Lisa Stertz is a German artist and educator, who works in the performative and healing realms. Through her studies in media, philosophy and art she became both, a savant and a maker. Lisa's interest in movement based practices led her to be a sojourner of Butoh, Noguchi-Taiso, Baguazhang, Taiji Quan, and meditation. Recently she finished an apprenticeship to become a Dervish Whirling Teacher, enriching her knowledge and fields of action.
ARTIST STATEMENT
We always want to reach the Complete. But gaps remain. Cracks. Corners. Wrinkles. Craters. Depths. Places of disintegration and dispersal open up. Places of fear, of shame, of blame, of exhaustion, places of lingering, of inhalation, of respiration, of interest, of wonder. Constantly new places, where we arrive, where we rest, from which we go, from which we will be picked up, of which we will say: I was there. You were there. We were there. We are here. In this world.
Places commonly as spaces of imagination, as other worlds. Places as invitation, as request, as motion.
My performances are such places. I want to pick people up, invite them to get involved. I want to share my time with them, as they share theirs with me. If they notice that they are present with me and that I am not only present for them, I have reached this timeless claim of mine — for the moment. I prefer to touch people, instead of teaching them. If I can make them be-come aware of being alive, of feeling themselves through a way of communication I will have chosen for a performance, I succeeded. The word communication is key here, since human communication became the central objective in my work.
I am thus inspired to design performances that lay out forms of encounter, rather than forms of exposition.
