Re-enchantment: Spiritus
by Lisen Pousette and Olivia Rivière
Angewandte Interdisciplinary
Lab
Spiritus is a work engaging with ideas of ‘resonance’, where resonance is understood as an acoustic phenomenon
as well as something describing a relationship. In the performance, the choreographers and dancers Olivia Rivière and Lisen
Pousette enter un-set performative situations with body and voice that oscillates, stay responsive and spin off of eachother.
Their practices of resonance originate from whatever voices; the small cries, wet,
dry, high pitched forms of ‘screams’ and melodies. While exploring the specific timbre and force, the sounds invoke a variety
of textures and gestalts. Spiritus is a play with this as the work taps into the word’s meanings and derivations: breathing,
mood, geist as well as alcohol and intoxication.
In Spiritus, states of listening, observing and responding are practiced
through their sensing selves. They therefore invite the audience to listen to the subtle nuances in their song, the small
exchanges, those that we rarely notice, even though they are so crucial in the approach of a discernible change.
By and with: Olivia Rivière and Lisen Pousette
Music and sound design: Kristian Alexander
Light scenography: Anna
Moderato
Dramaturgy: Ida Larsen
Costume: Olivia Rivière and Lisen Pousette
Lights: Olivia Rivière and Lisen
Pousette in conversation with Erik Molberg Hansen
Technician: Mali Dönmez
Photo: Kristian Alexander
The
performance series ‘Re-enchantment’ signifies a re-enchantment of the world, a search for the forces within the body, for
synergies between forms of life, for trance and intoxication as an alternative to the materialistic and algorithmically influenced
present.
Following Silvia Federici Re-enchantment represents also a search for communal forms of property and social
forms of organization that emancipate themselves from exploitative ideologies and technologies. Conversely, Max Weber used
the term ‘disenchantment’ to describe a state of historical loss stemming from reductive and exploitative ideologies and technologies,
and collapsing into a peculiarly modern form of intellectualized despair.
The performances by Magdalena Forster and Milena
Georgieva and by Lisen Pousette and Olivia Rivière bring to life the narrative of the historical loss of this ‘disenchantment
of the world’ as described by Max Weber: as a kind of archaic revival that undermines positivist knowledge systems, instead
following networked and spiritual understandings of the world. They shake up the ruthless forgetting and sing (re-chant) about
what is supposedly lost or hidden. The voice – as part of the body – becomes an instrument of resistance; their dissonances
challenge rationality; their vibrations invite you to perceive the present not in an alienated way, but collectively.
For
Magdalena Forster and Milena Georgieva, the alga Porphyra, which the two artists produce themselves, serves as a metaphor
for a sentient organ that explores the environment and creates connections between diverse life forms. In Spiritus, Lisen
Pousette and Olivia Rivière explore ideas of ‘resonance’, where resonance is understood both as an acoustic phenomenon and
as something that describes a relationship. Their practices of resonance have their origins in the voice; as they explore
dissonant sound frequencies with their bodies, evoking a variety of textures and forms, spaces of intimacy and emotional connection
emerge.
More Dates:
10 Apr, 20:00
Magdalena Forster and Milena Georgieva: Porphyra
(Free entry)
Curation: Lewon Heublein
Concept: Elisabeth Falkensteiner (AIL)
