Irina Angles

Irina Angles, aka Irina Bashuk, is a Ukrainian dancer, choreographer and multidisciplinary artist based in Lisbon, Portugal. Born in the small Ukrainian mining town of Donetsk, she describes herself as a self-taught artist. At the age of 4, she took up rhythmic gymnastics, a sport she practiced for almost 12 years. It wasn't until the age of 22, when she was working as an economist, that she began taking dance classes. Following contemporary and modern dance classes, influenced by hip hop, funk and vogue culture from which she learned the various concepts of isolations, geometry, popping, tutting and freestyle, she launched her career as a dance teacher. As a choreographer and performer, the artist is inspired by the routines of life, the colors and shapes that surround her, human movements, postures, reactions, natural processes and the architecture and movement of large cities. She represented her dance vision at TEDx Tianshan park in Shanghai in 2017. Irina Bashuk has performed on stage and in situ all over the world, and her work has been exhibited in various international exhibitions and festivals, as well as in the metaverse. She also founded China's first vogue crew, House of Kawakubo, in Shanghai.

Irina Anglès is fascinated by the relationship between video and dance, creating in her works a dialogue between the latest cutting-edge technologies (AR, VR, AI), digital arts and the human through movement. A pioneer in her approach to dance and new technologies, the artist exists in a market where few dancers would have imagined venturing: the art market. As of 2019, she is beginning to combine dance with digital art, thanks to collaborations with digital artists, who have helped bring a new direction to her artistic vision. In 2021, Irina Anglès creates her first work using artificial intelligence processes, collaborating with AI artist Roope Rainist. Convinced that this new tool does not exclude her artistic practice, but on the contrary enriches it, she concedes that dance will always remain a physical medium, but that thanks to artificial intelligence, there are now a plurality of instruments for expressing it.

In "Roads Whispering" (2021), Irina Anglès stages herself in a series of photographs thanks to her collaboration with photographer Tanya Bohdanova. Bordering on absurdist surrealist photography, this set features minimalist compositions, unusual poses and urban landscapes as backdrops. Her photographs highlight strange and sometimes disconcerting scenes, inviting the viewer to reflect on the human condition, isolation, and the relationship between humans and their environment. In search of symbols to point the way, the artist slips into urban signage, waiting for a sign. She asks many questions about the nature of the road she's looking for. It could be geographical, recalling the many places where the artist has lived: Ukraine, France, Indonesia or Portugal. Is she looking for the next country of her heart, like a compass pointing with her arms? From a more metaphorical point of view, this work could also refer to the doubts and questions that can punctuate an artist's career and life. What will be her next project, her next collaboration, her next experiment... This photographic series has already been exhibited in the "NFT Liverpool" exhibition in 2022.