ACQUAINTANCES
Two non-human creatures, standing close to the brink of extinction, make an effort to conform to a human way of living.
Or, two diurnal human beings, standing close to the brink of existential crisis, make an effort to relax.
Keep an eye out, they are a rare sight.
About SETTLED, Slovakia, 2023Or, two diurnal human beings, standing close to the brink of existential crisis, make an effort to relax.
Keep an eye out, they are a rare sight.
Site-specific Research and Performance duo mixing devised theatre and spatial analysis
2021-2023
Acquaintances is an ongoing research collaboration between performance maker Hallveig Kristín Eiríksdóttir and Arnar Gústafsson, sprouting from a shared interest in creating a dialogue between performing arts and urban planning. The duo experiments with blending research methods from devised theatre and spatial analysis.
Their latest site-specific piece, SETTLED, was developed during the
Divadlo Pôtoň
Residency in February 2022 and premiered at the Into the
Miracles
Art Festival in southern Slovakia in July 2023.
Their first piece, 2x2 Rýmisskynjun: Ævintýraferðir (2x2 Spatial Perception: Adventure Tours), premiered at INNSÆVI Festival in Fjarðabyggð in July 2022 and was later performed at Hamraborg Festival in Kópavogur in August 2022.
The Icelandic creators masterfully honed the simplicity of everyday life in an organic flow within this naturalistic environment, focusing on being in the present moment, attending to the mundane necessities of existence with a certain monotony.
After observing the piece for a while, viewers gradually became absorbed into its civil pace, realizing, through the seemingly effortless gestures of monotonous work or rest, the naturalistic grotesque.
The relationship between the two endangered species evoked an analogous connection to human alienation and the silence of emptiness.
