Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine (Mette Edvardsen) Symposium #2 Exploring Plurealities

For Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine a group of people/ performers memorize a book of their choice. Together they form a library collection consisting of living books. The books are passing their time in a library, walking around, talking together, reading in paper-books from the shelves, ready to be consulted by a visitor. The visitors of the library choose a book they would like to read, and the book brings its reader to a place in the library or for a walk outside, while reciting its content (and possibly valid interpretations).
The idea for this library of living books comes from Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, a future vision of a society where books are forbidden because they are considered dangerous, and that happiness must be obtained through an absence of knowledge and individual thought. The number 451 refers to the temperature at which book paper starts to burn. As books are forbidden in this society, an underground community of people learn books by heart in order to preserve them for the future.
Books are read to remember and written to forget. To memorize a book, or more poetically ‘to learn a book by heart’, is in a way a rewriting of that book. In the process of memorizing, the reader for a moment steps into the place of the writer, or rather he / she is becoming the book. Maybe the ability to learn a whole book by heart is relative to what book you choose, the time you invest, and perhaps your skills. But, however much or well you learn something by heart you have to keep practicing it, otherwise you will forget it again. Perhaps by the time you reach the end you will have forgotten the beginning. Learning a book by heart is an ongoing activity and doing. There is nothing final or material to achieve, the practice of learning a book by heart is a continuous process of remembering and forgetting.

Titles:
Jurnal (1941-1942) – Etty Hillesum
Vara în care mama a avut ochii verzi – Tatiana Țîbuleac
Hopscotch – Julio Cortázar
Einstein’s Dreams – Alan Lightman

Performers:
Adriana Gheorghe
Alice Monica Marinescu
Joana Ferraz
Tiziana Penna

The work of Mette Edvardsen is situated within the performing arts field as a choreographer and performer. Although some of her works explore other media or other formats, such as video, books and writing, her interest is always in their relationship to the performing arts as a practice and a situation. She has worked since 1994 as a dancer and performer for a number of companies and projects, and has been developing her own work since 2002. She presents her works internationally and continues to develop projects with other artists, both as a collaborator and as a performer. A retrospective of her work was presented at Black Box theatre in Oslo in 2015, and the focus program Idiorritmias at MACBA in Barcelona in 2018. Her project Time has fallen alseep in the afternoon sunshine is ongoing since 2010, presented twice at Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels in 2013 & 2017, Sydney Biennale in 2016, Index Foundation in Stockholm in 2019, Oslobiennalen First Edition in 2019-2020, Trust & Confusion at Tai Kwun Arts in Hong Kong in 2021, São Paulo Biennale 2021. She will bring several pieces to Amant in New York in 2022, and develop a project in residence at Les Laboratoires des Aubervilliers in Paris 2022/ 2023.
Mette Edvardsen is structurally supported by Norsk Kulturråd (2021 – 2025), BUDA Arts Centre Kortrijk (2017 – 2021) and she is associated artist at centre chorégraphique national de Caen en Normandie (France) for the period 2019 – 2021. She is currently finalizing her research as a Phd candidate at Oslo National Academy of the Arts.

Event organized within EXPLORING PLUREALITIES Symposium #2, which brings together artists with inclusive contemporary visions at an artistic, political and socio-cultural level, multidisciplinary creators and current topics at a local and European level. Developing the ideal framework for an increased exposure and visibility and aiming at audience development through new formats and exhibition spaces for contemporary artistic creations, 4Culture aims to connect the participants involved in the project and activate new audiences.
During the symposium, a round table will be organized with the participating artists, partners and media representatives, two ‘artist talk’ meetings that will introduce the public to the practices addressed by the guest artists: the relationship between word, memory and body – recurring themes in the creation of the artist Mette Edvardsen (Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine) and the relationship between the performing arts and new media technologies, with Ciprian Făcăeru and Andrei Raicu, the coordinators of laboratory #2 – New technologies and young audiences, respectively of the Transsystemic Signals 2.0 installation.
The symposium will host the production „Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine” by Mette Edvardsen, in a new version that includes participants from Romania, as well as the installation Transsystemic Signals 2.0 resulting from laboratory#2 – New technologies and young audiences, coordinators Ciprian Făcăeru (AR researcher) and Andrei Raicu (sound artist).
Curator: Andreea Căpitănescu

About EXPLORING PLUREALITIES:
By implementing transdisciplinary activities in the field of contemporary performing and visual arts, the EXPLORING PLUREALITIES project aims to develop the audience and support contemporary art creators in Romania, in partnership with Norwegian artist Mette Edvardsen and in cooperation with Romanian and international artists and professionals. Creating a favorable framework for the development of art, through opportunities for professional evolution – job shadowing and mentoring, the project implemented by the 4Culture Association proposes a progressive approach, based on analysis and prospecting of innovative directions, by identifying and assuming hybrid artistic formats.
4Culture projects have a European dimension, the potential to multiply the results and a large public exposure. Through the PERSPECTIVES IN MOTION activity within the EXPLORING PLUREALITIES project, we propose two symposia and a digital platform, which will enable the resources of 4Culture and its partners and will ensure a dissemination of productions made for new audiences for contemporary performing arts – dance, performance, and visual arts (installations, new media projects and digital art).
Amount of non-reimbursable financing (85% EEA Grant and 15% national budget): 963,612 lei (195,288.49 euros)
Duration: 31 months
www.exploringplurealities.com
www.4culture.ro
www.metteedvardsen.be

Project financed by the EEA Grants 2014 – 2021 within the RO-CULTURE Program.
EEA grants represent the contribution of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to reducing economic and social disparities in Europe and strengthening bilateral relations between donor countries and 15 EU countries in Central and Southern Europe and the Baltic States.
The three donor countries are cooperating closely with the EU through the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement. The donors have provided € 3.3 billion through the consecutive grant scheme between 1994 and 2014. For the period 2014-2021, EEA grants amount to € 1.55 billion. More information on: www.eeagrants.org and www.eeagrants.ro
RO-CULTURE is implemented by the Ministry of Culture through the Project Management Unit and has as general objective the consolidation of economic and social development through cultural cooperation, cultural entrepreneurship and cultural heritage management. The budget of the Program is approximately 34 million euros. More details are available on www.ro-cultura.ro
Project promoter: ASOCIATIA 4 CULTURE
Project partner: METTE EDVARDSEN (Norway)
Partners of the Symposium#2 EXPLORING PLUREALITIES: Cărturești Carusel, WASP Working Art Space and Production.
Media partners: Radio România Cultural, Modernism, Revista Zeppelin, Revista ARTA, Feeder, IQads, România Pozitivă