Woven songs

The project poses a series of questions that concern something as matter- of-fact as the earth, and how we live our lives there. The earth is at once a symbol of the sacred and the profane, and the material foundation for life and death, right under our feet. In various ways Woven Songs grapples with suspending a western logic in which the magical perspective has been separated from the level of everyday life. It turns the ear to the ground and listens to the rumble, traumas and songs that are awoken. At Välkommaskolan in Malmberget, this line of enquiry meets a local landscape collapsing from the effects of the mining industry. The school has already been evacuated and will be demolished shortly after the end of the exhibition. At Vita Duvan in Luleå a sonic installation speaks to the unifying power of song and the women’s history contained within the walls of the former prison. At Luleå Art Gallery, we are introduced to the story of an enigmatic magician whose rotting magic factory on the outskirts of Jokkmokk is being reclaimed by nature. At the Luleå University of Technology and at the magnificent waterfall Storforsen, sculptural forms in the shape of fists burst out of the ground as if in revolt. Towards the end of the biennial, a choreographic work will praise the earth in a wild ritual where bodies, plants and liquids collide and become one with one another.

Video tour: Woven songs

Footage and editing by Thomas Hämén.