron Arad and artist Guy Bar Amotz.

Audiences will be asked to leave their inhibitions behind and immerse themselves in the unknown. They will choose the ‘light’ or ‘dark’ path and enter Maze to experience an intimate adventure. Moving through the labyrinth, audiences become observers and participants.

An element of the Maze installation will also feature in Turner Contemporary’s upcoming Risk exhibition exploring the relationship between art and risk, which runs from 7 October 2015 to 17 January 2016.

This further consolidates the ongoing relationship between Jasmin Vardimon Company and Turner Contemporary. The staging of Maze at the Winter Gardens in Margate will be followed by a major national tour of the work in early 2016.

Jasmin Vardimon stated: “I’m excited to create a project that will allow audiences to experience my work at an extremely close and intimate proximity. This will be an experience that is similar to being on stage with the dancers and face-to-face with the artwork itself. The adventure each visitor will have will be dictated by the individual path they might choose within the architectural structure.”

Ron Arad stated: “I always thrive on not knowing how something I haven't started yet will end up. If you're working with someone who comes from another discipline the chances of being surprised by your own work are definitely far bigger.”

Hedley Swain, Area Director, South East, Arts Council England, said: “we are delighted to be able to support Jasmin Vardimon Company and Turner Contemporary as they create a highly imaginative and engaging site-specific performance piece.

"Maze will provide audiences with a completely new experience of dance—immersing them in the performance as they traverse one of the two paths they could take through the labyrinth.

"The project represents wonderful collaboration between two excellent and innovative, but very different, National Portfolio Organisations and cements the importance of arts and culture in the regeneration of East Kent.”

Additional funding has been awarded by Kent County Council to support the delivery of an education programme associated with Maze. Educational activities led by an artist and dancers will explore the making of Maze as well as themes in the work, such as chance and decision making.

The activities will engage families, and schools groups from Margate and Ashford to reach their own creative responses to the work. Turner Contemporary will hold a family workshop, inspired by Maze, to create labyrinth-like structures on 15 April.

Jasmin Vardimon’s work often takes on complex ideas and situations and translates them into dramatic productions that ask audiences to question their assumptions about the ideas she tackles and the nature of dance itself.

Maze will be Vardimon’s first venture beyond the proscenium stage, inviting audiences to physically determine their position within the work and to create their own narrative by moving through it.

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