Exercise for dialogical encounters and creations in and with a landscape /place /space

[Encountered as a workshop exploring the artistic and methodological aspects of ‘to-go-visiting’ with/as a body, as part of a Testing Ground residency, at Art Hub Copenhagen, exploring the The Listening Body.]

Excerpts from a score developed by performance artist Nana Francisca Schottländer:

Move into the landscape/place/space by yourself, far enough to not feel near to others.

 

Walk slowly and attentively. Listen to the sounds around you.

 

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Welcome any discomfort and explore it curiously, as a bodily experience.

Let it be. And be with what is.

 

Look around you. Spend time finding a place that attracts you and move towards it. Move slowly and step gently.

 

When you arrive, greet the place politely and ask permission to be there. If you feel a ‘yes’, then make yourself comfortable, gently taking care of the other entities present here.

 

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Fall into the landscape/place/space and become part of it. Stay like this until you feel in impulse to shift your presence.

 

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Spend time noticing the details and explore your chosen place. Who/what lives here and how?

 

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Take your time to take it in and explore it curiously and respectfully.

 

Try to listen to the world as this object/entity/detail. How does it take in the world?

 

How does it shift your senses to listen like this?

 

Touch it like you would touch a newborn child or the cheek of your lover. With attentive care. Try to feel a connection between you.

 

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Conduct an interview with the object/entity/detail.

 

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Receive the answers as they come. Let the answers guide your actions and the interactions between you.

 

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What is this resonance and connection calling for?

 

Dare to follow the invitations and do things you have not done before. Dare to be silly, sad, horny, playfull…

 

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When you are finished, thank the place, bid it farewell and find your way back to the meeting place.