In the 18th Century, some members of the upper classes are said to have found much joy in voluntarily allowing themselves to be connected to an electric current, which caused them to twitch, move, and dance. This was not a spontaneous dance. On the contrary, it was provoked by a scientific experiment. In that sense, it can be thought of as a form of choreography.

Besides the choreographic spectacle of unknown and invisible matter passing from person to person holding hands within the laboratory walls, scientists were inventing new protocols for static electricity machines and how to organise the volunteers to execute the »magic«. The scientists were, in that sense, acting like artists, making a non-visible sensation visible. Attracting volunteers to the project was of crucial importance for the scientists, as it allowed them to gain further understanding of electricity currents. 

This principle hasn’t changed in time. Inviting people to freely participate, for example, in a dance is nothing more than a data-mining project in disguise. What seems to be a joyous event is a profit-producing asset for private platforms. Money loves money!

It seems that we, the humans, have come to understand dancing as a sum of messy movements destined to be choreographed. Nothing new! Human dance does not occur between inventive protocols and dogmas, but rather in a rigid and unilateral march of protocols becoming dogma. There is little room for messy diversity. Instead, all forces work to impose a choreographed pseudo-mess, a controllable mess. It seems that choreography is what produces a repetitive mass dance. 

A repetitive mass dance is akin to soldiers marching. It is always hypnotic. Repetition creates expectation of its very repetition. It soothes the brain, drawing it into a trance or a meditative state. At the same time, as we were hypnotised, we are always willing to freely participate in whatever seems to be the greater good. Should we call that naivety or imagination? Perhaps imagination is a prerequisite for hypnosis.

However, humans are not merely data-providing creatures. Our bodies are inherently messy. Ours is a history of repetitive dance between the technoscientific knowledge production mechanisms and our bodies that always exceed and evade their limits. For every attempt to govern our bodies, there is an ongoing experimental rhythm that challenges the notion of choreography by aiming for freedom and happiness as a rejection of apathic social hypnosis.

With this year’s festival edition, we want to challenge precisely the general state of hypnosis. Humanity is facing a mess of genocides and authoritarian neotraditionalisations. We live in countries that are managed like some kinds of mafia corporations. We are dealing with revisionist historiographies and new imperialisms. We are being drawn back to the most devastating political systems, while also fighting our own, individual battles. In light of these circumstances, Spider turns to Dancing as an outstanding artistic practice. We believe that within Dance there lies a potential to transfigure the present by creating something beautiful. It is in pursuit of this – the beautiful – that we warmly welcome you to Spider 2025.

Matej Kejžar