A dancer and a scenography in the process of biological moldering in a durational performance installation. Here the audiences get in touch with the decay, the decomposition and the dead.
Wed 4 Sept at 13:00-16:00 & 17:00-20:00
Thu 5 Sept at 13:00-16:00 & 17:00-20:00
Fri 6 Sept at 13:00-16:00 & 17:00-20:00
Sun 8 Sept at 10:00-13:00 & 14:00-17:00
Kiasma Theatre
Free admission.
A discussion on Tue 3 Sept at 17:00 with a choreographer Tina Tarpgaard, paleontologist Björn Krögerand a philosopher Elisa Aaltola.
Language English
A dancer and a scenography in the process of biological moldering in a durational performance installation. Here the audiences get in touch with the decay, the decomposition and the dead.
In a transparent dome of plastic, the human Hilde I. Sandvold and thousands of mealworms live side by side. The micro universe is created solely of white foam plastic. Apart from being a huge part of our human throw-away mentality, this kind of plastic also happens to be a nourishment that pleases the ever-hungry mealworms. The potential is born for a new form of symbiosis between species. An organism capable of living from plastic could be the beginning of a new blooming of species on earth.
Together the mealworms and Hilde co-create a new space. They conduct a durational choreography – an installation in which the space is slowly but visibly being altered by the worm digestion and the human body in motion. The crackling sound of the eating worms blends with the voice of the author Ida Marie Hede when she reads aloud from her text on the peculiarities of life in the plastic habitat.
The vulnerable relation between worms, foam plastic and the human and its slowly dissolution is the central point of the work, offering a speculative point of view on our relationship with ourselves and others. It is an invitation to a personal, visually experience of a woman transforming her body, skin and voice in an attempt to co-evolve with a species that potentially has better prospects than herself.
The dancer moves in extremely slow pace which allows for the worms to shift places when she does.
During the opening hours the visitors are welcome to explore and interact with the installation, and to come and go as they please. They are also invited into the dome to a close one-on-one encounter with Hilde and the worms.
Working group
Choreographer: Tina Tarpgaard
Performer: Hilde I. Sandvold
Performer at ODD residency: Ellen Furey
Science-art researcher and installation design: Pei-Ying Lin
Writer: Ida Marie Hede
Technical and engineering design: Minshu Huang
Sound design: Søren Knud
Dramaturge: Inge Agnete Tarpgaard
Production managers: Rasmus Sylvest & Viktor K. Magnusson
Producer: Carlos Calvo
PR: Betina Rex
Supported by: The Danish Arts foundation, Wilhem Hansen Fonden, Augustinus Fonden, Københavns Kommunes Scenekunstudvalg, Louis Hansen Fonden
In collaboration with: Ottawa Dance Directive, Windsor university and Westboro Village
First public presentation at Ottawa Dance Directive (ODD), Ottawa March 28th in collaboration with ODD. Danish premiere at Overgaden. Institute of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen May 1st 2018. In collaboration with Dansehallerne.
recoil Performance Group
is a Copenhagen-based performance group, founded in 2005 and led by choreographer Tina Tarpgaard. The group works with choreography and performances that cut across established aesthetic categories. Kinaesthetic interaction with the scenographic elements in which the choreography it set, has been a consistent focus of Tarpgaard’s work. In her early performances, this took the form of digital trompe-l’oeil projections, while later efforts have focused more sensorial, analogue universes where light and sound becomes concrete elements in motion.
Here You Are theme year
The theme of the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma’s 2019 programme is goodness, with exhibitions and performances throughout the year exploring the ideas of giving, sharing, hospitality and encounters.
We will invite viewers to make art themselves and to experience first-hand its power to bring joy and inspiration. Goodness comes from action, and it thrives on sharing.