J&K / Janne Schäfer and Kristine Agergaard
Descending The Holy Mountain
performance, 2 hours + open‐end excursion and forest party
2010
In the performance Descending The Holy Mountain, J&K and their performing friends invite the audience to embark on an adventurous expedition through (and out of) the installation The Perfect Stage. The goal is no less than to reach the impossible: to find the perfect place or state of being – the path however is filled with obstacles, detours, illusions and surprises. Descending The Holy Mountain is a communal ritual in which everyone turns into a group of adventurers, mountaineers and spiritual seekers while the installation is explored as a challenging mountain landscape. Filmmaker Fritz Stolberg acts as the expedition’s accompanying film director and interferes into the performance with stage instructions while filming the voyage. The verse play J&K. A Mountainous Country by writer Neal Brown and parts of the script Solen by scriptwriter Maya Ilsøe are recited live during the expedition. Both texts are specifically written for J&K’s work The Perfect Stage. After leaving Aarhus Art Building, the performance continues in the streets of Aarhus and from there further out into the wilderness.
The performance was developed site-specifically for the installation The Perfect Stage and took place at Aarhus Art Building and the public space in August 2010.
Guest performers: Thorbjørn S. Andersen, Nicholas Brooks, Lars Damkjær, Cecilie Gravesen, Ernst Steen Hansen, Mika Kokkonen, Inigo Minns, Lasse Krog Møller, Philip Roitmann, Mette Schwarz, Fritz Stolberg, Esben
J&K, Descending The Holy Mountain, performance, Århus Art Building, 2010, photos: Jens Møller Sørensen