Penelope Sleeps
Along with composer and performer Matteo Fargion, Mette Edvardsen is venturing into opera, a genre that they have both been wanting to tackle for a long time. For Penelope Sleeps, Edvardsen is writing a text in prose, like an essay. Essay, from the French ‘essai’, which means to attempt, and opera, which in Italian means 'work'. In this ‘attempt at work’, a space is created that will take the two creators to unknown landscapes and allow them to deepen their artistic trajectories. The relationship between voice and music and between space and scale are important, but the duo has opted not to refer to images from opera literally. Instead, they are drawing lines with which they can shape an unknown horizon.
• Over the past decade, choreographer, dancer, and performance artist Mette Edvardsen has created a coherent series of performances, almost all of which were presented at the Kaaistudios. She previously collaborated with Matto Fargeon for Any Table Any Room (created by Jonathan Burrows and Fargion) and for oslo (which was presented during Performatik17). In the latter production, Fargion wrote music for a choir – an ‘anti-choir’ in fact – that was hidden among the audience.
text Mette Edvardsen | music Matteo Fargion | performed by Mette Edvardsen, Matteo Fargion, Angela Hicks | light & technical support Bruno Pocheron | surtitling Babel Subtitling | presentation Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Kaaitheater | production Mette Edvardsen / Athome, Manyone | co-production Kaaitheater, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, BUDA, Black Box teater, Teaterhuset Avant Garden, BIT Teatergarasjen, Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen in Normandie, apap-Performing Europe 2020 | co-funded by Creative Europe Programme of the European Union | supported by Norsk Kulturråd, Norwegian Artistic Research Program – Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Friends | thanks to Embassy of Norway in Brussels
More tickets are available at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts box office.
