Curatorial text by Frederike Sperling — In nocturnal darkness, our sense of direction is challenged in many ways. What may be clear and familiar during the day blurs in the diffuse shadows of night. Our body increasingly resorts to sensory perceptions such as sounds and smells in an attempt to steer us through this thicket of uncertainty. This experience of destabilization is the departure point for Alice Slyngstad’s latest work Flare demure. Commissioned by Kunstraum Niederoesterreich, Flare demure is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Austria.

Scattered in the darkened Kunstraum, luminous bodies rise into the air like oversized flowers, bidding us orientation, only to expose themselves as fickle wayposts with their nervous flickering. And the sound emanating from them, perhaps a confidential voice, does little to aid our navigation, but rather hints that we are unsuspecting actors in a theatrical staging. A mise-en-scène that seems to have a script, but one that we have not been let in on. Who can we trust here? Who can we entrust ourselves and our bodies to?

Questions that Slyngstad does not resolve. On the contrary. Flare demure centers on how we experience and cope with ambiguity, how we surrender to the uncertain and mysterious. For Slyngstad, this experience has a close connection to the practice of cruising. Cruising as a balancing act between visibility and invisibility, self-concealment and exposure, but above all: as an invitation to pursue one’s own orientations.

When and where encounters between bodies actually occur in Flare demure, however, and whether we get to see each other and how much, yet depends largely on an algorithm developed especially for the exhibition. The digital infrastructure of the show, which materializes in an interplay of light and sound, is built upon a pre-programmed sequence that steers the visitors in the space. Or so it seems. The artist in fact constantly disrupts a full sense of orientation in space…

Flare demure continually throws us back to our own sensory apparatus, prompting us to search for personal forms of navigation. And so, the show is ultimately an invitation to face up to our losses of orientation and to try to navigate in new ways. As such, Flare demure constructs a heterotopia, a counterworld of sorts to our everyday reality.

Supported by OCA, Office for Contemporary Art(NO)

Dørken is the continuation of dancer and choreographer Jennie Bergsli (NO/SE) and artist Alice Slyngstad’s (NO) collaboration. The work departs from interdisciplinary performance practices that explore an expanded vocal range as choreography.

As co-performers and choreographers Jennie and Alice combine their artistic experiences of visual art and dance, and seek new modes of intimacy between voice, body, technology and identity.

The work investigates the subtleties of the nervous system and the vibrations that can be unleashed between performative bodies and their audiences. They look at the social and somatic negotiations that take part in shaping the voice and attempt to synthesize alternatives.

Dørken is an audiovisual performance which tunes the attention towards textures in breath, guttural waste and ambiguity. The title oscillates between referring to the deck of a vibrating machine room in a large ship and that feeling of lightness which precedes fainting, the feeling before you dive into Dørken.

With and by Jennie Bergsli and Alice Slyngstad
Sound, dance, light, textile, choreography: Jennie Bergsli and Alice Slyngstad
Costumes in collaboration with Ine Gyllensvärdz
Technical assitance: Mali Dönmez
Outside eye and conversations Unn Faleide
Warm Thanks to Thale Krogtoft Jensen for vocal sessions, Jenny Hval, Ida Haugen, Urd J. Pedersen, Jussi Andersson for great conversations, Colin Eccleston, Bjørn Eriksson for technical support

Co-produced by Weld

With support by Arts and Culture Norway, Norwegian Association of Visual Artists and residency at Tou Scene Stavanger (NO), Weld Stockholm (SE), Kunstcentrum BUDA Kortrijk (BE), Skogen and Göteborg (SE) Supported by Kulturdirektoratet(NO), Norske Billedkunstnere(NO), BUDA Kortrijk(BE), TOU Scene Stavanger(NO)

Curatorial text by Roos Gortzak — The audio-visual installation Soothing Pants by Alice Slyngstad, which you hear, see and feel in Vleeshal, is based on the interaction with digital dating environments. Slyngstad refers to these spaces as infrastructures for distributing intimacy. The built-in coded language and the operation through algorithms have altered the way we communicate with one another in our search for (dis)connection. These systems have become a dominant mode of interaction in our urge for newness. They are defined by the cold operations of corporate endeavours.

