BJÖRN SÄFSTEN

Säfsten Production is a platform for choreographic creation and experimentation. An intertwinement of theory and practice, it manifests itself through artists joining forces in speculation and critical formation within the fields of choreography, politics, language and identity production. A platform for experimentation, a platform for a changing constellation of artists and a base for continuous artistic research within the field of choreography.

In the work and practice of choreographer Björn Säfsten, the body and the mind and its connected actions are scrutinized, dissected and exposed. The focus is on creating “another body”, another notion of human physicality, bringing images to life that visually problematize our notion of human nature. The physical practice exposes images that result from a certain physical action, in a random way. The work thus takes visual twists and turns, often moulding itself while being performed, establishing itself anew each time for each audience encounter.

We aim to expose physical dilemmas, deliberately creating situations where the performer’s thoughts are revealed, opened up to the viewer. The work fools around with the notion of language – striving to confuse and divert the viewer from the regularity of bodily reading. The body is seen as a multiplex of wills, desires and directions, moving away from the notion of a bodily and mental entity. Changing the notion of the body and the embodiment of the object, and the relationship between the two entities, are central in research and presentation.

The exact texture of the singular movement stands at the core of the work. Sections are created in the present moment through practices that occupy the performer with a blend of orders, restrictions and physical parameters. The methods behind the work strive for the direction of non-clarity and non-singularity, exposing the trajectory of thought and movement in the performer as actions happen. Energies in the action differ from hesitation to a certain urgency, to a deliberate stillness to an outburst of action. The incoherence of actions create the non-singularity, the non-linear narrative that interests Björn and the artists working with the different choreographic works. The work goes against a consensus of understanding, aiming to bring the diversity of the audience members into the relationship between stage and auditorium, between the performers’ area and the spectators’ area. We aim to discuss how language is violent in its form of oppressing both the performers’ and the viewers’ relationship to movement and the body. We wish to expose the multilayered understanding the physical experience embodies and how this can be brought into the private, the public and the political spheres.

www.bjorn-safsten.com

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