QULLAQ

QULLAQ

A Theatrical Concert

Qullaq is a theatrical concert born from the encounter between distant worlds: the ancestral sounds of Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), the tradition — and innovation — of Scottish music, and the Italo-Danish approach to theatrical research.

This collaborative project brings together Greenlandic musicians and performers (Nive Nielsen, Hans-Henrik Suersaq Poulsen, and Miké Fencer Thomsen), a Scottish composer and fiddle player (Aidan O’Rourke), and Italian theatre directors (Valerio Peroni & Alice Occhiali), working through their Denmark-based company Váli Theatre Lab, known for their artistic practice rooted in the intersection of languages, cultures, and disciplines, in a continuous intercultural dialogue.

The thematics

The title Qullaq — a Greenlandic word meaning “ascending” — evokes the notion of both beginning and end. Like a guiding flame, it speaks to a cyclical movement, a return and a departure. It also symbolises light within darkness — a vital concept in Greenlandic culture, deeply shaped by the rhythm of polar night and midnight sun. Qullaq thus becomes a symbol of orientation, awakening, hope, and resistance: a light emerging from the shadows to illuminate new paths.

Blending cultures, oral traditions, and contemporary languages, the concert explores themes of journey, transition, and the awakening of ancient memories in dialogue with the present. But Qullaq is also a political act — a poetic form of resistance against cultural homologation, offering an alternative narrative to those that often marginalise Indigenous voices, geographical peripheries, and non-dominant traditions.

The artistic collective

The performance echoes the growing cultural reclamation movement currently unfolding in Greenland, where a new generation of artists is asserting their linguistic, spiritual, and musical roots. Qullaq gives voice to this resurgence — and raises a scream of anger against the politics that still seek to unjustly appropriate what does not belong to them.

Through the work of Nive Nielsen, Hans-Henrik Suersaq Poulsen, and Miké Fencer Thomsen, Qullaq becomes a space — both musical and scenic — where past and future collide, transform, and renew each other.

Aidan O'Rourke's significant musical contribution further enriches the work, with his string compositions weaving together traditional Scottish music with innovative soundscapes. His experimental approach builds bridges across time and culture, expanding the musical dimension of the performance and reinforcing its core message: that tradition is not static, but alive — and always evolving through exchange.

The visual and scenic setting, crafted by Valerio Peroni and Alice Occhiali, plays a central role in the dramaturgy. Qullaq is not a conventional theatrical concert — it is a dreamlike, evocative creation where music and stage action merge to generate a visual world that is both poetic and immersive. The stage becomes an interior landscape, where bodies, sounds, and images compose a sensory and evocative dramaturgy.

Local engagement

In each performative place, the core ensemble opens up to collaboration with local musicians: a local string ensemble joins the performance, enriching the soundscape and making each presentation a unique, unrepeatable, site-specific event. This dynamic inclusion transforms Qullaq into a true cultural and theatrical exchange — an artistic gesture built in dialogue with the communities that welcome it.

In a time when borders are tightening and difference is turned into a battleground, Qullaq asserts the value of encounter, listening, and plurality. A celebration of identity and diversity — but also a call to recognise, through art and beyond, a powerful and tangible form of dialogue, dignity, and resistance.

CREDITS

"QULLAQ"

Performers/Musicians/Singers/Composers:

Aidan O’Rourke (Scotland)

Nive Nielsen (Greenland)

Hans-Henrik Suersaq Poulsen (Greenland)

Miké Fencer Thomsen (Greenland)

Dramaturgy, Stage Directions and Scenic Actions:

Valerio Peroni (Italy/Denmark)

Alice Occhiali (Italy/Denmark)

Project supported by:

Dansk Komponistforening

Nordic Music Days

NAPA – The Nordic Institute in Greenland

Nordic Culture Fund

Suialaa Arts Festival

The Danish Arts Foundation

The Augustinus Foundation

Nordic Theatre Laboratory

Creative Scotland