With the poles as her starting point, Jessie Kleeman examines the discomfort of our high-velocity culture and climate change. She humorously and painfully grapples with the whale and the elements and paves the way for a different way of being in the world.

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE

This performance is based on memories of the childhood game of jumping from ice flake to ice flake when the ice broke during the spring ice melt. Now it’s melting time all the time, the ice melts, the world melts, we jump from place to place. We run, we flee.

We think, we are changing things when we shake hands to ensure that the ice flake stays where it is. But the ice flake gets smaller and smaller with each handshake. Then we wash our hands, dry our hands, but the ice flake returns, even bigger and melts in new directions, and we jump on, we run and escape.

The ice flake is “just a flake” but it’s coming from both poles. Imagine the Whale and its belly and us trying to keep its gape closed.

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ABOUT JESSIE KLEEMANN (GL/DK)

For three decades, Jessie Kleemann has been a significant figure on the contemporary art scene with her original approach to video art, experimental theater and performance art. Her art is based on the complex relationships between Greenland, where she was born and raised – and Denmark, where she lives today. In her art, Jessie Kleemann uses objects from both traditional Inuit culture, colonial and contemporary Greenland. Jessie Kleemann uses her cultural heritage to challenge stereotypes and the exotic dream of an unspoiled Greenland. In autumn 2023, Jessie Kleemann had her first major solo exhibition at a Danish museum, Statens Museum for Kunst, where works from her entire artistic practice were shown.

ABOUT SØREN GEMMER (DK)

Saves works in a span between modern jazz and electronic music. In recent years, he has worked with electroacoustic improvisation, processing of real sounds and the speaking voice, most recently with actor Thure Lindhardt in their interpretation of HØJSANGEN and Charlotte Munck in GILGAMESH and with artist Jessie Kleemann in connection with the LONE WOLF RUNNER series at the National Gallery of Denmark in autumn 2023.

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MANAGING DISCOMFORT PERFORMANCEFESTIVAL

In the spring of 2024, Toaster and Live Art Denmark present the performance festival MANAGING DISCOMFORT, which includes a number of Danish and international artists whose works have the common denominator that they all deal with discomfort, but process it with care and humor.

The festival stretches over seven weeks and each week two new performances are presented, which are staged as a double-bill at Husets Teater. This means that one ticket gives access to both performances, which are separated by a short break.