Kunstrom Jakob / Steinkjer kulturhus
Meta.Morf 2024, June 20 – August 11
Verdensteatret
Meta.Morf 2024 – [up]Loaded Bodies / Kunstrom Jakob / May 2 – June 2 /
Curator: Inger Marie Lillesand
Enter ghost, exit ghost, re-enter ghost (2022)
The analog knows we are imperfect – our movements are unsteady – that we eat with our hands. In the digital universe, all of this is numbered and hidden. We have to learn everything all over again. We have to find out what is moving, what is boring, what is funny? What are our instructions? Repeat after me: Enter ghost, exit ghost, re-enter ghost.
With a title taken from the stage instructions for Hamlet, Verdensteatret alludes to what lies beyond the actual dialogue or action of a play and to the poetry of what is noted in the margin.
During the past years, Verdensteatret has thematically immersed themselves in various forms of learning processes and tried to create a laboratory to study consciousnesses and how they are formed and interact. Both animals, people, machines, and minerals are objects of study.
The work is the result of a collective process where materials and movements, sounds, and scenographies from the past have assumed a new form – a ghostly presence, attempted to be captured on analog film and the use of experimental coal microphones. When a film appears before our eyes at 24 frames per second, what is moving and what is standing still? Can soundwaves be captured in something material, something physical – become charred sound?
Creative team
Asle Nilsen, Espen Sommer Eide, Janne Kruse, Magnus Bugge, Niklas Adam and Torgrim Torve. Thanks to: Ali Djabbary and Martin Taxt.
Verdensteatret is an artist collective based in Oslo. The group’s continuous artistry has been established over the last 30 years. The group was founded in Bergen in 1986 by Lisbeth J. Bodd and Asle Nilsen, with a background from respectively theatre and visual art.
Today, Verdensteatret consists of video and sound artists, painters, poets, sculptors, and computer programmers who together have developed an intricate audiovisual style. Combining aspects of music concerts, theatrical performances, and visual art installations, the company builds many of its large-scale productions from raw materials collected during journeys combined with stories of the fragile human soul. They endeavor to use a collaborative process to deeply integrate different artistic disciplines into projects that bridge the gap between artistic borders.
Verdensteatret’s poetics is characterized by a dedicated long-term development, creating scenes of sensuous activity and ongoing experimentation within different media, which result in orchestral works and space-related musical compositions. Verdensteatret’s works have been presented internationally in a number of art contexts and locations, such as art museums, contemporary music festivals, and theaters.
Verdensteatret is supported by The Norwegian Ministry of Culture and other official art foundations in Norway.
Header graphics: “Enter ghost, exit ghost, re-enter ghost”, courtesy of Verdensteateret. Portrait photo: Jenny Berger Myhre.