EXPANDED CHOREOGRAPHY: Shifting the agency of movement in The Artificial Nature Project and 69 positions

Sammanfattning: Through two books and a series of video documentations of live performances Mette Ingvartsen makes choreography into a territory of physical, artistic and social experimentation. The Artificial Nature Series focusses on how relations between human and non-human agency can be explored and reconfigured through choreography. By investigating and creating a ‘nonhuman theater’ questions regarding material agency, ecology, natural disasters, the Anthropocene and non-subjective performativity are posed. The resulting reflections are closely related to the poetic principles utilized to create the performances, while also drawing connections to territories outside theater. By contrast, 69 positions inscribes itself into a history of human performance with afocus on nudity, sexuality and how the body historically has been a site for political struggles. By creating a guided tour through sexual performances – from the naked protest actions of the 1960’s, through an archive ofpersonal performances into a reflection on contemporary sexual practice – this solo work rethinks audience participation and proposes a notion of soft and social choreography. The contrasting performative strategiesarticulate a twofold notion of expanded choreography: on the one hand movement is extended beyond the human body by including the agency of nonhuman performers, and on the other hand, movement is expanded into animaginary and virtual space thanks to ‘language choreography’.