BACKS BOXES TOWELS By Maria Kefirova Will Kick Off MAI's 2021-22 Season

A knowledgeable person stated that the work Packaging/Wrapping by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, artists known for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, was a sort of premonition for the fact that in the centre of our existence there is nothing but emptiness. Maria Kefirova is not sure about that. Actually, maybe, in the middle of it all, there is sound, a buzz, a whoosh, a blop, a crack. backs boxes towels began as a search for sensation.

"I wanted to create a performance that offers a space similar to a public bathhouse, a place where one can feel his/her relaxed body dissolve in the misty heat, getting cleansed, merging its molecules with the molecules of the environment. However, I was not excluding the unfolding of another kind of space... more like the Mongolian steppes where one could travel, listen and wonder, shake off perceptual habits, and find a cure for the over-exploited attention." - Maria Kefirova

Maria Kefirova's performance departs from this desire to build space through physicality and to make sound visible. The work follows her curiosity towards the concept and embodiment of friction and develops through techniques for exteriority involving national anthems, straws, boxes, towels, respect for the 'backspace', wallpaper, as well as minimal and maximal dancing. Skins rub screens. Boxes fill with sounds. Bodies become towels.

Maria Kefirova is a dance artist, she makes performances, installations and videos; she performs, writes, does research and gives artistic advice. Her interest in the correlation between internal and external realities and the human body's role as an interface between the two is at the heart of many of her works (The Nutcracker, Corps. Relations, Gold Meat, Manufacturing Tears). Through choreography she builds physical spaces for movement of attention, thought and energy (Measuring distance, The Paradise, Why are dogs successful on stage?). Her work has been presented in different festivals and venues in Canada, US, Europe and Mexico. Maria graduated from DasArts - Amsterdam, a residential laboratory for performing arts, research and innovation. She teaches and expands her choreographic practice through collaborations with other artists.

Purchase tickets at www.m-a-i.qc.ca/en/boxoffice.