Will Dorner’s best performances – Bodies in Urban Spaces

5 min read
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces

What is Bodies in Urban Spaces?

Bodies in Urban Spaces by Willi Dorner is an example of when art comes to life, it is a trail that is ever-changing, choreographed specifically for a group of dancers. The dances bring art to life and take the audience through selected parts of public and semi-public spaces.

Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces

What the audience experiences are the corporeal elements of a chain of physical interventions that are set up very quickly and briefly, as their existence is only temporary, thus allowing the audience to perceive space in a completely different way through brand new eyes.

Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces

The special quality of each place at various times of the day creates unique presentations. The purpose is to emphasize urban functional structure while also serving to uncover the restricted movement possibilities and behavior as well as rules and limitations.

Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces

The meaning of Bodies in Urban Spaces

Willi Dorner does this by placing the bodies in specific places in which his interventions serve to provoke a cognitive process and produce the emotional reaction of irritation.

Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces

The performer’s bodies, skillfully choreographed by the artist, invoke a sense of awe and somewhat disbelief in the audience as the bodies contort into each other, similar to the non-biological structures we see in urban settings.

Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces

Individuals who pass by this work of art can reflect upon their urban surroundings in addition to their own behavior and habits.

Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces

Video: Performances in Switzerland, 2014

YouTube video
5 min 2 sec

Conclusion

What the audience sees is a mouthful. However, most are too stunned or left at a loss of words as they see the brutal beauty yet complicated frustration of the living piece.

Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces

Bodies in urban spaces encourages local residents to play the part of the audience and walk through their own city in order to facilitate a stronger relationship to their neighborhood or their region. It doesn’t only make people see space differently, but their own place within that space on a deeper level.

Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces
Willi Dorner – Bodies in Urban Spaces

All images by Will Dorner unless otherwise noted.

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