[New Horizons] Swiss-Korean dance 'Alone Together' juxtaposes reality and cyberspace
![″Alone Together″ by Anna Anderegg, to be performed at Eunam Museum of Art in Gwangu from Feb. 26 to March 3, as part of the Swiss Pavilion at the 13th Gwangju Biennale. [NICOLE PFISTER]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2021/02/23/a9b168e3-3f3c-41f9-aa37-98d5d46eb5c0.jpg)
″Alone Together″ by Anna Anderegg, to be performed at Eunam Museum of Art in Gwangu from Feb. 26 to March 3, as part of the Swiss Pavilion at the 13th Gwangju Biennale. [NICOLE PFISTER]

Four female performers, some holding up laptops, tablets or phones, will perform at Eunam Museum of Art in Gwangju from Feb. 26 to March 3, in Anna Anderegg’s “Alone Together."
The movements of the performers are visible in person and also in the screens of the devices they're holding. It's up to the audience to decide whether the movements together make up parts of a whole, or whether there are no intended connections.
“I see cyberspace as an extension of public space — a place where we meet, a place where we encounter each other, where we meet like-minded people,” said Anderegg, herself a choreographer and dancer from Switzerland, in presenting the concepts of her work at the Swiss Embassy in Korea on Feb. 9.
![Anna Anderegg, Swiss choreographer and dancer, speaks with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Feb. 9. [PARK SANG-MOON]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2021/02/23/8fa0e318-ba26-45d7-b57d-c025f3f083f5.jpg)
Anna Anderegg, Swiss choreographer and dancer, speaks with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Feb. 9. [PARK SANG-MOON]
These are the questions that Anderegg and her team of dancers, architects and sound designers from parts of Europe and Korea will try to answer through their five-hour performance of “Alone Together” at the Gwangju Biennale.
The Korea JoongAng Daily recently sat down with Anderegg and Francoise Gardies, senior cultural program officer at the Swiss Embassy in Korea. Gardies has been instrumental in bringing together Anderegg with Kunsthaus Pasquart, the Swiss organizer of the Swiss Pavilion at the Gwangju Biennale, and its counterpart Eunam Museum of Art. Gardies is also the spouse of Ambassador of Switzerland to Korea Linus von Castelmur.
The following are edited excerpts of the interview, during which Anderegg and Gardies relayed their journey of piecing together an artwork across oceans and explained how it was possible not only despite the pandemic but because of it.
It was weird to find ourselves with a concept that has become more meaningful because of what was happening around us all over the world.
」![″Alone Together″ by Anna Anderegg, to be performed at the Eunam Museum of Art in Gwangu from Feb. 26 to March 3, as part of the Swiss Pavilion at the 13th Gwangju Biennale. [NICOLE PFISTER]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2021/02/23/58360327-466d-476e-b063-d787f1035a13.jpg)
″Alone Together″ by Anna Anderegg, to be performed at the Eunam Museum of Art in Gwangu from Feb. 26 to March 3, as part of the Swiss Pavilion at the 13th Gwangju Biennale. [NICOLE PFISTER]
I thought it would be interesting to approach architecture from the very specific angle of dance.
」Later, in January 2020, I discovered Anna’s special relationship with Korean architects and artists, through her participation in Sara Kim’s project, “Designed by Another Architect.” The cultural policy at the Embassy of Switzerland has defined thematic priorities: Architecture in a sustainable environment is among them.
Anna’s work questions the presence of the human body in light, space, volume, movement — these are the ways in which she apprehends the human body in its habitat and environment. I thought it would be interesting to approach architecture from the very specific angle of dance and to share with the Korean audience the aesthetic and radical experience of a choreography by Anna.
The framework for the work was found when I met Kim Sun-jung, president of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation, when she presented the Pavilion Project to me. The project is the ideal setting because it gives complete artistic and organizational freedom.
