︎

I’ll Become a Tree

Happening for Performance Compost
6.10.2012 & 9.10.2012
Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art




About


Where is the dance after it has been danced?

Where is the dead dancer’s dance?

After its execution the dance is scattered into the air but lives on in our bodies and memories at least as long as we live. Martha Graham’s dance, the Graham Technique, became gradually stiffer after her death. Merce Cunningham's studio was closed down and his company stopped after two years of touring following Merce’s death. And all the rest of them, may they rest in peace.

Dance becomes memories in us and leaves traces, either danced or otherwise experienced . Can I own my memories? What are those traces ?

They are my comic book, my visions, my intuition, my dreams and daydreams – what gets fixed, like an insoluble mineral in my imagination, in my mind?

Where does the paranoia start, what is in the freely floating words – dropping down here and there? The words dropping from memories, craving for the space around them to resonate - the magic spells, the magic words of dead civilizations, where did they go?

What is your body’s memory of my dance? What is mine?

I am my own compost.

I will become a tree after I die.

Or was I only a dream?

I’ll Become a Tree is a happening based on the solo The Weight of My Heart by dancer and choreographer Liisa Pentti. The original solo had its premiere in Nov 2011 and since then Liisa Pentti has performed it 16 times in different locations. Almost a year after the premiere, the themes of the piece have been composted and engrained in the conscious and unconscious body-mind of the performer.

During 2-3 hours Liisa Pentti, light designer Meri Ekola and composer Patrick Kosk create an event for the altered states through the dance and the objects that are present in the original piece. Also sounds, songs and lights that are embedded in it as the source material will find their place in this happening.

Liisa Pentti, Meri Ekola and Patrick Kosk are using the hidden and neglected material of the piece to create an event in the gallery space.  I’ll Become a Tree is based on the idea of duration and its manifestations in the landscape of personal and stolen memories. The sources include lives and stories of Sabina Spielrein, Marina Tsvetaeva, Marina Abramović and Melina Mercouri, among others.

The happening was created for Performance Compost, a 3-week event in the Kiasma modern art museum in Helsinki Oct 2012.


Production: Zodiak – Uuden tanssin keskus, tanssiryhmä Liisa Pentti +Co