Working with the language used on dating apps, Slyngstad’s practice deals with the ongoing contemporary process in which the corporal is becoming corporate. Communication between its users has become so automated that it can be seen as a form of algorithmic writing (‘hi what’s up, hi what’s up, hi what’s up, good u good u good u’). The handling of dating app profiles has become more and more like a mechanical act. With every swipe another person is unboxed: displaying their social status, class and gender identity through cryptic phrasing and quotations fuelled with irony and practical concerns (‘what kind of coffee’). Through being trained in mining human beings, we’re reducing them to their lifestyle choices and geolocation (‘less than three km away’). Like this, we’re building a mental map of entities of the city through online interactions.

In these digital environments we exist through language, exaggerating our fantasies and fictions. But how does one navigate through these rigid dating structures, when identifying outside of gender binaries or sexual norms? And beyond the algorithm? How can these corporate entities predict one’s preference, when we deal with fluid and complex existences? Or more broadly; where is the space for queer desire in a society built upon fixed structures?

For their installation in Vleeshal, Slyngstad took text fragments from profiles they found and chats they were engaged in. Slyngstad projected them on electrochromic glass panels resembling folding screens. Through this visual analogy, Slyngstad stretches the operations of the digital environment to communal fitting rooms, in which clients are forced to show themselves outside of their secluded booth, where the mirror is hanging and where the salesperson is ready to close the deal. These structures are not in place to comfort, Instead, they thrive on insecurity and can even be inherently violent for people not fitting the norm.

Algorithms of dating apps, by extension, are not built to meet somebody you like but will make you feel endlessly trapped in a humid waiting room. Thus we soothe ourselves and pant.

In the present, intimacy seems to be under pressure, and bodily desires are mediated in the digital sphere more than ever. Alice Slyngstad contemplates and confuses the confined structures of intimacy currently in place – an undertaking we can all benefit from.

Programming and tech: Colin Eccleston. AV engineer: Dario Giustarini. Head technician: Kees Wijker. Typesetting and design: Anna Bierler. Poster design and graphic profile: Vennica Sidibanga Kaseye
Thanks to: Ylva Guldbrandsen, Lisa Asplund

The writing-based installation Goodie bags takes you into the material-technical and emotional journey of identity shopping, while reflecting around a constant negotiation of norms. Through social cultures filled with projecting and mirroring, we’re fitting in, “passing”, being noticed and disappearing at the same time. What is the bodily and psychological labour involved in integration and integrating, normalizing and normalization?

Text by Angie Keefer — In theory, a beam of light reflected between two parallel mirrors will be trapped for eternity, obliged to bounce back and forth repeatedly, ceaselessly, every lap between the two surfaces lengthening by the distance previously traveled, as the mirrored light recedes farther and farther into time. The visual effect for a person poised between the mirrors will be that of standing at the center of a tunnel of clones proceeding to the ends of visibility in two, opposite directions. Paradise for some, a nightmare, perhaps, for others. In either case, an infinite illustration of perfect normativity, visually analogous to the proverbial “echo chamber” that has become the medium and the symptom and the watchword of the self-referentially self-preferentially tripwired and autoreplicating reptilian brain embedded in the core of the hyper-networked social body. Select your candidate from the following two options. Check here to verify you're not a robot. Click submit to complete your order. Thank you for your feedback. You are receiving this system-generated email because you are a valued customer. Please do not respond.

Credits:
Performers for camera: Tao Yang, Eve Boontje, Hanne Johne. Thanks to Helena Keskküla, Palmera Bergen, Jussi Andersson Supported by Kulturdirektoratet(NO), Norske Billedkunstnere(NO)

«Excuse me, what’s your excitement hours? Does your phone approve your fingerprint? Do cats lose their winter fur from your caress? Are you longing for mutual precipitation?»
(outtake from publication)
Hyper Hidro Sissy examines the physical, psychological, and social dimensions of living with hyperhidrosis, a condition marked by excessive sweating from specific areas, particularly the armpits and palms. This sweating is often triggered by psychological factors, manifesting as a physical response to thoughts, emotions, and social interactions. The performance brings this condition into public focus, exploring nervous derailments as a potential source of strength or sensitivity in social and public contexts.

