BOUNDLESS OMINOUS FIELDS
Synopsis
This performance work aims to activate the archaic and energetic transgenerational archives of both performer and spectator.Two bodies on stage in altered states, traveling through internal archives beyond the personal biographical body and the immediate conscious mind. Channeling rather than presenting or representing. Immersed with their epigenetic imprinting they hover on the borders between the unfamiliar and the hyper familiar, serving as a reflection of and a gateway into the history of our shared subconscious territories and altered states of resonance.
Boundless Ominous Fields goes a step further into Guðjónsdóttirs long term phenomenological exploration of altered states of consciousness through embodiment. Created with and for Finnish performers Karolina Ginman and Marlon Moilanen, it is the first work in a trilogy commissioned by the two performers.
“As a counter proposal to today’s popular culture, my work in its essence aims to go beyond the able, vigorous, high performance and aesthetic body. It acknowledges that sociopolitical large-scale forces influence our health and play a concrete role in how we experience ourselves. Artistically and methodologically I work with expressions of physiological, psychological and emotional realities including archetypal patterns, as well as a phenomenological exploration of our matter. I do that through a dialog with formerly dormant unconscious parts of ourselves using somatic body work. During the working process Boundless Ominous Fields we built on my 14-year research into the somatic practice FULL DROP into the body. We have explored altered states of perception relying on the science of deep tissue release towards heightened sense of bodily perception and expanded self-awareness.
In Boundless Ominous Fields the performers unwind the matter allowing the body to release tension in the depth and in that way to open up and become a vessel for channeling and self-expression beyond the cognitive. We enter into a dialog with generational archives and passed-on trauma patterns and related energetic realities dormant and originating within the cellular body and subconsciousness.
My work in general deals with energetic citizenship. As a choreographer I compose experiences that are meant to vibrate energetically at the core of omnipresent pathological states of embodied beings induced by current and ancient conditioning and transference. When I use the term pathologies I am referring to the practical fact that cells, muscle fibre, bone structures, body alignment, the nervous system-respiratory system-circulatory system-digestive system endocrine system-reproductive system, the connective tissues and flow of various energies within our bodies all reflect our current and former experiences, conditioned patterns, as well as genetic imprint. Including traumatic events from our biographical history which we carry with us in a literal sense.Therefore all internal and animated motorised movements of the body reflect pathological (non-optimal functioning) inner systems and scarred and contracted tissue.
These embodied pathologies exist in the shadows of what is considered normal life and in conceptual shadows. The audience may be confronted by pathology, but this is done to initiate release and transformation and further cognitive and physical processes on the topic, not to re-traumatise”.
Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir, 15.1.2024
Credits:
Direction, choreography, concept: Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir
Performance, choreography: Karolina Ginman, Marlon Moilanen
Sound & composition: Lucy Railton
Lights design: Sofia Palillo
Spatial concept: Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir
Spatial design: Sofia Palillo
Production: Karolina Ginman, Marlon Moilanen, Inari Pesonen, Zodiak – Center for New Dance
Trilogy Concept: Karolina Ginman, Marlon Moilanen
Funded by: The Arts Promotion Centre Finland, The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, Oskar Öflunds Stiftelse, Icelandic-Finnish Cultural Foundation, Eugène, Elisabeth & Birgit Nygréns Stiftelse Residency support: Saari Residence – Kone Foundation, Työhuone Helsinki. Zodiak Center for New Dance Helsinki.
