Site-specific performance
Commissioned for the opening of the new Master program in performance at Norwegian Theatre Academy, Østfold University Collage, Fredrikstad, August 2018.
Fired bricks are one of the longest-lasting and strongest building materials, sometimes referred to as artificial stone, and have been used since circa 4000 BC. Air-dried bricks, also known as mudbricks, have a history even older than fired bricks.
We celebrate something new, with something old. We celebrate the ephemeral nature of performance with relating to a material that might seem like the opposite.
MAR/MÆR is a performing duo by Mari Pitkänen and Kaja Mærk Egeberg. We create performances from inspiration of researching bodies and their relation to non-human, often in public space.
Mar/Mær has worked with camouflage strategies since 2017.
Camouflage strategy starts from yearning to belong and to fit in into ‘something’, and continues in to material action when the desire to assimilate to a space is great. The attraction to environment, like to a brick or stone wall, makes us want to be alike, and let our bodies dissolve, mixing into the space. This is a phenomena that some animals master. The anomaly relation, the confusion between bodies and space is the very slippage, where the imagination aroused by camouflage is the most intense.
The Camouflage creature is a silent trickster in a space, that creates ambiguity in visual perception. One cannot tell the reason for the hiding: is it a defense or is it a lure? The mission of the creature is to conceal and disappear, and by doing that, evoke histories of a location through its materiality and specificity. Camouflaged bodies are invoking forgotten songs and stories that materials in surroundings resonate
TEGEL
by MAR/MÆR
Performance by: MAR/MÆR - Mari Pitkänen, Kaja M. Egeberg I Photo documentation: Aksel Pépin
