TAKEOVER - Anna Kolfinna Kuran
“Takeover” is a 35 minute performance in which 30-50 local women invade a space in Nuuk through a powerful ceremony using simple choreography and vocal work. The performance is Anna Kolfinna Kuran’s most recent development in her ongoing research project “Woman Landscape,” through which she examines the concept of ‘landscapes of women.’ Her primary subject is looking at the connection between space and women, where and how they are represented and where they are invisible. In which spaces are women welcome and safe and where aren’t they? In which spaces are women included and present and which ones are only accessible to them through invasion?
For this particular experiment the focus of the work is on bonds and solidarity between generations of women, the sisterhood. Anna Kolfinna will therefore be reaching out to Nuuk’s community in a pursuit to gather 30-50 local women aged 12-100 to perform in the piece. The aim will be to take over a space/venue with help from local female performers by filling the space with their energy and presence. Through a simple and magical ceremony, the performers will in fact create their own landscape of women where each of their voices gets heard.
The piece has been performed eight times before in Iceland and abroad. The first experiment took place in a small venue in Reykjavik in January 2019 and since then it has been featured in programs for dance festivals, music festivals, performance festivals, in art museums and churches. The piece is very adaptable and can be performed in various spaces. All in all around 200 women have performed in the Takeover project, some professional performers and others performing for the first time. In this way, the project aims to create connections between different groups of the community and art.
For Suialaa Arts Festival the call for performers would address anyone identifying as femme or woman, no matter their place in society or background. The performers should reflect the diversity of the Greenlandic culture and community and create a sense of solidarity between them. Anyone interested is welcome to participate, prior performance experience is not necessary. The choreographer requires to meet the performers for 3 rehearsals in the performance space as the piece will be adapted and designed for that particular space.
Description of performance: The space is empty in the beginning. Then a woman wearing red clothes enters the space and takes her place. She begins to make a deep sound in between her breathing. More performers in red enter the space, each finds a place to stand and begins to join the sound by using her voice. After quite a while, all of the performers have entered the space and joined the sound by using their voice. Their bodies form a landscape in the space and their voices another layer of a sonic landscape. Next, the women start to move very slowly but surely, creating different patterns in the space. Through a very slow and humble walk, they unite and separate in different figurations. While they move, the sound of their voices changes, it lowers and magnifies in volume, and gradually it develops into a multilayered soundscape of song and vibration. The performance ends in a still picture where the women come close together forming one landscape out of many bodies. This is a 35 minute mesmerising ceremony that brings the audience on a journey for all the senses.
