Creating a link between dance & art, visual artist Bernardo Ortiz creates a series of digital drawings in response to his extended encounter with the choreographic practices at Siobhan Davies Studios.

Running from: Mon 19 - Fri 23 Feb.

Amerikanische Lieder by Colombian artist Bernardo Ortiz will be the second Traces Commission project at Siobhan Davies Studios. During an intensive residency at Siobhan Davies Studios Bernardo Ortiz will collaborate with three dance artists and a musician. Ortiz has responded to the invitation to work in relation to dance and choreography by using his drawing practice as the starting point for a collective performance-making process.

For his first major project in the UK Ortiz will create digital drawings made up of song lyrics from 18th century American murder ballads and 1950s bubble gum pop songs, rearranged into visual patterns by algorithmic software. He will offer these as scores for the other artists to translate into new performance ‘songs’ to be presented in a specially-created space built by Ortiz in collaboration with the group. This first week of collaborative working is an opportunity to test Ortiz’s method and begin creating performative responses.

Ortiz’s multi-disciplinary approach combines drawing, installation and writing to interrogate the complex relationship between art and philosophy.

Collaborators include musician Shelley Parker and dance artists Matthias Sperling, Pepa Ubera and Sara Ruddock.