Glukya and Robert

Letter from Gluklya and Robert #1
29.05.2024

For this research, Robert and Gluklya, in addition to practicing walking, created a set in Gluklya's studio where they write letters to each other on the pieces of cotton fabric for the blankets to make people feel at home. Including homeless people.
Two empty bodies without organs begin to write letters to each other.
They are tender and patient with each other, taking the time each needs to put their thoughts into their writing.
No interruption is possible during this period.
They do it in silence.
Sometimes they hold their breath as an act of resistance, when they feel the wind or hear the signal or sound outside that might provoke a joy for the vessels.

Letter from Gluklya and Robert #2 

30.05.2024

We have never worked together before and it is a challenging and exciting journey for us. The letters that we start to write in the studio are this level of our research where we investigate each other and in the end it could be the piece dedicated to this theme of becoming friends and working partners. When we use: beloved .... in the letters, it means in our case the love beyond the bodies (or the platonic love from the European and Sufi concept to which Robert is devoted).
I suggested that we practice evening Derives because the energies in the evening are different, they are more tender and immersive, closer to the moon.
 
Robert agreed and I felt a deep gratitude for this. He also agreed that we would read these letters during our showcase, at the end of the research, so to speak. Let's keep it a secret for now how we will read them - it will be a surprise. He also agreed to the dance with Koloski, a kind of weed grass that also grows in my homeland, by which he opened the portal to the fragility, the theme research of my life, which begins when I worked with my sister in spirit - Tsaplya. It was a long, long time ago, before the war.

It was also very important for us to discover the similarities between the human body and nature.
I would say that there are two kinds of similarities: psychological and physical. 
For example, roots are the same as human vessels, the iris of the human eye is also part of the sun, tears and sweat are related to water, guts are like some trees in Indonesia, and so on.
 
Robert is now in an existential phase of his life - when he feels like an anchor and has the desire to unfold his roots in his motherland.
He fell in love with the Marineterrein - but he is polyamorous, he wants to add more - and suddenly, as an anchor, he discovered it as an ideal place for his further flourishing.
Being an experienced veteran nomad and finally facing the anchor is a big thing in the life of this unique universe - Robert.

Bio's

Robert Steijn (Netherlands, 1958) is a choreographer, performer, director, dramaturge and writer based in Amsterdam and Mexico City. Together with the Mexican choreographer Ricardo Rubio he runs the School of tender thinking, combining spirituality, art and healing practices, inspired by plant medicine and trance rituals.

Instagram: @robertsteijnschool of tender thinking 
Facebook 
The New Dionysian festival
When the sun kisses the moon 

Gluklya / Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya (Rusland/Nederland, 1969) woont en werkt in Amsterdam. Ze wordt beschouwd als een van de pioniers van de Post Sovjet performancekunst en was medeoprichtster van het kunstenaarscollectief Factory of Found Clothes en Chto Delat. Ze werkt met performance, installatie, tekst, artivisme en video. Haar onderzoek draait om de filosofie van de ander en de mogelijkheden van spel binnen het verzet. 

Two diaries
Description of some performances 
Portfolio gallery in Amsterdam 
Artist talk by Gluklya

Reflection on the residency

"Many miracles happened along the way. We met so many people, revealed so many hidden intentions and meanings."

At the beginning of their research, Gluklya and Robert began to develop a technique of simultaneous writing to synchronise their chemistry and keep in tune during the intense period of their research.
They wrote letters to each other, calling each other Beloved Friend to emphasise the importance of friendship and caring for our fragile community.
At the same time they explored Marineterrein, Kattenburg and the surrounding area using the derive technique, practising openness to the senses and intuitive insights. They also met different people/experts within the humanitarian study, activists, fighters for refugee rights, people with high consciousness and care for society, experts on wilderness, the AZC (which was centralised) and a migrant with the rich history of waiting for the Netherlands citizenship. They even contacted the military. 
We live in times of war.

So the research consists of different levels of investigation:
-writing in silence
-walking with open senses
-meeting people, talking to them
-reading
-reflecting through conversation
-dancing
-eating together

The research consists of different levels: The personal and the social -political are sometimes overlapping, sometimes running in parallel, sometimes coming together as a knot.