A BESTIARY OF UNIMAGINABLE ANIMALS

Nana Biluš Abaffy

Date: 1-4 March, 7.30pm
Location: Temperance Hall, 199 Napier St South Melbourne
Choreography & Visual Design: Nana Biluš Abaffy
Performed by: Nana Biluš Abaffy, Geoffrey Watson, Rachael Wisby

A Bestiary of Unimaginable Animals is an experimental choreographic as well as visual work for three dancers and a congregation of beasts, created by Nana Biluš Abaffy for Temperance Hall.

Inspired by the medieval bestiarium, which was an elaborately illustrated compendium of both real and unreal animals, minerals and other forms of life, the work sets into motion a kaleidoscopic world of motley menageries and as yet unrealised environments.

In pursuit of untouchable utopias, which we try to touch, and imperceptible animating forces, which we can't resist, A Bestiary of Unimaginable Animals plays with a self-organising animality as it moves through a fragile habitat that we know can shift or break at any moment.

Unfolding over four days as part of the inaugural FRAME: a biennial of dance, this newly commissioned work invites audiences to step into an offbeat new bestiary of the unimaginable.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Nana Biluš Abaffy is an artist with a background in philosophy and a foreground in experimental performance and choreography. She is interested in the pursuit of knowledge through embodiment and wants to know what her body is looking for. Nana believes that there is irreducible variation in the human experience and works towards establishing a space for that difference in search of landscapes where alterities can be envisioned.

Find out more here.

ACCESS AND SAFETY

Please do not attend Temperance Hall if you are feeling unwell or have tested positive to COVID-19.
Bathrooms are for all-genders and wheelchair accessible. Temperance Hall's Upstairs Studio is only accessible via a stairwell.

If you have any specific accessibility needs or any queries regarding the event, please contact Temperance Hall Program Producer, Anna McDermott program@temperancehall.com.au

Image: A Bestiary of Unimaginable Animals (2023), Nana Biluš Abaffy. Photo by Chris Boyd.

Temperance Hall acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land in which we dance and create, the Bunurong Boon Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation, and pay our respect to Elders both past and present and, through them, to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.