Language Fools
© Chrisander Brun

PROJECT

Language Fools

Language is a way for us to name the world, to understand it. It is a reduction that functionally gives us so much, but which also limits us. Language is violent, violent to the body, to identity and communication. But we are not devoid of agency, we can act within, against and through language. We can force it to change. Language is a tool and a prison at the same time. In embodying language through choreography the same thing happens, dance is not without semiotics. No one can avoid language or its production, whether it is the audience, the choreographer or the dancer who puts words to movement.

So how do we trick language? How do we, as observers and actors, become interested in fooling away the sanctity surrounding the certainty on which language rests? Playing with language can be a way of playing with identity, with function, with the predictable. Playing with language is playing poetically. Choreography embodies language, writes language with the body while writing the language into the body. It is a way of interacting with the politics of identity and for Björn Säfsten a speculative philosophical experiment. Making a body in ways that are rarely permitted, or creating bodies that we have not seen before, is for Björn acting within body politics. Do we know that we are making bodies all the time? Do we know that we tend to take upon us bodies that we can identify with? What happens if we dare to create a body whose political implications we do not yet know? Taking and giving body is owning agency in relation to something, creating an object for investigation and criticism. Nor is it entirely possible to separate having a body and acting with a body, but in its politics the action can change the assumptions surrounding what representation is allowed to mean. Striving towards a choreo-poetry.

Björn Säfsten

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 the human nature. The physical practice expose images that occur from a certain physical action, in a chance method. The work thus takes visual turns and bends, often moulding itself whilst being performed, establishing itself a-new each time for each audience encounter.

Since 2015 Björn Säfsten activates various formats to present the work of other artists within his structure Säfsten Production. 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. It aims to be a platform for experimentation, risk-taking and continuous research, dealing with questions regarding politics, language and identity.

Credits

Concept: Björn SäfstenChoreography: Björn Säfsten together with the performersPerformers: Anja Arnquist, Sanna Söderholm, Henrik VikmanLight and set design: Chrisander BrunSound design: Anna Sóley TryggvadóttirProduction: Säfsten Produktion and Nordberg Movement