THE BODY AS A PAIR OF EYES
Live performance, 2021 (10’)

Concept and dance performance | Joy Bernard
Music and art | Maya Perry

An open choreography for the body — remembering the trauma and overcoming it at once, connecting both to helplessness and the libidinal strength of healing.

Multidisciplinary artist Maya Perry invited me to create a performance in response to her solo exhibition showcased at Tel-Aviv’s Inga Gallery, “Learning to Live in the Present.”

After we conducted a dialogue regarding the role of the female body in Perry’s drawings and its attempt to recover from trauma as expressed respectively in both of our artistic practices, we both pointed to the book The Body Keeps the Score by psychiatrist Bassel van der Kolk as a source of inspiration and hope.

Inspired by the chaotic world of Perry’s drawings, the postures of the women reflected in her portraits and by the music she composed, I danced based on a loose score but with a set trajectory.