Mia Štark: Traces of Movement – Visualization and Processuality

From the studio to the dance studio and back, again Thinking about how to approach the work of Mia Štark from the position of a dramaturge, I wondered first of all about the author's intention to choose someone who is only an average observer when it comes to fine arts, and a professional viewer in the field of contemporary dance as the author of the text. At the beginning, it seemed to me that these two viewing spaces ... Read More

From the studio to the dance studio and back, again

Thinking about how to approach Mia Štark's work from the position of a dramaturge, I wondered first of all about the author's intention to choose someone who is only an average observer when it comes to visual arts, and a professional viewer in the field of contemporary dance, as the author of the text. At the beginning, it seemed to me that these two spaces of viewing were completely separate and distant. At the same time, the author herself seems to insist on their opposition and opposition (dance art has been deprived of space, and drawing represents the invisible instead of the visible). As a viewer who has recently seen the drawings and a dramaturge who has seen the choreography of the work that precedes these drawings, it seemed more interesting to me to think about the common space that Mia Štark's work opens up for the viewer than detecting these two time-distant positions.

Painting, photography, drawing – always represent a fixed point in time in front of which, then, a sufficiently imaginative viewer, can subsequently generate history, narratives and processes that precede that object. This work consists of several such points dispersed in the time preceding the otherwise completed object. This fact is further underlined in the titles of the graphics: Exercise for the Centre, Exercise for Solo. In this way, the relationship between the visible, finished and exhibited object and the invisible processes that precede its articulation in this case becomes reversed. The focus of the viewer is precisely the invisible – the choreographic, which then, even after finishing the work in the studio, continues to "work" in the sphere of art. The space that dissolves in front of the viewer is not a space of exhibition and representation, but it is a space of the artist's work that takes place in different time intervals. This is not, as is often the case, a romanticization and aestheticization of the artistic process of creation and the idea of work itself. The processes that the author makes visible are the processes of work, meditation, rest, but also spaces of exercise, work stoppages, mistakes and attempts, and new beginnings. The question of whether it is a studio or a dance studio becomes secondary – because what is invisible in the body eludes us equally in both spaces, only to reappear somewhere.

Mila Pavićević

BIOGRAPHY

Mia Štark was born on 24.11.1992. In 2017, she graduated from the Academy of Arts in Osijek, Department of Fine Arts, module graphics, in the class of Prof. Mario Čaušić. In 2016, she enrolled in the Undergraduate Study of Contemporary Dance, Performance Department, at the Department of Dance, Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. At the Academy of Dramatic Arts, she has the opportunity to learn from well-known and active choreographers/dancers and artists (Ana Mrak, Petra Hrašćanec, Tony Thatcher, Matej Kejžar, Maayan Danach, Sanna Myllylahti, Guy Nader, Zrinka Šimičić Mihanović, Irma Omerzo,
Nikolina Pristaš).
Her area of interest is intermediality within contemporary art practice, especially within visual and performing arts. She works as a multimedia artist (based on a combination of media – body, drawing, traditional graphics) and actively exhibits in Croatia and abroad, among which stand out solo exhibitions in Osijek, Gunpowder Barrel and Cluj – Napoca (Romania) Gesture drawings, with the young Belgian artist Charles J. De Bisthoven.
She is the winner of two Rector's Awards, 2016/2017. Rector's Award
University of Zagreb and 2015/2016. Rector's Award of the Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek. In the academic year 2015/2016, she stayed at the University of Art and Design in Cluj – Napoca, Romania, as a student of the Erasmus + program 2014 – 2020, and in 2014 she spent a week in residence at the Frans Masereel Centrum in Kastrlee, Belgium, as an assistant to artists Ana Sladetić Šabić and Miran Šabić. In 2017, she participated in the residency program as part of the Kamenjak Art Camp as a dancer in the project of the English choreographer Tony Thatcher "XDraw – Rescore".

Contact: mia.stark92@gmail.com