Passing through landscapes # Bragdøya

Passing Through Landscape is a project and process collaboration between textile and fashion designer Ramona Salo and choreographer and movement artist Katarina Skår Lisa. The project is a continuation of the duo’s practice as a series of performances that have been created in recent years. The work is a poetic contemplation on the nature of relationships, our heritage and the care of our living landscape. With visual and tactile elements and movements, they aim to weave and reflect on a common Sea Sami heritage,
and bring personal stories together as modern storytelling. Passing Through Landscape was first shown as a performance installation at the performance festival PAO Festival No Silence/ No Sound How to
hear a performance in 2019. Later, the title Passing Through Landscape became the name of a travel archive of places and
creations that Ramona and Katarina have made and visited. At Ravnedans- Festival for Contemporary Dance Kristiansand 2022 Katarina invited Ramona to share their process work on Bragdøya, the island in the Kristiansandsfjord. The fjord and the encounter with the island become a symbol of a liminal time and space. On Bragdøya, the audience gathered to listen to and witness the fjord, while remembering all good conditions. Movement and textiles touch and shape the landscape on Bragdøya, but do not leave lasting physical traces.

Movements is a central part of Passing Through Landscapes. This is about movement in the form of breath and presence, and an understanding of the interaction that occurs between body, action and landscape. The movement starts from the breath and connects all life through being. The performance is performed there and then and will not be the same the next time. At the same time, it has elements from the previous performances and in this sense the choreography is circular, and will not end completely, even after the performance is over. This was a goal for the work on Bragdøya, but also in all works, to leave the audience with a feeling of being touched and reminded of our connecting heritage, so that it can have ripple effects beyond the fjord and the sea, and in our minds. Seen from an indigenous perspective, everything belongs together, and so we can through our movements carefully take our place in society, in our local environment, but also in the specific art world.

Visual design by

Ramona Salo Myrseth and Katarina Skår Lisa

Photography of performance by

Ravnedans- Festival for Contemporary Dance