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[December 25th 2002]
Interview
Nika — Nika is Dead
Nika is dead -
Interview with Signa Sørensen
Interview with Signa Sørensen
on the occasion of her latest performance installation Nika is
Dead - a kind of status over the Twin Life project. In December
2002, Signa Sørensen was rewarded the Bisballe award of 75.000
kroner. Text: Martin Arne Olafsen Photo: Paw Petersen
Once again, Signa Sørensen has
impressed with her performance installation Nika is Dead,
chapter four of the Twin Life story (see the earlier interview -in
Danish- at www.kopenhagen.dk
for information about earlier events).
For a period of ten days, the large-scale installation,
situated in Islands Brygge, has lived a life of its own in a fascinating
and disturbing scenery, including a prayer room, a hospital ward,
a caravan and a hearse, all containing traces of the past, present
and future (?) of Nika and her twin sister in the form of photos,
video projections, musical live performances and rocks in mysterious
formations, as well as the audience, who might just have arrived
or been living there for five days, and ten performers, among them
a priest, a fortune teller and a nurse. An intense bombardment of
the senses, which overwhelmed and confused and surrounded its viewer
with its transient reality.
What is your impression of the process - both of the Twin Life
series as such and of the recent Nika is Dead?
That is a very difficult question to answer. Nika Zabrisky and the
Twin Life project have dominated my life completely for the past
18 months. I feel that it has developed into something very complex.
The work has got a life of its own, and personally, I have changed
as the story of Nika developed. It has become more difficult to
draw the line between the work and reality. As we, the performers
and the audience, have invested so much time and empathy in the
work, the parallel reality of the Twin Life project has gained validity.
I feel that the dissolution of the illusion of a tangible reality
has been the greatest victory of the work, precisely because by
putting us on shaky ground, it could take us to unexpected places.
The first part of the work, Twin Life - instant new identities,
which took place over a period of seven days and nights in a basement
flat in Vendersgade, was very much influenced by the fact that we
had no idea what we were getting into. We were all very surprised
by how quickly reality and fiction were intertwined, and of how
intense (at times unpleasantly so) the effect was on us as well
as the audience. At the same time, I was personally overwhelmed
by the viewers' empathy and care toward Nika - and of the degree
to which they involved their personal lives in the experience.
The second part of the project, the six-hour WhyBabyHospital,
was radically different from the first. You could say that it dissolved
the metaphorical and the narrative and turned it into something
more abstract. WhyBabyHospital was installed in the middle of a
techno party at Luftkastellet, Holmen, and the contrast with the
party enhanced the fairly aggressive morbidity of the installation.
The more abstract form made our interaction with the audience different.
We were an unpleasant wedge of glaring light, decay and death in
the middle of a party that did not exist for us.
  
(left) Nika Nika is Dead
(center) The hospital ward, Nika is Dead
(right) Nika Nika is Dead
Konwaliowa Cutie Doll in Kanonhallen was a condensation
of Nika's memories of a past and a family that she has detached
herself from. She is in a hospital, where she is slipping in and
out of consciousness. In this flickering between nightmare and brutal
awakening, the audience could move around in the installation and
meet Nika and some of the people close to her. Konwaliowa Cutie
Doll was a great challenge to me, partly because in its essence,
the large, neutral theatrical space works against my ideas about
the meeting between reality and the work. The theatrical space does
not give much in itself but fringes the installation with an artificiality,
which I feared would block the empathy. In the same way, I was very
conscious that there would be a lot of people there at once, and
that they would bring with them that whole set of expectations that
is often characteristic of a theatre audience. Furthermore, the
installation only lasted two and a half hours, two nights in a row,
and when there is such a limited amount of time available, you have
to consider certain dramaturgic aspects. When everything is said,
I think that Konwaliowa Cutie Doll was a great experience
and a very successful project. It turned out that the audience were
incredibly willing to become involved in the work.
Nika is Dead was more complex than any of the earlier parts
of the project, and it affected me deeply. I still have not distanced
myself from it. At this point, the story had branched off incredibly,
and I wanted to work my way away from the massive focus on Nika.
There are many versions of the story - at least one for every character.
Furthermore, we have the stories of the individual characters and
their mutual relationships. Several conflicting stories may very
well be equally valid. At no point was the whole story available
or clear to the viewers (or us). It is up to each one of us to choose
and piece together our own version of the narrative.
