Dance about state abuse and reconciliation: Carte Blanche comes to Festspillene with the dance performance "BIRGET; Ways to deal, ways to heal" - a very current, playful - and critical - look at the state's way of handling the colonial legacy.
In recent decades, several Western countries have set up commissions to investigate the history of minority groups exposed to systematic state abuse. "BIRGET; Ways to deal, ways to heal" is a reaction to the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which in June 2023 will submit proposals to reconcile the Sami and Norwegians.
The performance has been created for Carte Blanche by two former profile artists of Festspillene, the choreographer Elle Sofe Sara and the artist and arcitecht Joar Nango. The performance opened the 2023 spring season at Den Norske Opera & Ballett in Oslo to very good reviews, and will be played on a few selected stages before it comes to the Festivals in Northern Norway.
Festival profiles collaborate
- I am very happy that Elle Sofie Sara and Joar Nango are back, says Artistic director and CEO, Ragnheiður Skúladóttir.
- Elle Sofe Sara was a festival profile in Festspillene in 2020 and 2021. Among other things, she premiered the performance "Vastadus eana - The answer is land" during the 2021 festival, which is still shown on stages around the world. She is also behind several award-winning short films, and is now in the process of making her first feature film, which will be the world's first joike musical, says Skúladóttir.
- Joar Nango is an architect and artist who practices in the borderland between art and architecture. Nango was a festival profile in 2018. His main work was the nomadic architecture library Girjegumpi. Now the work is going to this year's Architecture Biennale in Venice. In the meantime, he has been the main exhibitor at the Festspillene in Bergen and exhibited at the new National Museum, she adds.
State of mastery
Birget is a Sami expression that describes a state of mastering or surviving in a changing environment. Driven by the "birget", Sara, Nango and Carte Blanche invite the audience to overcome the fear of touching a heavy and difficult topic with a fresh performance that questions social and political boundaries, limitations and today's climate of reconciliation.
On the body
The performance process started in Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino, where the Carte Blanche dancers experienced the Sami culture, the pitch dark winter and the northern cold on their bodies. In meetings with the Sami culture and people, the dancers were told personal stories of state abuse – stories that the dancers carry with them on stage. The scenography's materials and objects were also collected on the plain in Finnmark.
Can the sharing of trauma and personal stories create an empathic space that helps rebuild friendly relations with a faceless state?
With this performance, Carte Blanche seeks to gather, listen to and build a collective movement that makes reconciliation visible, not just formalized.
