Skip to content

Even hushed Ivo Dimchev makes raging impression with "I-on" during opening night Springdance Festival

As a performer, Ivo Dimchev is so fast and ferocious in his shifts between blunt bravado, childish fun, erotic impertinence and cutting loneliness that as a spectator, you normally can't get between them. Once Dimchev has his audience in his clutches, they can only follow him in bewilderment. 

I-on" is another seemingly loose collection of action. Everything takes place around a wooden plinth, on which the Austrian's artworks are Franz West appear only to disappear again just as quickly in Dimchev's stream of associations. His usual zap race between states of mind, treacherous types and seemingly idiotic actions is shown in "I-on" is counterbalanced by West's artworks. The absurdity of his handy sculptures, wondrous things without function, appeals to Dimchev's recurring commentary on the absurdity of art. The simplicity of West's small white forms also challenges Dimchev's wild outbursts as an entertainer.

Bulgarian Ivo Dimchev in his phenomenal performance ''I-on''

The elusiveness on which Dimchev constantly speculates - of the artwork, of himself as a performer - turns into nothingness, like a hollow vessel behind many facades. It makes Dimchev vulnerable. At "I-on" does not simply surrender to the thrill of his madness. In Theatre Kikker, therefore, the audience enjoys it mostly in silence. A silence that in turn can be read as the silence of the museum, or the grave.

Wonderful are the moments when Dimchev lets the tension drain away so agonisingly and then with a single gesture - cheap, kitschy or scabrous - he turns nothing into something again. It is not cheery, but with a Tommy Cooper-like optimism, Ivo Dimchev knows how to turn sense into nonsense as easily as he can turn nothing into something. Phrased this way, it seems meagre, but it is phenomenal.

That Dimchev (Bulgaria, 1976) is not only a peerless performer, the author of an extreme repertoire of his own has been making it clear since Lili Handel (2005) and Some Faves (2009). The performances received international acclaim and earned Dimchev an audience of his own."I-on" is a more recent solo, which served as a prelude to the group work "X-on, which was in Something Raw. ''I-on" can be seen only tonight at Springdance for now. The next performance is not scheduled again until January 2013, in Ghent.

 

See also: 

Comments are closed.

Fransien van der Putt

Fransien van der Putt is a dramaturge and critic. She works with Lana Coporda, Vera Sofia Mota, Roberto de Jonge, João Dinis Pinho & Julia Barrios de la Mora and Branka Zgonjanin, among others. She writes about dance and theatre for Cultural Press Agency, Theatererkrant and Dansmagazine. Between 1989 and 2001, she mixed text as sound at Radio 100. Between 2011 and 2015, she developed a minor for the BA Dance, Artez, Arnhem - on artistic processes and own research in dance. Within her work, she pays special attention to the significance of archives, notation, discourse and theatre history in relation to dance in the Netherlands. Together with Vera Sofia Mota, she researches the work of video, installation and peformance artist Nan Hoover on behalf of www.li-ma.nl.View Author posts

Small Membership
175 / 12 Months
Especially for organisations with a turnover or grant of less than 250,000 per year.
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
5 trial newsletter subscriptions
All our podcasts
Have your say on our policies
Insight into finances
Exclusive archives
Posting press releases yourself
Own mastodon account on our instance
Cultural Membership
360 / Year
For cultural organisations
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
10 trial newsletter subscriptions
All our podcasts
Participate
Insight into finances
Exclusive archives
Posting press releases yourself
Own mastodon account on our instance
Collaboration
Private Membership
50 / Year
For natural persons and self-employed persons.
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
All our podcasts
Have your say on our policies
Insight into finances
Exclusive archives
Own mastodon account on our instance
en_GBEnglish (UK)