Navaridas & Deutinger: Emancipation of Wonder (2022)

Art and its discourses often appear elitist or inaccessible. In their performances, Navaridas & Deutinger challenge this view by expanding discussions about art to deliberately include non-academic, spontaneous language codes.

In a series of workshops held in September, they let themselves be guided through the exhibition by a group of eight- to nine-year-olds while blindfolded, allowing the children to explain every artwork in their own terms. Their comments and interpretations are recorded and transcribed.

With the resulting material, Navaridas & Deutinger develop guided tours for grown-ups, to be held in December, in which they revisit the artworks of A War in the Distance without adult prejudice but with the unique poetics of childish vision.

Marta Navaridas (1979, San Sebastián, Spain) and Alex Deutinger (1976, Salzburg, Austria) are both artists with backgrounds in translation and dance. They have been developing text-based performance works since 2009. They have been shown at international festivals and venues such as Abrons Arts Center, New York; Gessnerallee, Zurich; Maison de la Danse, Lyon; Palazzo Grassi, Venice; The Place, London; Palladium, Malmö; Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint Denis, Bagnolet; Centrale Fies, Drodesera; Pôle Sud, Strasbourg; Impulstanz, Vienna; Dansens Hus, Stockholm; Dance Week Festival, Zagreb; Muffatwerk, Munich; Frascati Theater, Amsterdam; Escena Contemporánea, Madrid, Szene Salzburg; Tanzquartier Wien. They are based in Graz.