Can I Say Something

How can we understand intimacy in a way that allows us to capture it? Intimacy is about authenticity, getting as close as possible to our truest selves. Can I Say Something is more than just an artistic exploration of intimacy, it is a manifestation of the experience itself. Each artist involved contributes their voice, vulnerability, and authentic self-expression to create a holistic experience for everyone walking through the door. This hybrid gallery and performance event will invite you into a space where you can feel safe to let down your guard and connect through visual art, interactive photo projects, and performances. Be drawn in through all of your senses. This space is far from a cold white wall gallery, but a space set up to allow for warmth both physically and emotionally. We hope our radical honesty can emanate beyond the stage and create a communal environment, drawing our audience to feel equally safe, seen, and validated in their authentic expressions. Featuring performances by Laura DeAngelis and Armonia Stamataki, and Naia Urresti and Dionel Pire. Gallery exhibiting visual art by artists Laura DeAngelis, Marek Höpel and Quyny.

October 11 - 19:30

October 12 - 17:00, 19:30

LCG (Luise Catucci Gallery) ARTLAB- Allerstraße 38

10-20E Sliding Scale (free drink ticket over 15E)

Doors open an hour before the performance and close an hour after so the audience can engage with the exhibition, interactive activities, have a glass of wine at the bar, and enjoy the carefully curated cozy environment with their community and loved ones.

Performances

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What does it mean to be born a man? What does it mean to be born a woman? How do we have to behave, how do we have to move, how do we have to look like? Which roles are we supposed to fulfill? How do these roles affect the way that we relate to each other, how do they shape our intimacy? How are our beings and our personalities conditioned, sometimes limited, because we’re born one way or the other? Could it be different? What would we be if we hadn’t been raised in the mold of gender? Would we be more free, more authentic? Would we relate to each other differently, would or relationships change, would we be more vulnerable, more intimate? What is the punishment if we don’t follow these rules, and how are we conditioned by concepts as sin or guilt, when it comes to our self expression? This questions are the motor to the creation of this piece. Using the gestures, the movement of the arms, the legs, the way we walk, we sit, we move, we interact. Working in duo and solo, we’ll try, if not to answer, at least to reflect over these questions, giving our own perspective from our experience, as one man, one woman. In this opportunity we will work with the Venezuelan composer Nuwanliss, who will create the original music for this work.

In Our Clubhouse
How can we understand intimacy in a way that allows us to capture it? Intimacy is about authenticity, getting as close as possible to our truest selves. In Our Clubhouse is an artistic exploration of intimacy with ourselves and others to create a connection between ourselves and our audiences that feels safe, warm, and intimately integrated. This work is a series of dialogues that vacillates between physical and verbal. Our dialogues communicate with mixed media experiences of interactive photography projects to draw you in with all of your senses into a full intimate experience. We explore communication through our bodies and words in a way that brings us closer. In Our Club House is an ever-evolving research on where our boundaries lie, and what happens when we remove our layers and share our most personal and intimate selves with friends and strangers alike. We hope our radical honesty can emanate beyond the stage and create a communal environment, drawing our audience to feel equally safe, seen, and validated in their authentic expressions.

About the Artists

Laura DeAngelis

Laura DeAngelis is a dancer and performer based in Berlin. Their involvement in professional performance began at the early age of 16 with what is now The Rock Dance Collective under choreographer Cleo Mack in New Jersey, USA. At the same age, they started creating and performing their own choreographic works. Laura received a BFA in Dance at The Ohio State University, in 2019 where they trained under artists Like Bebe Miller, André Zachery, Susan Hadley, Mitchell Rose and others. They focused on dance composition while simultaneously pursuing a BA in History. At the time they also began their path in dance film and photography. Their film TNT: Today Not Tomorrow was featured in the San Succi Dance Film Festival in Dallas, Texas in 2017. At the end of their Bachelors’ career, Laura was artistic director of their first entirely self-produced and created multimedia production, Post Memoriam, which awarded them their degree with Honors and Distinction in 2019. After their studies, Laura continued their freelance dance career in Chicago, where they also began teaching Yoga full-time. During their time in Ohio and Chicago, Laura created a collaborative series of dance-theater hybrid works with artist Josh Anderson, The Worst of the Best of Us. In addition to university performances, their work was performed at the Cleveland Dance Festival and the JELLO: Performance Series Episode II in 2019. Laura continued working for the JELLO series, performing in their work Jerry’s Map at the Intuit Arts Center in Chicago. Working for JELLO, they also co-curate their dance film festival centering BIPOC artists titled JELLO: Playback in 2020. Laura was a collaborating artist with StilGo Dance+Tech, where they performed, choreographed, and assisted director Alexandra Stillianos in administrative work. Their debut work Slip performed at Side Street Arts in 2021, after their film Siren Redress was featured in the Going Dutch Dance Film Festival in 2020 They also continued their career as a dance photographer touring the United States with the Hall of Fame Dance Showcase. After three years in Chicago, Laura moved to Berlin to pursue their MA in Photography. There, their work shifted from being an academic narrative to more emotional. Laura performed for the first time in Berlin at Uferstudios for The Market of Wisdom in 2022 with an improvisationally based solo. They subsequently performed a dance-theater hybrid work titled Glitch for the second annual Manifest-IO at Alte Munze in 2024. Laura performed in Chapter 12 of The Monuments series at Kühlhaus in 2024 under the direction of Jaša Mrevje-Pollak. Laura is now working alongside Armonia Stamataki to create their multimedia work In Our Clubhouse, which will perform at Bande á Part in September of 2024, and will be featured in their event You Are Safe Here organised at the LCG ARTLAB Gallery in Neukölln, set to take place in October of 2024.

