Symbiosis Erotics – DACE in Open Studio
Open studio
Projectrooms, Färgfabriken
Rickard Borgström och Rebecca Chentinell (DACE) guest Färgfabrikens Open Studio in conjunction with the exhibition Symbiosis. Together with the invited artists Zheng Bo och Geumhyung Jeong they examine the border land in between curatorial and choreographic practice under the titel Symbiosis Erotics.
Rickard Borgström and Rebecca Chentinell, have initiated a new platform, DACE – Dance Art Critical Ecology, for curatorial and choreographic explorations of what post-human dance can be, informed by post-anthropocentric worldviews. By inviting artists that in different ways works with the body as an interface to our surroundings, we get a closer look at the consequences that the rapid technological, environmental and political changes have for our actions, thinking and artistic practice.
Dace work with a multitude of bodily practices and the performative dimension as a possible method to both comprehend and produce more complexity around the conditions of our intertwined world, where we experiment with varied ecologies and shifting forms of co-existence as well as rewritings of dance, choreography and visual art, as art forms and contexts. In the mirrored project rooms at Färgfabriken they present two international artists who uses body and queer methods to create transgressive relationships that both shift and expand our understanding of a more-than-human ecology and the dynamics of interdependence. The works unfold in an interwoven and transformative performance and exhibition format, through various techniques, materialities, media and time, which seeks intersectional crossbreeds of ideas and conventions in relation to both visual and performing arts, as well as other knowledge domains.
About the invited artist
Zheng Bo (b. 1974, Beijing, lives and works on Lantau Island, Hong Kong)
Zheng is committed to more-than-human vibrancy; he investigates the past and imagines the future from the perspectives of marginalized communities and marginalized plants. He creates weedy gardens, living slogans, eco-queer films, and wanwu workshops to cultivate ecological wisdom beyond the Anthropocene extinction.During Symbiosis – Erotics Zheng examines intimacy between human and tree through an eco-queer-sexual dance method together with five dancers, conditioned in a Nordic ecology and context. The sexuality and agency of humans as well as trees are exercised as dance-scores, where both humans and trees are considered dancers (although trees may dance very slowly), where they rely on their bodies and movements for interaction, charged with desire, lust, erotic and ethics.
zhengbo.com
Portrait of Zheng Bo, courtesy the artist
Geumhyung Jeong
(b. 1980, Seoul, lives and works in Seoul, South Korea).
The sculptures, installations, video works and dance performances by Geumhyung Jeong are at once as tender as dire. Her work can be described as studies of technological animism, by adapting various objects; from medical equipment, domestic technology to DIY-robotic, with which she intra-acts in idiosyncratic dance performances.
At Färgfabriken Jeong re-examine and re-arrange her works of animation, video, sculpture and performance, in an ever-shifting exhibition-program over four weeks, where the core of her practice is being introduced, namely her exploration of the relentless intertwining of our living body with the contemporary technosphere. The physical intra-action between her body and the objects creates an ambiguity about who controls who, about the boundaries between desire and control, man and machine, animated and lifeless, care and subjugation.
geumhyungjeong.com
Geumhyung Jeong, Under Maintenance, 2021, still from the video, filmed by Carolin Röckelein
Further reading
About DACE – Dance Art Critical Ecology
Rickard Borgström and Rebecca Chentinell
DACE is a platform for curatorial and choreographic explorations of what post-human dance could be, initiated by Rickard Borgström and Rebecca Chentinell in 2019. Central to the duo is how the body functions as an interface towards the surroundings. Consequently, they invite artists who engage in the rapid technological, environmental and political changes, with a multitude of bodily approaches, and how this might affect our actions, thinking and artistic practice.
DACE traces new bodily sensitivities and interconnections between human, technology and nature in a more-than-human environment. DACE seeks new aesthetic paradigms in the shifting nature of our ecological systems in the geological era of human-made nature.
