| Recidency center | |
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| Recidency type | |
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| Time of residency | May 2026 |
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| Contact info | elisebjerkelundreine@hotmail.com |
| Definition of artistic practice? | Elise Bjerkelund Reine is a circus artist and performance maker. Working with experimental and political circus, she uses risk, contortion, and trapeze to provoke emotions and challenge norms, often addressing adult audiences through her distinctive physical language. Fernanda Alemán is a composer whose work blends electronic music, experimental textures, and Latin American folk traditions. Her current artistic practice focuses on sonic research with modular and analogue synthesizers, pushing the boundaries of musical experimentation. For the recidency at BIRCA Elise worked with noora Hannula on the chirographical parts. Fernanda Aleman worked from Barcelona on recording som of the music/soundscape. |
| Title of the investigation at the residency | Horse |
| Description of investigations and findings | HORSE / “This is not a performance about horses.” It is a performance about humans. HORSE is an experimental performance situated at the intersection of contemporary circus, performance art, and live electronic music. The work explores humanity’s relationship to control, adaptation, obsession, and escapism, using “the horse” as a metaphor. The performative elements include sound, light, trapeze, and contortion. During the recidency Elise worked with Noora Hannula as a choreographic consult, and we found a lot of new ways |
| What are you most curious about or invested in in your own practice? | I am personally most invested in my practice the stories and emotions that can be told and provoked with circus, from my side, trapeze and contortion. |
| What questions did you bring to investigate and what questions are you leaving with? | The recidency was a part of a longer research for the project/ concert performance: horse. The performance unfolds as a hypnotic ritual. Two female creatures awaken in a sci-fi-like landscape, as though slowly emerging from a sedated state. Their bodies are organic, soft, and unstable, yet driven by an obsession with transformation. I came to investigate and develop the physical language to communicate this storyline. and still am. |
| Transformative, creative moments at the residency | In the studio. With Noora. I think we unlocked something finding this problem with the head and the hips. |
| Keywords for the work done at the residency | Female, Sci-fi |
| Research locations | Black Space (BIRCA), Dueodde, Hammerknuden |
| Further documentation | IMG_7122 |
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| Videos of work in progess or reflections | |
| Webside links |
Elise Reine
