Suprainfinit to host Bucharest premiere of 'Afterlife', a performance by Louis Schou-Hansen and Karoline Bakken Lund
SUPRAINFINIT is excited to host the performance AFTERLIFE as a premiere in Bucharest.
The attendance is free but the capacity of the gallery space is of maximum 50 people.
Performance dates
Friday, June 30, 8-9 pm
Saturday, July 1, 8-9 pm
Afterlife is an alternative history, a site for speculative futurities and ambiguous interpretations of a renaissance that never happened. The performance dives into the violent fairytale of the classical ballet, specifically its formational years in the late Italian renaissance. While leaning into subtle irrationalities and dark humor, Afterlife tries to trace and unfold the muted dance history of subaltern bodies. Bodies that, through aristocratic regimes, were deemed unfit to be documented
or partake in any further historical development.
Carried out by three performers, the performance breaks into a messed-up time capsule of folkish renaissance dances for the rich. By playing with counterfactual fantasies, absurd symbolic gestures, and oppressed desires, they seek to alter narratives, reject assimilation, and want to penetrate a history that never belonged to them.
Afterlife is developed by choreographer Louis Schou-Hansen and artist Karoline Bakken Lund in close collaboration with the performers Georgiana Dobre, Amie Mbye, and Elise Nohr Nystad, composer Peachlyfe / Petra Skibsted and expert on baroque and renaissance dances Elizabeth Svarstad.
CREDITS
Concept/choreography
Louis Schou-Hansen
Costume and sculptures
Karoline Bakken Lund
Co-making performers
Amie Mbye, Georgiana Dobre and Elise Nohr Nystad
Music
Peachlyfe / Petra Skibsted
Artistic Advisor
Sebastian De Line
Reconstruction of renaissance dances
Elizabeth Svarstad
Photos
Chai Saeidi
Hair
Anna Lübeck
Funded by
Arts Council Norway
Fond For Lyd og Bilde
FFUK
Fritt Ord
Oslo Kommune
Co. Producers
Black Box Teater, Oslo
Mimosa Studio, Oslo
Palmera, Bergen
Tour (past and future)
Palmera, Bergen, Norway
My Wild Flag, Stockholm, Sweden
Femidomen, Nesodden, Norway
Suprainfinit, Bucharest, Romania
Ravnedans, Kristiansand Norway
Untitled, Tbilisi, Georgia
Dansehallerne, Copenhagen, Denmark
ICA – Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England
BIOS
Louis Schou-Hansen (it/they) is a dancer and choreographer whose work is situated at the intersection of dance and visual arts. Its practice encompasses various formats such as performances, performing, writing, and organizing. Louis' work dives into speculative fiction as a tool to investigate, dissect, and denaturalize how subaltern bodies have been molded through violent western narratives, utilizing queer and trans-feminist modes of knowledge production. Louis studied dance at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and fine arts at The Dutch Art Institute. In 2020, it was nominated for the Norwegian Critics Association Prize for its performance Shine Utopians with Harald Beharie and was recently shortlisted for the Sandefjord Kunstforenings Art Prize 2023.
In 2016 it started its collaboration with Norwegian choreographer Ingri Fiksdal, working as a performer in several of her works. Louis has also collaborated with and performed in the works of Runa Borch Skolseg, Edhem Jesenkovic, Goro Tronsmo, Andrew Amorim, Janne Camilla Lyster, Ingun Bjørnsgaard, to name some.
Louis' work has been presented at Copenhagen Contemporary, Black Box Teater Oslo, Dansens Hus Oslo, My Wild Flag Stockholm, PUBLICS Helsinki, Palmera Bergen, Godsbanen Aarhus, Entrée Bergen, and RAS Sandnes, among others. Its writings have been published by Situations
New York, Understory UK, Scenekunst.no.
Karoline Bakken Lund is a trans-disciplined practitioner rooted in textile, found objects, performative material and craftsmanship — mainly as sculpture in collaborative
constellations. Methodologically, she works towards a transformation, hybrid sculptural works, where objects can be experienced as both installation, autonomous works and props, clothing and undressed costumes — as part of a scenographic tableau with objects that are activated, amplified or misunderstood in different, absurd and everyday performative scores. She works on idealistic terms as a trans-feminist and facilitator for discursive and social practice.
She runs the studio/atelier space mimosa—studio, a little creative bureau, and tutor in textile production and artistic research methods at Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Karoline’s work has been presented in various venues in Europe and the US.