Dionel Pire

Dionel Pire (Dio) is a dancer, performer and choreographer with more than 10 years of experience in the dance field. Born in Coro (Falcón), Venezuela on July the 4th, 1995. He began his dance studies in Caracas, at Taller Experimental de Danza Pisorrojo in the UCV (Central University of Venezuela), training in parallel at the BALLET ARTE School Foundation, at UNEARTE (National Experimental University of the Arts), and at Voll Pilates Group and Yoga. After his studies, he joins the Teresa Carreño Theater Ballet Company as a dancer. Later he moved to Bogotá, Colombia, where he continued his research, creation and training in the performing arts field, dancing with the Anna Pavlova Ballet and Danza Experimental de Bogotá, and at the same time being part, as a performer and creator, of recognized companies in Bogotá. He has toured the country with works that have won multidisciplinary state scholarships as well as working with national and international artists (singers, actors, dancers, artists, among others). He is the winner of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in gymnastics and dance championships. During his career he has danced in important venues in Latin America, such as: Aula Magna of the UCV, Teatro Teresa Carreño, Teatro la Estancia, Teatro Ana Julia Rojas of the UNEARTE University of the Arts, Teatro Colón of Bogotá, Teatro de Bellas Artes of Bogotá, Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo, Teatro Jorge Eliecer Gaitan among many others.
Armonia Stamataki

Armonia is a dancer and performer based in Berlin. She started dance at an early age, having mostly a ballet education and completed her professional dance studies in Greece in 2019. Later she got introduced to contemporary dance and improvisation where she is looking forward to explore further. She is mostly interested in performance as a spectrum with no rules and boundaries, experimenting with different stimuli from her life experience , as well as the social and political environment . She has danced with the “Thessalian ballet” (Larissa) for two years and has worked with “The opposite reflection” (Berlin) in “ Aloof”. She is currently working on her first co- creation “In our clubhouse” that will be performed on Septmeber 24, 2024, and October 11th and 12th, 2024 with Laura DeAngelis.

Naia Urresti

Naia Urresti is a Venezuelan dancer and choreographer based in Berlin. From a really young age she starts her investigation of the body and performing arts through artistic gymnasts and theatre, studying acting in the Centre of Artistic Creation T.E.T. and taking part in diverse theatre workshops with Maria Fernanda Ferro, Diana Peñalver, among others. She worked as an actress in different professional projects such as La Ola, Jack y las Habichuelas Mágicas, La Princesa y el Dragón and La Leyenda de Robin Hood with the Theatre Group Skena; and The Importance of being Ernest with Amentia Teatro. She also started her labour as an educator guiding theatre workshops in schools with the company Skena. Later on she continued her education in Contemporary Dance, Flying Low and Passing Through, Ballet, Improvisation and Contact Improvisation with different institutions in Caracas, such as Taller Experimental de Danza Pisorrojo UCV, Taller de Danza de Caracas and UNEARTE, and having among her teachers Susan Bello, Evelyn Pérez, Cristina Gallardo, Inés Rojas y Carlos Penso. Having professionally dance with diverse venezuelan dance companies such as Pisorrojo (Nepente, The Nutcracker, Fértil, Tesela, Pilastra, Seis Ecos), Neodanza (Azar, Festival de Improvisación Día 13, El Boquete, Furor Navideño), Sieteocho (Análogo) and Proyecto Movimiento (O: Una Mirada a Oriente desde Occidente), she continued her investigation in Europe taking workshops with David Zambrano, Humanhood, Sharon Friedman, Siciliano Contemporary Ballet, Tomi Paasonen, Descalzhina Danza and taking part of the EBB Junior Company. Once in Germany, she starts her investigation as a choreographer developing solo pieces, among them Buscando (2020), 1990 (2021), Penelope (2022) and Crescent (2023), and presenting her projects in different spaces in Germany and Spain.

Host or Publisher Laura DeAngelis