Non-knowledge, Laughter & The Moving Image Presents
JUCK - Gaze Practice

17 Dec 2019

Workshop
HFBK Hamburg, Aula

When we made the short film JUCK in 2013 a part of the idea was the wish to challenge the male gaze. We had heard about it from feminist theory, as a concept coined by the film critic Laura Murvey. We were no experts in the theory but had rather just gotten the main idea - how film and literature had traditionally been depicting women and non-males from a masculine, heterosexual perspective for the pleasure of the male viewer. That the male gaze has three perspectives 1. The man behind the camera, 2. the male characters in the film, 3. the spectator gazing at the image.

"In the JUCK-performances, what we do is that we immediately confront the audience with their presence in the space by meeting their gaze and/or coming close to them. Dismantling the invisible cloak between the audience seats and the stage that is sometimes/often there. Our experience is that people in the audience have a cluster of different feelings and reactions to the JUCK-piece. Some feel empowered by identifying with us. Some feel challenged and questioned by us. Asking themselves: why am I looking? Am I allowed to look? What is my power position in this space? Even, what is my power position in the world? What agency do I have here? All of these sensations, feelings and question can appear in the same body and at the same time. These feelings can be strong and fragile simultaneously. Our intention is for this to happen. We want to stir around, to have the audience reflecting on themselves both in the moment and after the performance." /From text Gaze Practice by JUCK

JUCK (initiated in 2011) work with and on the bases of contemporary debates about gender, sexuality, femininity, ethnicity in a norm creative and interactive format. With their dance technical roots in streetdance they explore the field of contemporary performance and move freely between different influences.