Page 26 - PIP

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I.S.:Along your path of artistic realisation, one of the issues you found important was identity. In your early works, as you examined identity, the issue of bureaucracy appeared.
J.L.V.:The battle with German bureaucracy during my first working years has made an impact on me both as a person and as an artist. I felt a strong need to express my bitterness and draw the attention to the often very unfair treatment of the artists by the bureaucratic system, which in a way reflects the general status of artists in today’s society. This is how my first solo on the issue, Mittelwelle AFC came about, followed shortly after by my next solo work Which Club?, which I choreographed for the Filipino dancer Unita Gay Galiluyo. Given her origin, Unita was often categorised as a sex worker. Often when she was on tour, she was singled out at the border and subjected to long and painful interrogations. After saying she works as a contemporary dancer, the most frequent question asked by the immigration officers was: in which club do you dance? That became our creative framework for the piece. The solo was very successful and we toured across all of Europe with it, garnering several awards. This reinstated my wish to dedicate myself to choreographic work fully, as up until then I was primarily working as a performer for other choreographers. In my next piece, 'Temporary Exhibition / Catch 22', I focused on bureaucratic mechanisms. In it I focus on an error deliberately installed in the system with the aim of stalling the process. A residence permit requires a work permit and a work permit cannot be obtained without a residence permit - the famous Catch 22.
...before Public in Private