The Mountain Body is an interdisciplinary art and research project based on geological formations that connect all life and non-life on our planet and in the universe, and in which the mountain becomes the focus for various imaginaries. The project explores re-articulations of entangled relationships of body, nature and culture, taking into account. The current climate and environmental challenges, and is based in local contexts. The Mountain Body centers around a series of choreographic and sculptural interventions with, by and in various mountain sites in the world, which together form a new ‘mountain range’.
The project is inspired by the late mountain climber and philosopher Arne Næss’ perspective on the mountain, and his many stays in the mountains, which contributed to his (and his colleagues) radical philosophy from the 1970s, Deep Ecology. A philosophy that calls for a radical shift in human – nature – culture relationships.
The Mountain Body originates from Nodes on rocks and other social landscapes (2017), curated by Høstscena, Jugendstilsenteret and KUBE. The project included various choreographies of a performative and sculptural character over four days, in nature and in the city, and was created with the participation of several local artists and partners in and around Ålesund (Norway). Its development was informed by regular conversations between Helle Siljeholm and landscape painter Ørnulf Opdahl, related to alternative perspectives on landscape, nature and culture.
A central part of the work was a choreography developed for six climbers from Ålesund Climbing Club, executed on a mountain hillside. The composition of the choreography was based on everyday movements such as walking, sitting, standing and sleeping, and manifested itself in different variations and patterns, creating horizontal and vertical ‘journeys’ in the mountainside. The traces of these positions and journeys were marked with natural and environmentally-friendly pigment by the climbers. The temporary imprint of this choreographic structure remained as a gigantic, temporary ‘rune painting’ that could be viewed from the sea, tourist paths and from airplanes approaching Alesund. The performance alternated between the meditative, contemplative and spectacular. The physical and practical encounter of body, mountain and structure pointed to historical and contemporary relationships of bodies, nature and culture, being colonial and occupational, as well as vulnerable and in need of protection. The ‘painting’ was to be washed away by nature itself, a natural consequence of weather and wind. After about two months, it had disappeared from the mountain.
«Naturen er kulturens hjem» (Nature is the home of culture)
– Nils Faarlund (friend and colleague of Næss, founder of friluftsliv as an academic discipline)
In The Mountain Body, the aim is to reduce, or rid ourselves, of an anthropocentric gaze orienting towards the mountain, and to listen, experience and learn, with mountain matter such as (such as (star)dust, minerals, rocks and mountain ontology as a starting point. Mountains form the context for investigations of complex relationships between body, nature and culture. These meetings with various mountain sites, (human and non- human) species and communities established on, in or by mountains will help articulate different mountain imaginaries. These will inform the choreographies as well as audiovisual works, talks, seminars and essays.
The project is created by visual artist and choreographer Helle Siljeholm, and will be developed with a range of artists, academics, climbers, partners and diverse communities in and around mountains over the coming years.