How do we 'keep in touch' in a contactless space, in an age of hyper-communication? Can we survive without touch, without skin? What are the new measures of closeness? 

This safe-distance performative encounter emerges from the artists’ ongoing research into gesture, space, connectivity, and technology. 

From dis-locations, the artists engage collectively in a series of movement exercises, choreographic figures, conversations, and chat rooms – in order to provoke contemplation about how bodies are experienced in relation to contact.

Measures of Closeness: A Lexicon of Gestures invites the audience to flow between states of participation and observation. At several points throughout the performance, one is welcomed to join in and move; always free to turn off the camera and take a moment to observe and be with the movement, including through less participatory actions.

This session of Measures of Closeness: A Lexicon of Gestures takes place via Zoom.

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Ofri Cnaani is an artist living in London. Her work has appeared at Tate Britain, UK; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; Inhotim Institute, Brazil; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Kiasma Museum, Helsinki; PS1/MoMA, NYC; BMW Guggenheim Lab, NYC; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna. Cnaani is a PhD researcher in Goldsmiths’ Curatorial/Knowledge program, Visual Cultures department.

Evann Siebens makes media, performance and photos with movement. Her lens-based practice negotiates the human body as an archival site and the politics of the female gaze. Based in Vancouver, Canada, she recently performed at the Witte de With, Rotterdam, and her work from A Performance Affair in Brussels was featured on the front page of the New York Times in 2019. 

Stella Geppert understands her work as a 'relational investigation' into verbal and nonverbal bodily communication, which is connected to essential sculptural and choreographic questions. Her latest choreography, COMMUNICATION CAPTURES, was shown at the Centre of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen/Dansehallerne, and elements were shown at A Performance Affair in Brussels.