28 Feb Nefeli Oikonomou/ Undine
Residency Program : April 2022
Weavers is a choreographic piece that follows the movement of thought and relationship like a trace or a trail or a wave. To weave is to entangle, to be in a relationship, to sense vertically and horizontally, to follow complicated patterns in a methodical way and to contemplate on the resonance of each action in the larger scheme.
Weavers examines movement as being in relationship to others. To ‘weave’ is to grasp the
invisible forces that manifest with our language, body and movement; through a collage that shows new aspects of how we make sense of the world.
Weaving is used both as a metaphor and as a working method, where the performer relates to her own body, the landscape, and the bodies co-existing in space. To follow how a dance unfolds and what it implies. It examines how we are affected by all details in our surroundings, a multi-sensory experience that sheds light on the complicated way we think and perceive.
What emotional states are evoked, how is the surrounding environment affected, and what are the links between seemingly unrelated factors?
In this proposal, weaving is referred to as an act of taking care and listening, but also as a labour in itself, with its own life and limitations. Furthermore, dance is viewed as an oscillation between different senses, qualities, textures and mediums.
In the recent era, we have been witnessing rapid transformations and escalated dynamics
when it comes to the impact of bodies and environments. Bodies are forced to migrate, ecosystems change rapidly, pandemics escalate and economies are increasingly unsustainable.
Through our extended presences on the one hand and through the disallowance of presence for other bodies on the other hand, we oscillate between different states of presence.
Departing from these contradictions, this work questions what these transformations imply
regarding the perception and sensation of the body and how do we ́weave ́ together our
complicated presences.
Weaving Blanca video work is a dialogue within the landscape of Blanca where the body, gesture and pattern unfold in a crossing of animalistic and repetitional. Where does the body start and end?
‘What it takes is willingness to learn the labour of holding; staying; witnessing; facilitating the crossing of liminal thresholds; lubricating the beginnings and ends of human life-forms. The skills in question sprout up in the cracks throughout human societies, yet, under capitalism, there is next to no incentive for universalizing them. The fact of departing, or arriving, or undoing life, remains (for now) of limited market use.’(Sophie Lewis,’With-Women: Grieving in Capitalist Time’,2020)
With the support of International cultural exchange by Konstnärsnämden- The Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
