| Recidency center | |
|---|---|
| Recidency type | |
| Art form | |
| Time of residency | July 2025 |
| Country |
|
| Contact info | sophiegrodin@gmail.com |
| Definition of artistic practice? | I'm a performance maker with a collaborative practice. In my work I use relationships as part of the material - I weave in dynamics, narratives and roles that exist between people. The last years I have begun to work with my own family members, and this BIRCA KIDS project was part of that investigation. Going from a project created with my dad in 2019, to my final project at The Danish National School of Performing Arts in 2023 with 7 members of my mothers family, to this project with Alvin (5 years) and my husband, Max. I'm intersted in how the personal can be restructured into a performance language, and used to dig deeper into a performative presence. |
| Title of the investigation at the residency | Ugler og Genfærd |
| Description of investigations and findings | Our themes were lores and mythologies, focusing on De underjordiske. Alvin got hooked on the story of the Helhest, about warnings of illness and death, but through a scary, beautiful horse with three legs. The stories we read during the residency kept feeding a stream of inspiration, mixed with characters, animals and fascinations of his from other books. Working in the same space everyday created a safe starting point for each day. Alvin wanted to do something with owls, so we decided to make a costume. When we felt attention drop, we would change into another activity like collecting leaves, drawing, walking, dancing. We stayed focused on the project, and it seemed the insisting worked.We asked Alvin what he wanted to do on any given day, but also repeating what we had been doing the day before, and summing up our findings. I wrote down ideas along the way in a self made notebook, so that we could go back to earlier ideas. |
| What are you most curious about or invested in in your own practice? | As a collaborative performance maker, the people I work with and what happens between us, become part of the material. I'm interested in exactly the people I work with, who they are, what they are, what they bring. I'm interested in creating the frameworks that allow for discovering "what is already there". By that I mean, the ideas, drives, attractions and direktions that pull us as makers - even the things we didn't know were interesting, could be of great interest to someone else. |
| What questions did you bring to investigate and what questions are you leaving with? | How do we create a framework for a 5 year old to understand that his ideas are at the centre? How do we find a rhythm where the three of us can all contribute? How do we create a balance between whats solely play, and whats play-work? Can we as the adults 'insist' on staying on a track? |
| Transformative, creative moments at the residency | One transformative moment happened before the residency had even begun - with Alvin suddenly seeming to get access to his ideas and creative head as a maker. It as incredible to see how it seemed he was in his right element in developing ideas for the project. A great, creative moment was when Alvin and I (Sophie) created a story together, by taking turns in telling it. A third moment was during the sharing, the other kids and adults wore the Costume that Alvin thought he was going to wear. |
| Keywords for the work done at the residency | Birds, Family/kids, Reading, Underworld people |
| Research locations | BIRCA grounds, Troldeskoven, Wood at BIRCA |
| Further documentation | |
| Photos documenting the research |
|
| Videos of work in progess or reflections | |
| Webside links | -- |
Sophie Grodin
