performingbordersLIVE20 and Warehouse9 presented a performance of Fuglen, der (The Bird, There), new work by Danish filmmaker and artist Lasse Lau livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 18 September 2020 at 2 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC-4) / 7 p.m. BST (London, UTC+1) / 20:00 CEST (UTC+2).
“The bird blushes in its desire, ‘I’m the beast’”
Fuglen, der (The Bird, There) is a new story about queer sexuality and re-traumatisation of the queer body by the COVID-19 pandemic, by award-winning film maker and live artist Lasse Lau.
Lasse says: "When I was 16, there was a virus that only killed people like me. Something I couldn’t talk about at the time, as I only knew the hidden truth deep within my own window towards the world. A virus that I never contracted myself, but which I still live with today in my intimate and social choices. These invisible borders that can determine lifelong paths, and sometimes even hinders me from flying. The pandemic portal, as Arundhati Roy states, is where our presence is erased, and where only the past and the future can exist."
Lasse Lau’s performative lecture is a short film exploring the intersections between the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the current COVID-19 crisis from a personal and intimate perspective of a queer man who has witnessed and is currently navigating both. The film takes us into the world about birds eating from the same bird feeder every day. Survival is bringing them back to the same location again and again. Not far from the bird feeder, there is a river that ends abruptly into the cascade of a waterfall. Some of its currents and fluid dimensions are being rerouted from falling and transformed into electricity and power.
The short film première will be followed by a Q&A with Danish artist Naja Lee Jensen and all documentation will be distributed freely on performingborders’ website.
From performingbordersLIVE20: Following from the success of our 2019 performingbordersLIVE program, which saw us program both new and established migrant artists from all over the UK and across Europe and Mexico, we are excited to announce a new partnership with performance art venue Warehouse9 (Denmark) and the first commissioned art work for our 2020 program.
Lasse Lau is a multidisciplinary, award-winning performance artist and filmmaker based in the US who we are thrilled to be working with, specifically as he explores queerness and migration in his works. His book Queer Geographies has been fundamental to understand differentiating understandings of queerness in different parts of the world (from Copenhagen, to New York, to Beirut, and Tijuana), and how art can help us create local sense of communities and bring their stories to life. We had the opportunity to explore and debate during a podcast commissioned in 2019 (link here), and are thrilled by the ensuing premiere and the discussions it will bring.
Commissioned and presented by performingborders (UK/PT) & Warehouse9 (DK). Distributed with support from HowlRound Theatre Commons, Queer Arts Projects and Foreign Actions Productions.
Supported by Arts Council England and Danish Arts Foundation.
Access information:
English live captions will be provided throughout the event. If you have hearing impairments and would like us to send you the Streamtext URL for a more enhanced live caption experience, please contact us on this email address and we will send it to you near the date. performingbordersLIVE20 prides itself in being a safe, inclusive space. The event will have members of the performingbordersLIVE20 and Warehouse9 team to support any needs that might occur throughout this process and the management of audiences where needed.
BIOGRAPHIES
Lasse Lau (born 1974, Denmark) is an award-winning filmmaker and visual artist who looks into the spatial dimension of power to better understand society’s social struggles. His films have won Grand prix Nanook-Jean Rouch in France, the Golden Raven in Russia, World Cinema Doc at Kansas Filmfest, Nordic:Dox Award at CPH:DOX and 1st prize at Fokus Videokunst Festival. His work have shown at Beirut Art Center, Brandts Klædefabrik, British Museum, BOZAR, Cimatheque Cairo, Edith-Russ-Haus fur Medienkunst, Fotografisk Center, Green Lantern, Hamburger Bahnhof, Lumiar Cité, Malmö konsthall, Medrar for Contemporary Art, MOMA PS1, Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea Lisboa, Museum of Resistance Torino, OCAT, Smart Project Space, Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art and Westfälische Kunstverein. Lasse Lau was a fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art ISP. Website.
Naja Lee Jensen is a interdisciplinary artist whos artistic practice primarily is centered around context, structures and the possibility for change of perception. She has an interest in connections and relations - composing experiences for bodies and minds in collaboration with her surroundings. Her work methods consist of questioning and listening in an attempt to understand the infinite layers of context of which reality is composed. During the artistic process Naja creates a visual and sensorial narrative for an audience that often plays a central part in the creation of the work. Beside being an artist who works in the intersection between stage art and fine art Naja also has a part time engagement as the artistic director for HAUT, a theatre for artistic development in Copenhagen. Working with relations and contexts in the role of artistic director she regards the engagement as a part of her artistic practice and are wondering how artistic work can change the world. Website.
performingbordersLIVE20 (March – November 2020). A public program of open calls, artist digital commissions, residencies, workshops, open conversations, and events, focusing on the exploration of experimental and exciting artistic practices happening within the UK Live Art sector around notions and lived experiences of physical, cultural, juridical, racial, gendered, class, and everyday borders. Presented by performingborders and Foreign Actions Productions in partnership with Counterpoints Arts (London), Live Art Development Agency (London), Contact (Manchester), East Street Arts (Leeds), MAFWA Theatre (Leeds), The Albany/Deptford Lounge (London), Something Human/Asia-Art-Activism (London), Never Done (London), Ọ̀RỌ̀ ÀNÍKÉ (London), Queer Art Projects (London), East London Cable (London), Green Rooms Hotel (London), HowlRound Theatre Commons (Boston, US), Warehouse9 (Copenhagen, Denmark). Supported by Arts Council England. Website. peformingbordersLIVE is on Twitter and Instagram.
Warehouse9 (est. 2007) is an artist-led performance space and gallery located in a historical stable building in Copenhagen’s Meatpacking district. Warehouse9 is a venue for radical and innovative arts practices and ideas by artists, art workers and activists working with matters related to identity politics, sexual expressions and body representations. Warehouse9 believes in performance as a means to challenge mainstream conventions and initiate social change. We are committed to creating a space to legitimise unclassifiable artforms, support underrepresented art, artists and art workers from the queer community. Warehouse9 is a venue that champions performance and art workers of the future. We work collaboratively and cross-disciplinary to challenge the status quo, to instigate dialogue and to write queer art within a broader art historical context. Warehouse9 has a year round arts programme and community programme, both dedicated to the local and international queer community. Warehouse9 curates and produces the annual international performance festival IPAF. Website. Warehouse9 is on Facebook and Instagram.
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