The performance is rooted in fragmented texts that unravel into musical sequences, developed in collaboration with a choir of local performers. It takes place on a damp forest slope behind the abandoned swimming pool in Rensåsparken, now being repurposed as a cultural stage after 20 years of neglect. In rainy weather, the performance activated the slippery, shadowy terrain, incorporating running water as part of its scenography.

Hyper Hidro Sissy weaves together personal and local narratives, blending dreams and fictional explorations of fluidity and water states. It transforms the obscure setting into a space where vulnerability and fluidity intersect with the environment and collective performance.



Performers: Thale Krogtoft Jensen, Amanda Kartfjord, Mathilde Rask Sørensen,
Jan Ivar Bårtvedt, Carolina Diaz, Ada K. Mathisen.

Dramaturge: Jennie Bergsli.
Vocal coach: Thale Krogtoft Jensen.
Producer: Tanja Andreeva.

Publication design and typesetting by Anna Bierler
printed by Raaddreier Amsterdam

From Black Box Theater — Melt it down and bring it to a boil. Temperatures and consistencies, a variety of existences, series of movements and collective patterns passing by. Dragging out gaps, weaving through. Knead – dwell – fail – seek – twist – restart.

The performance takes us into the damp, to the nooks and crannies of everyday life, to the pockets at the office. Through uneven terrain, we materialise different ways of being together, carried by our voice – not yet warmed up, but clear and turbulent.

Bløtkokt (soft boiled) is a choreographic work, performed and created by artists working with and through dance, performance, sound and textile. The audience and performers meet in a landscape cooking between a concert, a dance performance and tufted textile work – made of remnants of yarn from Norwegian spinning mills.

Veronica Molin Bruce works with and between choreography, dance and sculpture. Jennie Victoria Bergsli works with dance and performance. Bergsli and Bruce has previously collaborated together of works like e-Harmoni at Black Box teater. Alice Slyngstad works with performance, sound and installation. Bløtkokt is their first piece together. With a site specific interest the project changes to different spaces, voices and collaborators. The performance premiered fall 2019 at Spriten Kunsthall in Skien, and previously been part of Tid for Dans i Porsgrunn, Dansmässan in Stockholm and Les Urbaines in Lausanne.


Dance, choreography, sound: Jennie Bergsli, Veronica Bruce, Alice Slyngstad
Textile, room: Karoline Bakken Lund, Oda Uhre
Costumes: Bror August
Artistic bridge, producer: Veronica Bruce.

External eyes: Ann-Christin Kongsness, Nikhil Vettukattil, Evelina Dembacke.
Co-production: Black Box Teater Oslo, Spriten Kunsthall.

Supported by Rauma Ullvarefabrikk, Innvik/Kvadrat, Norwegian Art Council, Fond for lyd og bilde, Skien kommune, Oslo kommune, FFUK, Norwegian Crafts, UD. With thanks to Telespinn, Lillunn, Dansearena Nord, Dansekunst i Grenland and Vitlycke.

Bringing together elements of digital communication, data mining, and personal letters, Magic Towel unfolds as a musical cabaret. Through shifting vocal expressions, the textual materials and varied performative modes bring to life characters grappling with the search for identity. What internal struggles and tensions emerge in the process of navigating and challenging societal norms?

The performance integrates a musical backtrack, choreography, light design, and sound-amplified costumes, focusing on nervous gestures and fiddling micro-movements as key elements. These are layered with direct address, text readings, and songs, creating a fragmented yet interconnected narrative. Combining humor and vulnerability, the work captures the intricate dynamics of self-expression and the pressures of modern identity formation.