This research was started from choosing the object to work with. The object that would balance between being a charged symbol and being a tool. So, it's the whip. It caused fear and disgust, already in the bare situation of the solo with an object.
What would be the strategies of finding the balance between these extremes? What would be my agency in this juxtaposition with a symbol of power and violence?
Arsen is constantly searching for balance between semiotic and affection, between whip as a symbol and whip as an unknown territory.

Supported by:
La Briqueterie - CDCN du Val-de-Marne (France), Station Service for contemporary dance and CC Magacin (Serbia), Percolate and Dance Limerick (Ireland), Dance Identity (Austria), SEANSE art center (Norway), ON/OFF on-line residency

Choreography and performance - Yulia Arsen
Music - Till Mertens
Outside eye - Nicole Seiler
Video - Yana Isaenko

Femininity is a product. A mass-produced product you can find in a store. Determined to achieve full-fledged femininity, Yulia Arsen goes to the shop with a plastic bag where she means to purchase it for a reasonable price.

Ironic, honest and intimate, in this piece Arsen plays with clichés about what it means to be a woman, and to examine your gender identity.

Credits:
Choreography and performance - Yulia Arsen
Outer eye - Nastya Nikolaeva
Special thanks to the STANSIA art-residency for support.
Photos: Claudiu Popescu and Egor Gogen

TWENTY22 by Aerowaves https://aerowaves.org/artist/yulia-arsen/

We see the performer wearing headphones and with a small package of props. A preset playlist of 7 songs is played in the headphones. The performer exists and acts according to the dramaturgy, which is prompted by the random sequence and mood of the tracks, personal intuition and lack of common sense.

It's a shame to love some songs, especially to do it publicly. It's very embarrassing to be an artist, especially to do it in a self-presentation format. Breaking through shame, awkwardness and cringe, the performer practices the openness and acceptance necessary to feel comfortable in the world of gallery art.

Viewers can scan the QR code and turn on this playlist. They can try to find the "right" track by deciphering the performer's actions, or they may listen in any order, watching how the audio context affects the interpretation of what is happening around: both related to this performance, and involuntarily included in it by the viewer himself.

Credits:
Choncept and performance - Yulia Arsen
Curator and advisor -Alina Gutkina (Vasyarun)
WINZAVOD contemporary art center.

Performance

30 minutes

The multibillion-dollar industries are dedicated to the religion of ecstasy. The economy of altered states are created only to turn off self-awareness. To give us a few moments of rest from the voices continuously sounding in our mind and to reach the state of "flow".

"Know-how" is a term for practical knowledge about how to achieve something, as opposed to "know-what" (facts), "know-why" (science). Know-how is often implicit knowledge, which means that it can be difficult to convey to another person through writing or verbalization. This phenomenon also refers us to the concept of "wu-wei" - a state of flow described in Eastern philosophies and compared with the activity of an artist who acts instinctively, spontaneously, without thinking about the reasons.

As part of the performance, performers try to achieve a state of ecstasy, due to various practices that exist today. Meditation, excitement, rhythm - it's not entirely clear which of these may really work. Maybe there are no magic techniques, but there is only the artist's know-how and the desire to somehow transfer it to another.

Idea - Yulia Arsen
Performed by Semen Farina and Yulia Arsen
Dj set by Evgenia Rom
Mentored be Alina Gutkina (Vasya Run)
As a part of collective exibition WINZAVOD Open studios #6

right here, right now
auto-colonial rave

Rave party on the border of dance performance and total installation about russian eternal sense of our cultural "secondary". Rave came to us from the UK, performances-parties - from Berlin or Amsterdam, the newest theater - in Europe, well, how can Russian artists and audiences exist in all of this? We want to be like someone else, pursue originality, compare ourselves with everyone else. But rave is not a competition, not even a work on yourself. What if this practice of collective fatigue frees us from auto-colonial mood for at least an hour and a half?

Credits:
Yulia Arsen - director, choreographer and concept
Alexey Silaev - set designer
Nastya Nikolaeva - theme developer
Anna Kozonina - curator
Nika Gilmutdinova, Denis Basko, Alexey Yurkov, Ksenia Tchizhova, Lera Teploukhova, Vika Vaskina, Sergey Tchirkov, Larisa Alentieva, Lena Shirinkina, Simon Farina, Yulia Arsen - performers
Natasha Guliaeva - producer
Irina Kozlova - director`s assistant

Produced by RemPut festival 2020-2021

Photos - Alexey Kabelitskiy, Valentina Malgina

Show me your love
Laboratory in Kazan, Tatarstan

The group of dancers with very different backgrounds (prima balerina, b-boy, contemporary dancer, actress, vogue etc) were put in the situation of re-finding the very basics of dance and than to define the connections between each other in order to be able to perform as a group.

Dramaturgy was based on the playlist of pop songs about love, and performers aimed to manifest that which cannot be named. Something that is not virtuosity, technique, charisma, but only a flicker, a vulnerable glow

Credits:
Choreography - Yulia Arsen
Performers - Akeksandra Elagina, Ildar Alekbaev, Renata Garifullina, Ed Khabibullin, Rail Norinz, Albina Nugmanova, Aya Sadykova, Indira Khabibulina,
Special thanks to Venera Galimova, Ildar Alekbaev and svoboda.fest

RACE.lifelong

The first piece of GENDER SOLO SERIES.
It is a confrontational, philosophical and at times satirical solo. On a bleak, empty stage, the performer searches for self by deconstructing and reformatting various aspects of her being.
She moves within a certain national matrix, trying to find a way out of it or, most importantly, to realize whether she needs this exit in general. This work involves consciously deconstruction of various parts of her personality, which she then joins together in unexpected ways. Meanings that were not embedded in the original structure appear and dissolve.

The research for the piece took place in Kassel, Halle 2 (Gemany) and than was premiered in February 2020 at ZIL cultural center in Moscow.
Solo is shortlisted at the international theater festival - MOHOfest.

But I want him to like me

Following the performer, the audience goes through the chain of images as if they were skimming an old photo album.
They experience the moments of recognition caused not by certain narrative, but mostly by the atmosphere and feelings, which are known – fear, helplessness, avoiding, forgiving and accepting."

Solo "But I want him to like me" was premiered in Kassel in February 2019 and than was invited to several festivals in Germany (Let me in festival, Wall Series, Tanzwuchs, TanzInTents etc) and Tanzania (Haba na Haba festival)