Throughout the opening, the identity of a hotel space in itself was explored through artistic investigation and the hotel became a space of multiple possibilities where the idea of a personal island was translated into action. The hotel room, a personal island in the collective imagination, is a space encompassing multiple stories, where expectations and emotions shape, for a moment, the environment: at times a dreaming place, an intimate encounter, at others a refuge or a meditation space. Offering each visitor the detachment from the everyday life, the hotel rooms are situated in the space between real and unreal, temporary and permanent, public and private.
In a place that will hold an endless history - the hotel - the three performances created different types of engagement and different narratives for the guests. The sensuality of presence of Ofelia Jarl Ortega, the geometric calculated dance of Martin Forsberg and the digital stimuli of Bombina Bombast, created spaces of reaction, of experience and experimentation.
Martin Forsberg’s performance was focused on the space of the hotel itself, the intimate context of the room. Ofelia Jarl Ortega’s durational performance brought in the semi-public space (the stairs in the entrance, the elevator, the bar), the actions and desires accommodated by the privacy of the hotel room and was guiding the guests, having different intensities in the different spaces. For the bar, corridors and the terrace, the third performance by Bombina Bombast generated individual experiences and memories, an invitation to explore possible worlds through a digital walk that showed a staged site-specific reality and VR individual experiences.
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Martin Forsberg (b. 1980, Härnösand) is a Swedish choreographer and performer based in Copenhagen, where he runs his project-based performance company. He has graduated from The Danish National School of Performing Arts and has choreographed commissions for institutions such as The Göteborg Opera, ResIDans, Norrdans, Moscow Chamber Ballet, Skånes Dansteater, Edge (UK), Riksteatern/Tyst Teater, Dansehallerne and The Royal Danish Ballet. In 2015 Martin Forsberg created works for Regionteater Väst (Propreté), Skånes Dansteater (The Extended Version of Nothing), Dan Daw Creative Projects (BEAST) and the creation ULTRA for Fors Works, a choreographic installation, with ten male dancers, on nationalism and fascism. Martin Forsberg takes interest in the staging and its choreographic potential. In his practice, he challenges notions of dance and non-dance, and observes and pushes the conventions and limits of the “spectacle”.
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Ofelia Jarl Ortega (b. 1990, Malmö) is a performer and choreographer, mainly based in Stockholm. She has graduated with the MA in choreography from DOCH in Stockholm and her shows have been presented at MDT, Tensta konsthall, Inkonst, Dansstationen and, among other international contexts, at Manifesta 11 and ImPulsTanz, Vienna International Dance Festival. Her projects have been produced also with the support of Swedish state institutions (Region Skåne, Stockholms stad, Göteborgs stad) and international programmes (Creative Europe, European Union’s fund for creative development). Ofelia works with different notions of vulnerability and femininity; with the collective as starting point, where necessity is the method and punk, drone and dark are aesthetics.
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Bombina Bombast is a performing arts company founded in 2011 in Sweden, currently based in Malmö, and is led by Emma Bexell (b. 1989, Ystad) and Stefan Stanišic (b. 1987, Pancevo). Emma, the artistic co-director, dramaturg and producer of Bombina Bombast, has graduated with a Master in Theatre at Malmö Theatre Academy (2016) and is a guest teacher of Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts and Malmö Theatre Academy. Stefan too has a Master in Theatre at Malmö Theatre Academy (2016) and has studied, among others, playwriting at Biskops Arnö. He is guest teacher at Malmö Theatre Academy and in-house director at Danish Radio Theatre AKT1. The company explores the use of innovative technologies combined with performing arts, most notably virtual reality and theatre. Bombina Bombast has collaborated and performed at. a.o, Sydhavn Teater and HAUT in Copenhagen, Inkonst in Malmö, Skånes Dansteater, Kulturhuset Stadsteatern, Orion, Södra Teatern in Stockholm, Blaue Frau's Pop Up Art House in Helsinki.
Text: Ioana Leca
Photographer: Johanna Åkerberg Kassel
Projektnamn: Story Hotel Studio Malmö