SUTRA
Celebrated Flemish/Moroccan choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, in collaboration with Turner Prize winning artist Antony Gormley, presents a brand new dance work inspired by the skill, strength and spirituality of Buddhist Shaolin monks.Polish composer Szymon Brzóska has created a beautiful brand new score for piano, percussion and strings which was played live on the original show.The 17 Monks performing in Sutra are directly from the original Shaolin Temple, situated near Dengfeng City in the Henan Province of China. In 1983 the State Council defined the Shaolin Temple as the key national Buddhist Temple. By visiting the Shaolin Temple, and working with the Shaolin Monks over several months, Sidi Larbi follows a lifelong interest of exploring the philosophy and faith behind the Shaolin tradition, its relationship with KungFu, and its position within a contemporary context.
Over the last 25 years Antony Gormley has revitalized the human image in sculpture through a radical investigation of the body as a place of memory and transformation, using his own body as subject, tool and material. Since 1990 he has expanded his concern with the human condition to explore the collective body and the relationship between self and other in large-scale installations. For SUTRA he has created a design consisting of twenty-one wooden boxes which are re-positioned to create a striking, ever changing on-stage environment.
Antony Gormley has revitalized the human image in sculpture through a radical investigation of the body as a place of memory and transformation. Since 1990, his concern with the human condition is expressed in large installations that explore the collective body and the relationship between self and other. Gormley is known for public works such as Quantum Cloud of the Thames, in Greenwich, one of the most celebrated examples of contemporary British sculpture. Graduated in Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Art at Trinity College, Cambridge, he studied at the Art Center School, Goldsmiths College and the Slade School of Art. He participated in the Venice Biennale in 1982 and 1986 and the Kassel Documenta 8, in 1987. In 2012, He showed sculptures in CCBB Sao Paulo and Rio Janeiro and public areas . He won the Turner Prize in 1994. A retrospective of his work begins to travel through Europe in July 2016.
Sutra was filmed by Axiom Films, an independent film production company established in 1997 by Douglas Cummins and Rocio Freire-Bernat. It performs art films, documentaries and recordings of musical shows, dance and opera.
Aby Cohen 