In her new video work, choreographer Meg Stuart explores the Vorklinik, a modernist building erected in 1971-76 for the University of Graz’s medical faculty, that has meanwhile been demolished, as it was considered too dysfunctional for further use. Together with two dancers, Stuart attempts to mark this brutal transition through a sensorial processing of the building’s vast, empty spaces. Like the modernist project, the attempt to fit their bodies into the architecture of the Vorklinik is slated to fail. With tenderness and sensuality, they connect past and future, dream and decay.

Ngày Mới’ (A new day has come), is a poetic visual response to the new track “Ngày Mới” of Vietnam-based electronic band Tiny Giant. The film depicts a world in constant motion that opens up when we slumber. Cavernous darkness is a habitat of transit, between worlds and the axis of time. In the heart of this motion, memories, knowledge, sadness and joy will leave their residues without completely disappearing: perhaps they have fallen into another place, another turning of time. The moment of transit in the cave doubles as both childhood and adulthood come to the surface in sync, where we bend closer in proximity to the inner child, the taste of a spoonful of innocence lingering on the tongue. Deity-like characters also appear in the video. They are gods of the filmmaker’s own world turned into images, as any person can have their own interpretation of a god. In this film, God is understood as a provider of support and company, and trust is a form of custody. We trust in the things that can protect and guide us. The eyeless horses, then, appear as mascots and attachment figures that walk with the children towards the world.

Part of the choreography was initially inspired by the ‘Kitsune Wedding’ scene in ‘Dreams’ – a film by Akira Kurosawa, in combination with experimental hip hop moves and the krumping stomps, choreographed and performed by Saigon-based dancer Kim from La Différence Saigon and Hanoi-based dancer Quay Trần from Abnormal Conceptz.

Four dancers, one choreographic score, one poem, one camera, one angle, three takes and no edits. Dog Cloud explores the subtle interplay between structure, chance and the human desire for finding patterns and stories.