The Mountain Body – Kolsåsstupene, Bærum

12:00-13:00: Choreographic & sculptural installation

14:30-15:30: Conversation about Kolsås’ geology & nature conservation management

Weather conditions: If rain is reported on 21 August, the performance will be moved to 20 or 22 August. The date will be confirmed on blackbox.no and socials.

Bring binoculars if you have any. We also advice to bring seat pads, comfy shoes, outdoor clothing, and packed lunch.

Public transport: Line 3 towards Kolsås to Gjettum metro station
By car: Parking at Gjettum metro station + 25 min walk to the viewing site

Black Box teater team will be at Gjettum metro station (exit Gjettumveien) from 11:00 hrs to give indications, and there will be signs to guide you to the viewing site at the forest path from Dæliveien. Please do not walk into the fields. Toilets are not available.

The Mountain Body

The Mountain Body is an art project by choreographer and visual artist Helle Siljeholm who in collaboration with artists, climbers and academics investigates how the mountain visibly and invisibly affects, and is affected, by the surrounding community in the light of geological time. The mountain is the starting point for various explorations concerning our perspective on nature, as well as the relationship between nature and culture in the light of today’s environmental challenges.

Over several years, a series of larger context-specific choreographic and sculptural installations will be created in and with different mountains, which together and over time form a ‘mountain chain’. The choreographic sculptures are performed by a group of contemporary dancers and climbers who leave a temporary and degradable soil-pigment trail in the mountainside to highlight the mountain’s structure. The pigment trace will disappear after some time, as a natural result of weather and wind. The works are inspired by land art, rock carvings and landscape painting.

The Mountain Body Kolsåsstupene

Kolsåsstupene is the first mountain in this mountain range. Kolsåsstupene has a rare and complex geological base, with the mountain archive bearing deep time traces of geographical displacement (Oslo was at one time in North Africa), volcanic activity, tropical climate and the ice ages. The large accumulation of the rare ocher-like lava rock rhombic porphyry also puts Kolsås in relation to Antarctica (a still active volcano), Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and North-West Russia.

Since the end of the 19th century, Kolsås has been frequently visited by artists, philosophers, politicians, feminists, environmental activists, mountaineers and climbers; Kolsås was the first training field for climbing in Norway. Kolsås appears in several well-known works by, among others, Kitty Kielland, Claude Monet and Edvard Munch.

Today, Kolsåsstupene is a nature reserve, a reminder of how vulnerable free nature has become in our time, and of the responsibilities humans have in this. The Mountain Body promotes an interaction with nature that is gentle, caring and temporary. Mountains and bedrocks can be understood as the spine of the world, as a body in motion. This opens up for reflections on diversity and nature protection – on which we depend – in order to survive.

The choreographic and sculptural installation will be performed on 21 August from 12:00-13:00 hrs at Kolsåsstupene. Following the performance, at 14:30 hrs a conversation will take place at KIF cabin in Kolsås with senior researcher, author and geologist Henrik Svensen about the geology of Kolsås and researcher Katrine Eldegard about nature conservation management.

With and By:

Concept, choreography, local and historical research Helle Siljeholm

Climbers and co-creative performers Pernille Holden, Marianne Kjærsund, Anders Rummelhoff and Sjur Hansteen

Soil pigment expert, researcher and visual artist  Bent Erik Myrvoll

Costume Solveig Fagermo

Access manager and facilitator Olav Vestlie

Photo and video Istvan Virag, Tormod Granheim

Producer Guro Vrålstad

International producer Annette Wolfsberger

Co-producer Black Box Teater

Supported by the Arts Council Norway

Thanks to the State Administrator in Viken