Fest en Fest is a project at the intersection of choreographic work, laboratory and festival, aiming to provide space for artists from the field of expanded choreography to come together and ask questions about aesthetic power structures. Through viewing of finished works, discourse and a platform for experimentation, H2DANCE proposes a ‘bottom up’ approach to art production as well as a more conventional presentation of works in a festival context.

This year H2DANCE is hosting three Nordic Fest en Fest satellite residencies: Vitlycke – Centre for Performing Arts in Sweden, Multiplie dansefestival/Dansit, Trondheim, Norway and Reykjavik Dance Festival/DanceAtelier, Reykjavik, Iceland. At Vitlycke Performing Arts we invite two Swedish choreographers, including Björn Safsten and Moa Sahlin. We want to open up discourse across borders about what artists are concerned with today and how to make conditions more sustainable. The aim is to develop art production and presenting models based on need and relevance, where artists are actively involved in the process of who and what is shown.

The first edition of Fest en Fest took place June 2018 in Deptford London with performances, lunches, discussions and parties. We invited choreographers Bjorn Safsten SE, Ingri Fiksdal NO, Kristin Ryg Helgebostad NO, Mette Edvardsen NO, Karen Roise Kielland NO, Matthias Sperling UK. The second edition of Fest en Fest will take place February 2020 and we will invite artists from Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the UK who in different ways work with choreography as co-curators into a process that asks questions about the aesthetic power of the programmers, existing presenting models and hierarchies. Fest en Fest seeks to develop new strategies by asking the questions: Is the current festival, tour and production models still relevant and for whom? Who gets space and who becomes invisible? The project aims to move away from an in-out model for presentation of works, and seeks to develop a new concept in the form of a choreographed event that goes away from the polished and marketable product, but opens up for experimentation and meetings between differences. The long- term goal of the project is to reveal structures that block, and to open up new and exciting potentials for artists and the field in general.

Short biography
H2DANCE is choreographer/ performer duo Hanna Gillgren (SE) and Heidi Rustgaard (NO), working between Norway, Sweden and the UK since 1999. Their work sits in between performance and dance and can be characterized as interdisciplinary, often taking a humorous approach to serious subject matters. Hanna and Heidi have an ongoing fascination with meetings of differences, exploring ways in which we negotiate hierarchy, conformity, power and manipulation. Taking their own collaboration as a starting point, the work explores two distinct and different characters and voices co-existing, agreeing to disrupt each other during process and performance. Their work is presented in and outside the black box, sometimes with Hanna and Heidi as performers, and other times in collaboration with professional dancers and amateurs. Their work is often informed by workshops and conversations with people of different ages and backgrounds, and these encounters influence and inform the ideas and aesthetics of the work.

More information:
www.festenfest.info
http://h2dance.com/