![″Alone Together″ by Anna Anderegg, to be performed at the Eunam Museum of Art in Gwangu from Feb. 26 to March 3, as part of the Swiss Pavilion at the 13th Gwangju Biennale. [NICOLE PFISTER]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2021/02/23/e01ef90b-16cc-4cf3-8956-6b315ae325e5.jpg)
″Alone Together″ by Anna Anderegg, to be performed at the Eunam Museum of Art in Gwangu from Feb. 26 to March 3, as part of the Swiss Pavilion at the 13th Gwangju Biennale. [NICOLE PFISTER]
Swiss, Korean elements come together at embassy
At the Swiss Embassy in Korea, it is hard to define where the Swiss and Korean elements begin and end.
Completed in 2019, the new abode of the Swiss diplomatic mission in Korea takes after the basic typology of a traditional Korean house, with structures nestled around a courtyard.
But once indoors, the high wooden ceilings and walls absorbing the sunlight stirs the memory of a lodging in the Alps. Not to mention the simplicity and compact design of the interior, the added Swiss features in the forms of masterpieces by Claudia Compte, Andreas Christen, David Hominal and Renée Levi — part of the Swiss Federal Art Collection — welcome the visitors.
Though not immediately visible, the house is also equipped with solar panels on the roof and geothermal energy pumps underground.
The “Swiss home” is symbolic of what the Swiss mission has been striving to achieve in Korea since 1963, when the two nations established diplomatic relations.
“We are always trying to connect with Korea on subjects that are common in our interests, and sustainability in architecture is one of them,” said Francoise Gardies, senior cultural program officer at the Swiss Embassy in Korea.
“Switzerland is a very welcoming country, and I think we have to show it well when we are abroad as well as when we are home. Being open to these collaborations and different ideas is one such example.”
![Francoise Gardies, senior cultural program officer at the Swiss Embassy in Korea, at the openingof the Swiss Contemporary Jewelry Design Exhibition “Bijoux en jeu | Jewels in Play” in Seoul in November 2019. [EMBASSY OF SWITZERLAND IN KOREA]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2021/02/23/fa688fb4-5e51-468f-8a3e-09a9261a1535.jpg)
Francoise Gardies, senior cultural program officer at the Swiss Embassy in Korea, at the openingof the Swiss Contemporary Jewelry Design Exhibition “Bijoux en jeu | Jewels in Play” in Seoul in November 2019. [EMBASSY OF SWITZERLAND IN KOREA]
Throughout her five years of tenure in Korea, Gardies has organized and witnessed dozens of projects and collaborations that cross the cultures of people across seas, and there are a special few that stand out in her memory as being symbolic of the bilateral ties.
“We had a celebration on the courtyard for the opening of the new embassy,” she said. “To make things a little different, we prepared an activity for the guests.”
One of the artists invited to the event, Chun Kyung-woo, challenged the guests to each pair up with a stranger. They were then asked to tie one of their hands together so that they would have to get the approval of the other person to move around in the venue, mingle with different groups of people or even help each other with eating.
“Some of the people who met through this activity remain in touch to this day,” Gardies said.
![Opening reception of the renovated Swiss Embassy in Korea in central Seoul in May 2019. [EMBASSY OF SWITZERLAND IN KOREA]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2021/02/23/53852a18-932f-4b4f-8d3b-cad6b2c2903c.jpg)
Opening reception of the renovated Swiss Embassy in Korea in central Seoul in May 2019. [EMBASSY OF SWITZERLAND IN KOREA]
To continue its mission, the cultural department at the Swiss Embassy in Korea will be helping organize conversations and collaborations in the fields of architecture, film and performing arts throughout 2021.
Starting with Anna Anderegg’s “Alone Together,” a dance to be showcased at the Swiss Pavilion of the 13th Gwangju Biennale from Feb. 26 to March 3, the Swiss embassy has also prepared a lecture on health and urban development by Michael Jakob, professor of theory and landscape history at Geneva School of Engineering, Architecture and Landscape, at the Seoul Hall of Urbanism and Architecture in April as part of the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism; special film screenings of award-winning films at the Locarno Film Festival at the embassy and the Seoul Art Cinema in May; and an online workshop with choreographer Yan Marussich in the autumn.
Queries for reservation for "Alone Together" should be directed to Eunam Museum of Art, at eunam.org.
BY ESTHER CHUNG [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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