Rickard Borgström [FI] Curator / Dramaturge / Writer
Borgström works at the fluid intersection of contemporary art, dance, and theatre. He deploys a de-central perspective to conceive exhibition and program formats, within diverse backgrounds and geographies, in a collaborative and trans-disciplinary modes, to provide a historical anchoring and engagement with local conditions. Borgström has worked mainly in the Nordic region where his work has been presented at institutions such as Teaterhuset Avant Garden (Rosendal Teater), Bastard International Theatre Festival, Stamsund Theatre Festival, Norwegian Art Council, Lofoten International Art Festival, Art Space Sinne, Jyväskylä Art Museum, Korjaamo, Nunatta Isiginnaartitsisarfia – The National Theatre of Greenland. At times he lectures in contemporary dramaturgies in dance and theatre at Uniarts Dance department Stockholm. Borgström writes for Norsk Shakespearetidskrift and Ny tid. Together with Crimson Coast Dance, Vancouver Island and Centre de Création O Vertigo – CCOV, Montreal he is exploring trans local potential, through curatorial and artistic exchange between Canada and The Nordic region in 2021-2023. He was a member of the committee of Dance at the Swedish Art Council 2018-2021. Borgström is educated at Dramatiska Institutet and Stockholms Universitet.
rickardborgstrom.com
Rebecca Chentinell [SE] Choreographer / Dancer / Curator / Editor
Chentinell is educated at the Royal Swedish Ballet School and ArtEZ University of the Arts in Holland. She lives in Gnesta but has her professional base in Stockholm. Chentinell explores alternative ways of working with, producing and presenting dance and choreography, and the intersection between dance and visual arts – as a choreographer, dancer, curator and editor. Her work has been shown at Kummelholmen, Weld, Färgfabriken, Marabouparken, Inter Arts Center and Moderna Museet, among other places, and through Koreografiska Konstitutet she has curated programs and festivals at the Royal Swedish Opera, Moderna Museet and Bonniers Konsthall. Together with Marie Fahlin, she runs Koreografiska Konstitutet and is the editor and responsible publisher of Koreografisk Journal. She has an ongoing interdisciplinary collaboration with Félicia Atkinson [FR] in which they gather movement, sound, text and material in an exploration of presence and interaction with our surroundings. She has also been engaged in the boards of Danscentrum and Dansalliansen and in the reference group for dance at the Swedish Arts Council.
chentinell.com
An Ecosexual Dance in Högsveden
Read more about Zheng Bo´s dance below.
Zheng Bo seeks to cultivate eco-sensitive relationships between human beings and beings of the plant kingdom. This summer he therefore worked with five Nordic dancers to find forms of movement for a kind of Eco-sexual dance, where humans like pine trees are considered as dancing bodies. It poses a great challenge even to imagine what such dance would look like. The pine trees are more than 20 meters tall and between 60 and 300 years old and are much bigger and much older than the human dancers.
Only in the forest, through playful exploration of how to approach the trees, did it dawn on the group to turn the human bodies upside down, bringing the head to the tree roots. The dancers suddenly became more grounded, more upright, like the tree itself. In this position they relied less on the gaze, and instead smell and touch came to guide them. The demanding headstand with the upwards striving bodies and the interplay between feet and legs, roots and bark, created a sensual play between the scents and surfaces of humans and trees.
The animated nature with erotic under tones are found in the Swedish art of the 19th century, such as the nature-romantic approaches of Prince Eugene in Skogen (1892) and Ernst Josephson in Näcken (1892). The dance of Zheng Bo and the dancers, that we are invited to take part of in the form of a video, is not new, but a renewal of intimacy and playfulness that has always been part of planetary vibrancy.
It is a dance where human bodies are not overpowering the trees. It is rather a dance that assumes more humble positions, as to dance as creatures of the forest and companions of the pine trees in Högsveden’s nature forest in Dalarna.
