Managing Discomfort

February 22 — April 19, 2024

Performance Festival presented by Toaster & Live Art Denmark

Toaster and Live Art Denmark presented the performance festival MANAGING DISCOMFORT, which included a range of Danish and international artists whose works share the common theme of addressing discomfort with care and humor.

For instance, British artist Martin O’Brien utilized his disability in the piece An Ambulance to the Future (The Second Chance). Finnish artist Teo Ala-Ruona interprets their own transition in Lacuna. Danish-Iraqi artist Lina Hashim invited the audience into a harem in the piece Odalisque.

In total, 16 artists were presented at Husets Teater in the spring of 2024. They aimed to push the spectators out of their comfort zone and evoke discomfort. More importantly, they explored how we collectively manage this discomfort together, in the immediate presence of the theater.

” Performing arts no longer need to provide glamour, dreams, and escapism. Today, everyone has their own private stage in their back pocket, where anything is possible, and one can quickly swipe away from any discomfort. We believe that audiences will increasingly seek out the theater space precisely because of its limitations. It is the ideal setting for demanding confrontations with other incomplete bodies; in a real now and a real space. All of which was always the hallmark of performance art.” (Live Art Denmark)

The audience experienced two performances in one evening. In addition to the theater’s black hall and the red salon on the first floor, VR works by Danish and international artists were installed in the theater’s foyer. Part of the program also included workshops with the international performers, providing an opportunity to get closer to their methods and thoughts.

Featuring the following artists. Click to read more.

Jessie Klemann 
Iggy Malmborg
Beck Heiberg
Samira Elagoz
Boys* In Sync
Aaron Williamson
Sall Lam Toro
Martin O’Brien
Liebmann/Barkan
Jäger Ooms
Maria Metsalu 
Teo Ala-Ruona
Lina Hashim
Seimi Nørregaard
Molly Haslund
Kira o´Reilly

Managing Discomfort 2 follows

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