THE DOUBLE SOLO MIRROR RESIDENCY (Köttinspektionen, Uppsala)
the double solo mirror residency series (2019-2020) was initiated to facilitate new formats for artistic exchange and reflection in relation to choreographic solo practices. It was developed following a desire to create spaces with structured support for open ended processes. The idea was to support the solo artist in a residency where they could invite another solo artist, to open up for a dialogical exchange between their practices.
The residency series was centered around the question: ”How can two solo practices reflect each other through performance (rather than talking), as a way to give and receive feedback?” The question formed a curatorial foundation but was never directed as a question for the artists to answer, rather their different approaches and ways of meeting the invitation served as ways of interacting with the question.
As an artist-run space we allow ourselves to experiment with curatorial formats to imagine spaces that we lack in current production modes for performing arts. In this case the aim was to host a process honouring the work of reflection itself, without conditioning the artistic outcome. The invitation for the residencies included a specific time frame, suggested scores to start the dialogue, ways to document, a public presentation and scheduled conversations to offer a structure which would anchor the entanglement of practice, reflection and dialogue.
An essential part of the curatorial concept was the use of chain invitations. We wanted the residency to work as an alibi for choreographers to approach somebody that they were curious about – perhaps somebody they had not worked with before – in a playful environment that could function almost like an artistic blind date. The use of chain invitations was also a way for us to challenge and expand our network, to encounter new artists.
In 2019 we invited three artists that in turn invited a guest to join their residency. Their guests were then asked to recommend artists to invite for the next edition of the residency series, who would also invite somebody else. Through the process of chain invitations the following artists participated in the residencies: Jamila Johnson-Small (UK), Rowdy SS (UK), Sonja Jokiniemi (FI), Aitana Cordero (ES/NL), Rani Nair (SE), Sonya Lindfors (FI), Esete Sutinen (FI), Laura Eklund Nhaga (FI), Paz Rojo (ES) and Norberto Llopis (ES). As initiators and choreographers we also tried out the conceptual framework with our own practices in a shared residency. When traveling became restricted, in the surges of the covid-19 pandemic, some residencies were carried out in other places, with online correspondence and sharings.
Kajsa Wadhia and Tove Salmgren
Köttinspektionen dans
a dialogue →
The publication a dialogue → marked the end of this series of the double solo mirror residencies, forming a trace of the process with the invitation to enter into a dialogue with the ideas and scores it has left behind.