Pshemek Kaminski’s performance practice is based on an expanded approach to choreography and unfolds in different contexts, spatial and temporal dispositions, across various formats and media. In his works, he merges highly defined visualities with in-depth movement studies - as a vehicle to explore the poetics of the body in movement, its sensuality and vulnerability, queer pleasures and desires.

He graduated from the HZT Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin at the Berlin University of the Arts. His recent choreographic works were presented, amongst others at: Art Stations Foundation in Poznań, HAU Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin, K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg, Kunsthalle Zurich, Museum of Art in Łódź, Nowy Teatr in Warsaw, Sophiensaele in Berlin, during PQ Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space or Tanztage Festival in Berlin.

ArtConnect asked the winning artists to share with us a glimpse into their creative life to get a sense of their personal inspiration and artistic process.

What are some of the central themes you pursue in your work?

I often frame my works as chromatic choreographies. I define chromatic choreography as a choreography that is reduced to, produced by, or related to colour, colours or colour phenomena. Hence, for me, assuming a very specific visuality from the beginning of the process becomes a lens through which I research and choreograph.

How has your art practice developed over time?

I started dancing at the age of 6, in Poland, where I am from. After pursuing my initial dance education there, I moved to Berlin in 2013 to study “Dance, Context, Choreography” at the HZT Inter-University Centre for Dance, part of the Berlin University of the Arts. Since then, I have been both creating my own works and collaborating with other artists as a performer.

What drew you to work with your medium/media of choice?

Central to my work is body and movement research. I often use various somatic practices in the process of embodying ideas. Somatic practices are body-based movement practices that foreground self-awareness as well as perceiving and sensing the body from within.

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced as an artist?

A limited understanding of choreography. I believe that choreography is an expanded practice and it can be approached more broadly: not only as an art of making dances but also as an open-ended, generative tool applied to many various processes.

What does your creative process look like?

For many years, I have been inspired by “Chroma. A book of colour” written by a British queer artist Derek Jarman. A fascinating lyrical combination of theory, philosophy, science, anecdote and poetry.

Drawing from Jarman, I started to question if one can approach color not only as a visual experience but also as a bodily one. I questioned how can I re-discover color, approach it anew; as something unfamiliar, as "an open mesh of possibilities, lapses and excesses of meanings" (to use the definition of "queerness" by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick).

Describe a typical day in the studio/wherever you make your work.

My days vary: from working in the studio on my own projects, doing research, collaborating as a performer with various artists, teaching or learning (I recently began my education in body-oriented coaching).

What are you currently working on or what's next?

Triggered by my recent production of a dance film “THEREAFTER”, I am currently conducting artistic research on screendance - an umbrella term that encompasses dances and choreographies made for or disseminated through screen media.

At the same time, I am working on a hybrid choreographic project “Scores for Pleasure” that consists of a movement workshop as well as an online platform where 20 unique scores, created by invited artists of various disciplines, will be published. For updates please follow this instagram.

See more of Pshemek Kaminski’s work

ArtConnect Profile | Portfolio | Instagram