Current Projects (2024-25)

The Mountain Range, Beyond Borders (MRBB)

‘The Mountain Range, Beyond Borders’ (MRBB) is a project curated by Lisa Gilardino aimed at innovative cross-border touring of ‘The Mountain Body’ by choreographer Helle Siljeholm. The research aims to enable a focused meditation in and with the chosen nature sites on how they are constantly shifting, transforming, and connecting us through geological time – present and possible future.

If we sharpen our senses and listen, can these bodies provide us with alternate imaginings of a collective and just future? The MRBB starts in the Dolomites at the Bolzano Danza festival together with Biennale Gherdëina as a choreographic installation for a mountain, involving five climbers and a sound composition; it then moves to the Pre-Pyrenees at Sismògraf in Olot incorporating local climbers; then to the Azores archipelago for Walk&Talk Biennial, where the project, shared with local climate researchers and scientists, will explore horizontality and the underwater; finally, it moves to Iceland for the Reykjavik Dance festival, with Palestinian-Icelandic writer and journalist Mazen Maarouf accompanying the presentation. Location scouting and research will take place digitally; the project unfolds with the participation of locals, reacting specifically to each context.

Perform Europe Grant

EUR 60,000

Partners

Bolzano Danza Fondazione Haydn

Italy

Sismògraf

Spain

Anda&Fala (Walk&Talk Biennial)

Portugal

Reykjavík Dance Festival

Iceland

Artistic Works

The Mountain Body by Helle Siljeholm

Producers: Co produced by Bolzano Danza/Fondazione Haydn, Co-realized with Biennale Gherdëina Supported by Norwegian Arts Council , Reale Ambasciata of Norway in Roma, Danse and Teatersentrum, Oslo National Academy of the Arts (PhD artistic research program) and Erasmus + for higher education

text

‘The Mountain Body’ is a long-term and large-scale art project by visual artist and choreographer Helle Siljeholm based on the development of unique site-specific works in different locations, combining scientific research and choreography.

It started in a cave as a meditative night walk followed by a larger choreographic installation in a volcanic mountain and also a video installation over 11 floors with a telescope bringing the volcanic mountain into view for the opening of the Munch museum in Oslo. TMB processes start from the site it is invited to interact with. The research then gives shape to diverse frameworks, which the audience is invited into, to participate in, whether outdoors by a mountain, or a lake, in a cave, in a museum, in a gallery, etc.. Participants might be encouraged to walk, sleep, or eat together, or view the choreography from very, very far away with binoculars.

The work and research aim to enable a focused meditation in and with the chosen nature sites on how they are constantly shifting, transforming, and connecting us (sites, human bodies, and more-than human bodies) through geological time, present, and possible future.