Program
Symbiosis Erotics included an extensive program with workshops, discussion, films och performances. Read more below.
23–29 Aug Ekosexuell dansworkshop – Zheng Bo
Utforskning av ekosexuell danspraktik med fem nordiska dansare i Högsveden, Dalarna. 31 Aug Filmvisning & Samtal – Zheng Bo
Filmvisning: utdrag från Pteridophilia II + The Political Life of Plants + förhandsvisning av nytt material från Dalarna.Konstnärssamtal: Nya former av dans, ett samtal mellan Zheng Bo, Rickard Borgström, Rebecca Chentinell och Ossi Niskala.
18 Okt–28 Nov Dansvideoverk – Zheng Bo
An Ecosexual Dance in Högsveden, Video (2021) 31 Okt Ekosensitiv workshop – Zheng Bo
Ekosensitiv rörelseworkshop för nyfikna som önskar knyta band med andra naturliga livsformer. Leds av dansarna Adriano Wilfert Jensen i Köpenhamn, Mikko Hyvönen i Helsingfors och Ossi Niskala i Stockholm.
4–7 Nov Videowork – Geumhyung Jeong
Part I: Under Maintenance (Intro), Video (2021)
7 Nov Talk – Zheng Bo (ENG)
Roundtable with curatorers Rickard Borgström and Rebecca Chentinell, and three of the dancers from An Ecosexual Dance in Högsveden (2021): Adriano Wilfert Jensen, Mikko Hyvönen and Ossi Niskala.
10 Nov Seminar – DACE (ENG)
On Dance, Theatre, Performance in a More-than-Human World
With Eylül Fidan Akıncı, Sarah Lucie, Pipsa Lonka, Jennifer Lacey, Rickard Borgström, Rebecca Chentinell, Karin Englund.
All information hittar du här!
11–14 Nov Videowork – Geumhyung Jeong
Part II: Munbangu (Stationary), Video (2011)
13–14 Nov Performance at 14:00 – Geumhyung Jeong (ENG)
Product Review (2012/2021), Dance Performance + Product Review: Human Shaped Punching Bag PRO2500 (2015/2021), Performance Lecture. From age 15.
Seats are limited, register with rebecca@dace.nu
More information here.
18–21 Nov Videowork – Geumhyung Jeong
Part III: RECORD STOP PLAY, Video (2011/2021)
21 Nov Performance at 12:00 & 14:00 – Geumhyung Jeong
Video Camera, Live Performance (2011/2021)
All info here!
24 Nov Talk – Zheng Bo
The political life of pines? Talk and screening of: The Political Life of Plants 植物的政治生活, video, Zheng Bo. More information to come.
25 Nov Performance – Zheng Bo
Ekosensitive dansperformance with Ossi Niskala based on Zheng Bo’s project An Ecosexual Dance in Högsveden, as part of KLUBB 20TAL: JORDBEGÄR at Färgfabriken. More info!
25–28 Nov Videowerk – Geumhyung Jeong
Part IV: Under Maintenance (full length), 5-channel Video (2021)
Talk – Zheng Bo (ENG)
Concluding remarks: The reception of ecosexual dance och and ecosensitivity. A conversation betwen Zheng Bo and the curatorers. On zoom. More information will follow.
Related
The Symbiosis Exhibition
Färgfabriken’s ongoing project Open Studio was launched 2017 in collaboration with the art and design group Very Very Gold. Open
studio is a way of giving exposure to creative thinking and creative processes before they adopt their final form, while also
bringing creators and audiences closer together.
In partnership with
Färgfabriken
Stockholm University of the Arts – Department of Dance
Royal Institute of Art – Performance in the expanded field.
Supported by
Suomen Kulttuurirahasto
Swedish Arts Council
Taiteen edistämiskeskus
IASPIS / Swedish Arts Grants Committee – International Dance Program
Nordic Culture Fund
Frame Contemporary Art Finland
Nordic Culture Point