Tues 6 April 11:00 BST/12:00 CET
Online Event
Available to view from
6 April 11:00 BST/12:00 CET to 4 May 18:00 GMT/19:00 CET
Booking required
Björn will present a video of his approach to practising and making:
In my practice, I aim to scrutinize, dissect and expose the connected actions of the body and the mind. One focus is to research how different methods of thinking patterns can alter the way we move. The choreography at hand is seen as a result of a dialogue between each individual performers movement heritage and the choreographic proposition. The work takes visual twists and turns, often moulding itself while being performed, establishing itself anew each time for each audience encounter. I aim to expose physical dilemmas, deliberately creating situations where the performer’s thoughts are revealed, opened up to the viewer and seen as material. The work fools around with the notion of language—striving to confuse and divert the viewer from the regularity of bodily reading. In recent years I’ve been obsessed with repetition and the impossibility of it regarding movement. I use repetition as a strive for researching my own consciousness, but also to create a continuous transformation where the agency between the doer and the practice gets engaged in dialogue. At the same time, I’ve expanded my practice to now also include sound, text and singing—seeing how it can correspond with the practice at large—searching for a state where representations from different expressions can be superimposed and create an ambiguous language.
Photo: Klara G
Björn Säfsten
Björn Säfsten is a dancer, choreographer and curator, born in Umeå and currently residing in Stockholm Sweden. Some of his latest works are “Landscapes of I” (2018), ”Prologue” (2016), ”Language Fools” (2016) and “Lost night”, which opened in February 2020. 2020-2021 he has created the work “I själva verket”, finalised this month in co-production with Riksteatern. Between 2012 – 2015 Säfsten was engaged as a researcher in choreography at The University of Fine Arts Umeå Sweden, where he together with philosopher Per Nilsson conducted the research-project ”De-creation of an amphibian praxis”. 2009 he received the Cullberg price and 2017 a 10-year working grant from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee. His work has been shown all around Sweden as well as in Finland, Norway, Denmark, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Lithuania and the US. Since 2015 Björn Säfsten activates various formats to present the work of other artists within his structure Säfsten Production. A major project is the festival “Within Practice”, which took place 2008 and 2020 and returns 2022. Three other festivals/symposiums have been created by Säfsten Production since 2015: ”Unnamed festival” (2017) at Delight Studios and Eric Ericssonhallen, ”Move to the beat of my tongue” (2015) at Studio 44 Stockholm, ”Translate, Intertwine, Transgress!” (2015) at Moderna Museet and MDT. The operations of Säfsten Produktion is supported by the Swedish Arts Council and Stockholms Stad.