The Twin Life project has involved a lot of people. As uncompromising
as I am in the creation of the installations, I have tried to trust
the individual performers in connection with the creation of the
individual characters. This freedom has resulted in contributions
that I could never have imagined or constructed myself. This way
of working puts great demands on those involved, and obviously not
everything has been equally successful.
Nika: Nika is Dead
Now Nika is dead - or is she?
No, actually she is not! For a while she pretended to be her twin
sister, who is really the one who is missing. Ana's whereabouts
are still a mystery. Nika herself said that it had been necessary
to step out of herself, to stage her own death and resurrection,
in order to gain the courage and strength to exorcise the ghosts
of the past. She decided to go to New York, to Ground Zero where
the Twin Towers were laid in ruins.
Can the story continue any further?
There are still a lot of stories, and I believe that they live on,
whether we want them to or not. We inhabit our characters now, as
they inhabited us when we were them. I also believe that several
of the viewers carry the story with them. I like the fact that the
story about Nika is open-ended and holds the possibility of an infinite
number of parallel stories. It is not an unambiguous, chronological
narrative with beginning and end, and that is why it can never end.
On the last day, I had Nika's name tattooed on my arm, and so I
carry part of the story with me into this reality.
I find that you have developed a rather innovative concept (for
Danish standards). Is this a concept that you are going to develop
further? In another form? Or do you (also) have other plans, artistically?
The Twin Life project is not a reaction to Danish dramatic arts,
nor is it inspired by anything I have seen in abroad. The concept
springs partly from my own interest in installation art, frustration
over the lack of involvement by the audience in traditional genres
of art and my experience with the staging of alternative realities
and identities from my work as a private dancer. I am very interested
in continuing to work with ways of dissolving the boundaries between
audience and performers. There is nothing interesting about producing
a finished product that people can come and stare at with their
arms crossed.
So I will keep working with the "performance installation"
or "the inhabited installation" or what you want to call
it. It would be interesting to stake myself in a solo project, but
I am hoping that in the spring of 2004, I will be able to work with
a really large number of people. We will see…
At this moment, I am co-operating with designer and stylist Karon
A about a line of clothes inspired by the Twin Life project. The
line, which consists of unique pieces, will be launched in April/May,
and the clothes can be seen on the Internet. I am also working with
MA Ewa Walzack-Andersen on a book about the Twin Life project. From
the beginning of the project I have wanted to make a book, and I
have been very careful to document everything. Large amounts of
text and images have been produced during the different parts. In
the year to come I will also work toward a CD release. It is still
too early to say what it is going to contain - except that I will
provide the voice. I am considering using some of the texts that
were produced during Nika is Dead.
Nika and her girl friend from London,
Nika is Dead
The last time we talked, you mentioned an epilogue to Twin Life.
Is that still topical, and if so, what form do you think it will
take?
I have been thinking about some very small, almost invisible actions,
where I am going to let fragments of the Twin Life universe merge
with our reality here and there in the city. Perhaps no one will
even notice! I have become very attached to the Nika character -
at this point the challenge is not to keep her alive but to try
to leave her alone!
You have been proclaimed the hot new name in Danish theatre.
Do you consider yourself a "dramatic artist"?
The press have shown a great interest in my work and have given
Twin Life a very good reception, which I really appreciate. But
I do not feel that I have been proclaimed dramatic artist - fortunately!
I have a great deal of respect for the skills that many of the performers
carry with them from the theatre - but of the many actors I have
now worked with in the different parts of the Twin Life project,
those who were the most willing to let go of the rules, techniques
and expectations of theatre were also the ones who worked the best
and gained the most.
Translated and edited by Nina Jagd Andersen
Signa Sørensen is presently working with
the Italian musician Sergio Calzoni, who also performed atthe Nika
is Dead installation. Calzoni composes and Signa writes the
lyrics. According to plans this should result in a record release
in the spring of 2003. Other upcoming projects
are Night Finder, a performance-installation in 2003, Milk
Exposure, solo performance in the spring 2003 and the short
feature, The Seventh Day Pose.
More…
http://www.twinlife.net
http://www.kopenhagen.dk/interviews/signesorensen.htm
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