Bio / CV
Emma Waltraud Howes works as a translator between movement and form. Her interdisciplinary works manifest as multiple reconfigurations of the body and space informed by her background in dance, performance theory, and the visual arts within the framework of a conceptual art practice. Her labor is guided by observations of gestures with a focus on the development of an expanded choreographic practice incorporating public interventions, kinaesthetic and architectural research, and an underlying drawing component in the form of graphic scores for performances – compositions representative of a stage in the development from concept and intention to depiction and effect.
Howes studied Ballet and Baroque Opera before becoming a company member with the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre. She received a certificate in professional training from Toronto Dance Theatre, Toronto, a BFA from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver, and an MFA from Concordia University, Montreal, where she was awarded an international grant to take part in the New Artistic Strategies program at The Bauhaus-Universität, Weimar. During her studies she ran a martial arts school for ten years.
She has been a grant recipient from NPN Stepping Out, Nationales Performance Netz, Fonds Darstellende Künst, Berlin, Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn; Canada Council of the Arts, The Québec Council for the Arts, the Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada), the Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa and Goldrausch künstlerinnenprojekt art IT, Berlin. She was theThe Canada Council Artist in Residence at ACME Studios in London, 2018, and Québec Council Artist in Residence at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, 2014.
Selected solo exhibitions
Глаз, Frontviews, Berlin (2021); UNFURL: a lucid science fiction, with Justin Kennedy and Balz Isler for the 11th Berlin Biennale, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2020); Scores for Daily Living, ZIL Cultural Center, Moscow (2019); Scores for Daily Living, Quartier Am Hafen, Köln (2019); Scores for Daily Living, Kunstmuseet Nord-Trøndelag, Namsos (2018); The Nine Returns to the One, The Place, London (2018); Stage Directions for a Mouth, Blackwood Gallery, Mississauga (2016); Ankyloglossia (n. tongue-tie), Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2014).
Selected group exhibitions
The Crack Begins Within, 11th Berlin Biennale c/o ExRotaprint, Berlin (2020); THIS HOUSE IS NOT A HOME, K-Phase, Lothringer 13 Halle, München (2020); Dreiküchenhaus: Labor, Ritual, and Civilization, Neustadt, Kornträgerweg, Hamburg (2018); I hear you (Jeg hører deg), Kunstmueet Nord-Trøndelag, Namsos (2018); Gregarious Approximations, Frontviews, Berlin (2018); Conglomerate: Block 5, Kino Moviemento, Berlin (2018); Hidden Lines of Space, Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin (2017).
Collaboration as Choreographer and Performer
Phase Shifting Index, with Jeremy Shaw, Center Pompidou, Paris (2019); Group-Think, with Stine Marie Jacobsen, Manifesta 13, Marseille; Ten Days Six Nights, with Joan Jonas, Tate Tanks, London (2018); The Stroker, with Pilvi Takala (2018); Dynamis, with Georgia Sagri, Documenta14, Kassel (2017); Liminals, with Jeremy Shaw, Venice Biennale (2017); Symphony for a Missing Room, with Lundohl & Seitl, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2016).
Selected publications include
Scores for Daily Living (Berlin: Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa and K. Verlag Press, 2020); Botanical Drift (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2018); Ankyloglossia (n. tongue-tie) (Berlin: K. Verlag Press, 2014); The Retreat (Toronto: Public Journal, 2014); An Archive of Accident Gestures (Berlin: Goldrausch, 2011).
Workshops have included
CAMming: Collective Auto-mythologizing for the CAMera, with Justin Kennedy, ImPulsTanz, Vienna (2021); Alive: a durational lucid opera, with Justin Kennedy, Ateneu, Porto (2019); Matters of Care, Kunstlerhaus Bremen, Bremen (2019); Barely Even Touching, Kunstlerhaus Bremen, Bremen (2019); Rehearse Your Intent, Kunsthochschule Mainz, Mainz (2019); Rehearse your Intent, Very Project Space, Berlin (2019); Scores for Daily Living, University College of Nord-Trøndelag, Namsos (2018); Alive … & then Some, with Justin Kennedy, Ateneu, Porto, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2018); Twisted Buoys, Centrum, Berlin (2018); Wormhole Through Your Brain, with Jeremy Shaw and Justin Kennedy, ImPulsTanz, Vienna (2017).
Upcoming projects
Bang Bang Baroque supported by NPN Stepping Out, Nationales Performance Netz; Fonds Darstellende Künst, Berlin; Canada Council for the Arts. Manageable Matter supported byStiftung Kunstfonds: NEUSTART KULTUR-Stipendium für freischaffende bildende Künstler:innen.
Emma Waltraud Howes lives in Berlin where she works as a mediator between artists and performers; encouraging direct lines of communication that acknowledge the complexity of these exchanges, and with respect to the distinct characteristics of their diverse material and physical languages.