Black Box teater Publication #6 – Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival

Black Box teater Publications are collections of commissioned texts that suggest different entry points to contextualizing the artistic program of Black Box teater.

The texts encompass diverse voices that, in their own ways, offer multiple insights and perspectives on current questions, subject matters, artists and performances presented in our program. During fall 2018, we released our first two books in the publication series. As of 2021, there have been seven publications in a row – numbered from 0 to 6.

It has become a tradition that a new book in our series of Black Box teater Publications is published during each festival – and this year is no exception. This time around, we also launch the book in a brand new way: through a series of podcasts, released throughout the festival. The five contributions in the publication are read and recorded by their respective authors, and a new episode will be released every second day during the festival.

We hope you’ll enjoy these readings! While listening to them, you may follow the text in the digital version of the book – or you may grab a copy of the physical book. The book will be available in the foyer of Black Box teater and at Deichman Public Libraries at Tøyen and Grünerløkka.

Publication #6 contains texts by Maritea Dæhlin, Mariama Fatou Kalley Slåttøy, Ingri Fiksdal, Fredrik Floen, Nayla Naoufal, Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor, Michelle Tisdel and Eivind Haugland. We are excited to share it with you!

You may collect a physical copy of the book at the door of Black Box teater every day during the festival from 15.00 to 18.00.

You may also order it to receive it by post after the festival. Send an email to: anna(a)blackbox.no

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST VERSIONS OF THE CONTIBUTIONS IN THE PUBLICATION HERE:

A conversation with Maritea Dæhlin about "Stuck in the sound of the word"

During Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival 2021, we are releasing a new podcast episode every second day. These six episodes contain readings and conversations from Black Box teater publication #6.

For this publication, Maritea Dæhlin made a visual text with the title Stuck in the sound of the word. This hybrid text is revolving around the words said and unsaid, hidden and exposed, and about the availability of meaning.

This episode is a conversation between Maritea Dæhlin and the editor behind the book, Elin Grinaker, about how the text came to life.

Maritea Dæhlin is also presenting her performance I guess you have a lot of questions. A bedtime story during this year's festival.

Mariama Fatou Kalley Slåttøy reads "Jazz Dance and Speculative Fiction: – Research for Fictions of the Flesh"

In this episode, dance and multi-disciplinary artist Mariama Fatou Kalley Slåttøy is reading the text she has written for Black Box teater publication 6 together with Ingri Fiksdal: "Jazz dance and Speculative Fiction – Research for Fictions of the Flesh”.

This text revolves around the research process for the performance Fictions of the Flesh, which was supposed to premiere during Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival 2021. Unfortunately, it was canceled in the very last minute due to infection control measures. The contribution is the publication also contains visuals by Fredrik Floen.

Michelle Tisdel and Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor: "Aligned and Maligned: A History I Didn't Live but Has Parallels to One That I Did"

In this episode, you will hear a conversation between social anthropologist and research librarian Michelle A. Tisdel and artist, filmmaker and writer Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor. Their talk evolves around self-identification and identity politics: the term ‘identity politics’ is used and misused, and carries different connotations depending on who is using it, and in which context it is being used. Why is this term dividing? Which perspectives should be voiced?

We invited Michelle Tisdel, who then suggested answering these questions through an ongoing conversation with Jessica Lauren Elisabeth Taylor – a dialogue you are about to listen to.

Bonus info: This recording was done on the 18 February, the twin birthday of Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde!

Nayla Naoufal reads "Body as fjord: A Sámi decolonial aesthetics"

In this episode writer, cultural worker and researcher Nayla Naoufal is reading her text Body as fjord: A Sámi decolonial aesthetics. The text centers around the work of Norwegian Sámi choreographer Katarina Skår Lisa, who presented the piece Gift of Stone at Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival 2020. Naoufal was in dialogue with Skår Lisa during the two-year creative process of Gift of Stone. Through this reading, she gives us an introduction to the lifeways and struggles of the Samí people as a way of understanding Skår Lisa’s artistic practice.

(This episode was recorded in January 2021. Arctic Summer, the show mentioned in the podcast, had to be cancelled from Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival due to covid restrictions.)

Eivind Haugland reads "About not leaving reality in peace"

During the last couple of years, it has become obvious how the poetry and uniqueness of art disappear when the media read it too literally. One tendency is to ridicule or attack art by taking the elements out of their context and reducing them to their simpler expression, to a mere description. Furthermore, these simplified narratives can be power tools in the public debate about art.

Eivind Haugland works as a dramaturg at Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. We invited him to reflect upon these issues from his position of being Norwegian and living and working in Germany. In a time when artistic freedom is under pressure, we would like to investigate the value of art as a space of fiction. How do we differentiate fiction and reality, poetic spaces and space for interpretation? Starting with the lockdowns in Germany and Norway, Haugland writes about how stories about the arts are dealt with in the media and in the cultural institutions themselves.