PERFORMING TALES OF THE UNSEEEN
Performing Tales of the Unseen is a live performance situated at the intersection of dance and drawing. Conceived and performed by Timo Paris in close collaboration with Andrea Biel (Das Flavour Crew), the work unfolds as a dialogue between embodied movement, drawn line, and architectural space.
Originally developed as part of the ongoing series Tales of the Unseen, the performance is conceived as a modular work that can be adapted to different architectural contexts. For its presentation within the framework of the Architekturdialoge at the VIA Businesspark, the structure and spatial disposition of the performance were adjusted to respond to the specific conditions of the site.
The performance investigates the body in motion as both subject and instrument of image-making. Movement functions as a means of spatial reading, probing scale, orientation, resistance, and circulation. Drawing is approached as a physical, time-based process: lines emerge as traces of bodily presence and negotiation with architectural surfaces. The performers operate simultaneously as dancers, motifs, and agents of inscription, generating a continuous feedback loop between movement, line, and perception.
In the context of the VIA Businesspark, the performance unfolded through a sequence of interconnected situations distributed across the site. Choreographic passages, moments of stillness, and acts of drawing were positioned in relation to architectural features such as thresholds, surfaces, and transitional zones. Rather than presenting a fixed frontal arrangement, the work emphasized spatial shifts and changes in perspective, allowing the audience to experience the architecture as an active field shaped by bodily presence.
Elements of Breaking—such as freezes, transitions, floorwork, and cypher-based improvisation—inform both the movement vocabulary and the resulting drawings. These elements are not employed stylistically, but function as embodied tools for negotiating gravity, balance, and orientation in relation to the built environment.
With minimal technical requirements, Performing Tales of the Unseen adapts to diverse architectural situations. Walls and floors are treated as active surfaces, and the drawings produced during the performance remain in the space as autonomous visual works after the event. The project forms part of the ongoing series Tales of the Unseen, a continuously expanding body of work that explores movement,
