PROLOUGE

Björn Säfsten

“Prologue” is a game of perception, of agency and of who is in charge. An explosive and intimate solo with Sophie Augot.

An open space offers a view of an individual, eyes covered, a woman looking out into nothing. She is tracing a world of signifiers, searching for a language to hold onto. She arms herself, and leads herself to becoming something new through transforming inputs and cliches that otherwise would have led her to another identity. It’s all a game. A game of perception. A game of agency and of who is in charge. She is being re-created becoming anew, together with the audience, the spectator. She unfolds the possibilities of what the situation itself wants her to become.

Photo: Chrisander Brun

In “Prologue” Björn Säfsten and Sophie Augot explores the violence of language. The body and the mind and its connected actions are here laid bare. The focus is on creating identified representations and then engaging them in a role-play, juggling both their construction and their possible meaning. It’s a game with both the syntax and the semantics of the body and it´s gestures.

Bringing images to life that visually problematize our notion of interpretation.The work is a re-creation of a piece for two performers from 2012, moulded into a work for a single performer.

Duration 45 min

Idea and concept Anja Arnquist, Sophie Augot, Björn Säfsten Choreography Björn Säfsten Performer Sophie Augot Costume Design Sophie Augot Lighting Design Susanna Hedin, Lumination of Sweden/SuToDa Sound Editing Jon Skoog Photographer Chrisander Brun Production Säfsten Produktion and Nordberg Movement Co-production Säfsten Produktion and NorrlandsOperan Made possible with the support by the Swedish Arts Council, City of Stockholm, Umeå Academy of Fine Arts and the Swedish Research Council

I arbeidene til koreografen Björn Säfsten blir kropp, tankene og deres tilknyttede aktiviteter undersøkt, dissekert og utstilt. Hans koreografiske praksis utarbeider en blanding av akutte detaljer og store gestus i sine individuelle artister, som humoristisk tiltrekker seeren å speile seg i bevegelsene foran dem. Säfsten har skapt en serie selvproduserte stykker siden 2006 og har også fått bestillingsverk for å samarbeide med Skånes Dansteater, Malmö og Cullberg Ballet, Stockholm, for å nevne noen. Han ble tildelt Cullberg-prisen i 2009.