Testing Ground: Den endnu urealiserede forestilling IV: Ida Marie Hede, Nathalie Mellbye & Mycelium

“Til den fjerde event i serien inviterede Ida Marie Hede iscenesætter, scenograf og kommende kunstnerisk leder for Sort/Hvid, Nathalie Mellbye, samt skriftkollektivet Mycelium til en samtale med udgangspunkt i Mellbyes praksis som visuel iscenesæt- ter og hendes samarbejde med Mycelium.

Samtalen kom ind på det kropslige, kannibalistiske, transgressive, frigørende og ritualistiske i scenekunsten (og i verden), Mellbys praksis som del af kunstnerkollek- tivet LOGEN, samarbejdet med Mycelium i forestillingen Becoming bird og teatrets mulighedsrum.

Dette var den sidste event i serien Den endnu urealiserede forestilling og dermed Ida Marie Hedes sidste chance for at komme tættere på at begribe og realisere sin egen, endnu uskrevne teaterforestilling. Vanen tro begyndte eventen med, at Ida Marie Hede inviterede sine gæster til at afprøve en kort dramatisk dialog gennem fælles oplæsning. Det er denne dialog, du kan læse her ved at downloade ovenstående PDF.

Samtalen fandt sted på Thiemers Magasin i København den 13. juni 2023.”

Se mere om projektet her:

https://arthubcopenhagen.net/media_item/testing-ground-den-endnu-urealiserede-forestilling-iv-ida-marie-hede-nathalie-mellbye-mycelium

MONSTERBALL

ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE,” it says on the door.

We attended Logen’s wonderfully bizarre MONSTERBALL:

You wait to be let in through the door. Two figures come lurching toward you. One is hunchbacked and dressed in a snow-white gown, wearing a disfigured zombie mask. The other is a tall, clumsy creature clad in a flesh suit; its head is made of plumbing parts, taped together with hair and plaster.

They welcome you in an unintelligible language of growling sounds. You are asked to read a manifesto aloud. It states that humanity’s supremacy is drawing to an end, and that the monstrous will pave the way for a new era. The bizarre and the occult will seize power from the rational.

The door opens.

Photos: Rumle Skafte

Powerful reading of Becoming Bird by Den 4. Væg

Powerful reading by Den 4. Væg and very relevant thoughts on the potential of art. Thank you so much for that.

“Becoming Bird træder helt over tærsklen med dette ritual, der markerer en nyslået pagt mellem naturen og mennesket. Jeg beundrer folk, der lider for det, de tror på, og det er ikke for lidt sagt, at Becoming Bird rækker helt ned i lidelsens afgrund. Med både audiowalk og den rituelle pagt rammer forestillingen en øm nerve og demonstrerer, at kunsten kan være langt mere end bare et tilflugtssted fra en fucked up verden. Kunsten kan og bør være et decideret konfrontationsfelt, hvor alle overflødige lag bliver skrællet af, så det eneste, som står tilbage, er, hvad det vil sige at være til. Kun ved at stille det spørgsmål kan vi som samfund ændre den måde, vi ønsker, verden er på. Men det kræver, at vi kan se hinsides os selv og forstå, at naturen er den sande evighed og altid vil være her, selv når vi som mennesker er væk.”

foto: Martin Høyer

Becoming Bird steps fully across the threshold with this ritual, which marks a newly forged pact between nature and humankind. I admire people who suffer for what they believe in, and it is no understatement to say that Becoming Bird reaches all the way down into the abyss of suffering. Through both the audiowalk and the ritual pact, the performance strikes a tender nerve and demonstrates that art can be far more than merely a refuge from a fucked-up world. Art can and should be an outright field of confrontation, where all superfluous layers are stripped away, leaving only what it means to exist. Only by posing that question can we, as a society, change the way we want the world to be. But this requires that we are able to see beyond ourselves and understand that nature is the true eternity and will always be here, even when we as humans are gone.”

Becoming Bird at S/H

We are fucked. The climate catastrophe is already happening, and the birds warned us during the lockdown. We must form a pact with nature, say the romantics. We must sing with a wagtail, a robin, or a swallow!
Or we must gargle like decapitated, headless battery hens and roll ourselves in tar and feathers.
BECOMING BIRD is a performative sound work that drags us through the mire. Chirp chirp, Gaia-fuckers.

How can we establish a new pact with nature in the light of the pandemic, climate change and the demand for growth and production? The answer seems to be through sacrifice. However, sacrifice need not be ascetic. It can be an act of overflowing generosity, transgression and excess.

It is probably doomed to failure. So, yet again, we fail to reach nature! Let’s fail better.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/378448250734864

AUDIOWALK/ELECTRONIC MUSIC/VIDEOART/PERFORMANCE

Medvirkende PATRICK BAURICHTER, CRISTIAN VOGEL (musiker) og kunstnerkollektivet MYCELIUM Iscenesættelse og scenografi NATHALIE MELLBYE Tekst og koncept MYCELIUM Komposition og lyddesign CRISTIAN VOGEL Filmværk MELLBYE/BEHRENS

Støttet af statens kunstfond

SORT/HVID foto: Martin Høyer