The Artificial Nature Project

In The Artificial Nature Project a new encounter between human and non- human performers emerges from the following questions:

What does it mean to make a choreography for materials where human movement is no longer in the center of attention?

How can one address the force of things, materials, objects and matters as something that acts upon humans?

What is the relationship between the animate and the inanimate world?

The outcome is a performance that literally throws things around. Materials fly through the air giving rise to a landscape that constantly transforms itself. Throughout the performance the view is persistently changing: a calm contemplative site may turn into an energetic chaos of stuff being projected into space. Or, a flood wave becomes a storm of confetti whirling through the air, rushing over the stage. The theater stage gets covered with and traversed by various objects and raw materials, creating a disastrous mess of small, thick, light, big, heavy, thin, breakable and resistant things. The materials are set into motion by dancers, composing a body that is no longer made of human flesh but rather of a floating, flying mass. The emerging choreography is partly performed by human, partly by non-human performers set in motion. The movement mutates the appearance and perception of these materials in many forms: from an abstract sculpture, a swarm of animals, to a sandstorm overwhelming the humans who get stuck inside it. One image is replaced by another, rapidly altering our perception of a glittering landscape.

Premiered in 2012 at PACT Zollverein, Essen

The Artificial Nature Series

The Artificial Nature Project is the last in this series of five works where Mette Ingvartsen stages perceptions and sensations of nature. The interest in fictionalizing and choreographing natural phenomena started in 2009 with evaporated landscapes, a performance installation devoid of human presence where the act of performing itself was given over to materials like bubbles, foam, fog, sounds and light. In 2010 and 2011 The Extra Sensorial Garden and The Light Forest followed. In the latter spectators were invited to wander through a dark forest following LED lights that had been installed in trees as a way of dramatizing and fictionalizing the natural landscape and environment. In 2011 the interests in non-human agency developed further through Speculations; a discursive practice performance using language to conceptually prefigure The Artificial Nature Project that concluded the series in 2012.

Concept & Choreography: Mette Ingvartsen
Dance:  Franziska Aigner, Sidney Leoni, Martin Lervik, Maud Le Pladec, Guillem Mont De Palol, Manon Santkin, Christine De Smedt
Replacements: Ilse Ghekiere, Jaime Llopis Segarra & Sirah Foighel Brutmann
Lighting Design: Minna Tiikkainen
Sound Design: Peter Lenaerts
Dramaturgy: Bojana Cvejic
Technical Director: Hans Meijer & Joachim Hupfer
Assistant choreography & production: Elise Simonet
Assistant light: Milka Timosaari
Light technician: Susana Alonso & Joachim Hupfer
Sound technician: Adrien Gentizon
Company Management: Kerstin Schroth

A production of Mette Ingvartsen / Great Investment

 

Co-production: PACT Zollverein (Essen) (With the support of the Départs / European Commission (Culture program)), Festival d’Automne à Paris, Les Spectacles vivants – Centre Pompidou (Paris), Théâtre National de Bretagne (Rennes), Kaaitheater with funds from the Imagine 2020 – Art & Climate Change (Brussels), Kunstencentrum BUDA (Kortrijk),  apap / szene (Salzburg), Musée de la Danse/Centre Chorégraphique National de Rennes et de Bretagne

Funded by: Kunstrådet (Denmark), Hauptstadtkulturfonds (Germany) & The Flemish Authorities

This project has been funded with support from the European Comission

With the support of Mokum

Texts & interviews

The Artificial Nature Project – Interview with Mette Ingvartsen
The Artificial Nature Project – Or how to make choreography for nonhuman performers

Feb 22, 2017 9:12 AM

2017

February 22 - 24 HAU2 Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin
May 14, 2016 9:12 AM

2016

May 14 Centre Pompidou, Metz, France
Apr 2, 2015 9:12 AM

2015

April 2 Espaces Pluriels, Pau, France
Dec 8, 2014 9:12 AM

2014

December 8 Hangar 23, Rouen, France
Nov 26, 2014 9:12 AM November 26 - 27 Tanzquartier, Vienna, Austria
Sep 18, 2014 9:12 AM September 18 - 19 Platform Theatre, London, UK
May 24, 2014 9:12 AM May 24 BLG-Forum, Bremen, Germany
Apr 12, 2014 9:12 AM April 12 le lieu unique, Scène Natinale de Nantes France
May 9, 2014 9:12 AM May 9 Théâtre d'Orléans, France
Mar 15, 2014 9:12 AM March 15 - 16 Dansens Hus, Oslo, Norway
Feb 6, 2014 9:12 AM February 6 - 7 Kaaitheater, Brussels, Belgium
Jan 25, 2014 9:12 AM January 25 Ufertstudios, Berlin, Germany
Dec 5, 2013 9:12 AM

2013

December 5 - 6 Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany
Dec 2, 2013 9:12 AM December 2 Le Manège de Reims, Scène Nationale, Reims, France
Nov 20, 2013 9:12 AM November 20 - 21 Dansehallerne, Copenhagen, Denmark
Sep 28, 2013 9:12 AM September 28 Dansenshus, Stockholm, Sweden
Sep 27, 2013 9:12 AM September 27 - 28 Dansenshus, Stockholm, Sweden
Sep 21, 2013 9:12 AM September 21 - 22 Teatergarasjen, Bergen, Norway
Jul 10, 2013 9:12 AM July 10 SZENE Salzburg, Austria
Apr 11, 2013 9:12 AM April 11 DOCH, University of Dance and Circus, Stockhom, Sweden
Mar 1, 2013 9:12 AM March 1 - 3 HAU, Berlin, Germany
Feb 13, 2013 9:12 AM February 13 Vooruit, Gent, Belgium
Feb 1, 2013 9:12 AM February 1 Maison de la Cultur d'Amiens, Amiens, France
May 12, 2013 9:12 AM May 12 Erlangen, Germany
Nov 28, 2012 9:12 AM

2012

November 28 - December 1 Centre Pompidou,Paris, France
Nov 23, 2012 9:12 AM November 23 - 24 Kaaitheater, Brussels, Belgium
Nov 15, 2012 9:12 AM November 15 - 16 BUDA, Kortrijk, Belgium
Nov 8, 2012 9:12 AM November 8 - 10 TNB, Rennes, France
Nov 2, 2012 9:12 AM November 2 - 3 PACT Zollverein, Essen, Germany