NOSTALGIA

commission by Gloppen Music Festival 2023

Date:


07.09.23
Trivselshagen, Sandane (NO)
A dance piece for four dancers and twelve musicians.

After a summer in the mountains and having walked in the footsteps of my childhood, I feel the fear of losing the familiar. How does the fear of broken belonging, ruined nature and a collective complex shape our idea of the future.

Movement patterns – influenced by the landscapes around four top points in the mountains I regard as home – are abstracted and minimalised, then used as a base for composition.









Artistic team


Concept, choreography and dance:

Jonas Øren

Lights:

Music and dance:
Piano: Sveinung Bjelland
Violin:Liv Hilde Klokk-Bryhn
Violin: Per Kristian Skalstad
Viola: Ida Klokk-Bryhn
Viola: Aine Suzuki, bratsj



Cello: Audun Sandvik
Cello: Frida F. Waaler Wærvågen
Double bass: Zoran Markovic
Bassoon: Embrik Snerte
Clarinet: Björn Nyman
Trumpet: Per Håkon Oftedal
Fiddle: Marin Stallemo Bakke



Dance: 






Process:










About:


NO:
Etter ein sommar i fjellet og å ha gått i fotefar i frå barndommen, kjenner eg på frykta for å miste det kjende. Kva gjer frykta for broten tilhøyring, ruinert natur og eit kollektivt kompleks om idéen om framtida.

Nostalgi var opprinneleg ein medisinsk diagnose; kjensla av sjukeleg heimlengt, mynta av den sveitsiske medisinstudenten Johannes Hofer i 1678. Tilstanden skal opprinnelig ha blitt observert blant unge menn frå tronge dalar i Sveits som vart sendt ut i krigen på dei opne slettene i Tyskland. Nostalgia vart vurdert som dødeleg om han ikkje vart behandla. Ein av måtane å helbrede soldatene på, var å sende dei heim.

Gjennom begrepet nostalgia ser eg framtida i frå fortida. I 1977 beskreiv forfattar Fred Davies i boka Nostalgia, Identity and the Current Nostalgia Wave begrepet som: “Engendering a coherent and continous identity as we remind ourself in the presence of who we were in the past”. Nostalgia blir slik ein måte å oppretthalde sanningar på. Minnet er kunnskap som blir oppfatta gjennom lyst (desire) og igangsatt gjennom rekonstruksjon. Å hugse er ei handling der tidlegare hendingar blir gitt spesifikk betyding. Å hugse skaper sanning. Gjennom minnet skapast her ein interaksjon mellom fortid og notid. Minnet fungerer nemleg som lenka til framtida i den konstante notida.

Kva skjer når realiteten som ligg i minnet trugast av planer om fatale desktruksjonaer av natur igongsatt av vårt kollektive oljenasjonskompleks?

Forestillinga er ein ode mot vindkraftdestruksjonen av det som er heime og heimleg.
ENG:After a summer in the mountains and having walked in the footsteps of my childhood, I feel the fear of losing the familiar. How does the fear of broken belonging, ruined nature and a collective complex shape our idea of the future.

Nostalgia was originally a medical diagnosis; homesick, coined by the Swiss medical student Johannes Hofer in 1678. The condition is said to have originally been observed among young men from narrow valleys in Switzerland who were sent off to war on the open plains of Germany. Nostalgia was considered fatal if left untreated. One of the ways to cure the soldiers was to send them home.

Through the concept of nostalgia, I see the future from the past. In 1977, author Fred Davies described the concept in his book Nostalgia, Identity and the Current Nostalgia Wave as: "Engendering a coherent and continous identity as we remind ourselves in the presence of who we were in the past". Nostalgia  becomes a way of maintaining truths. Memory is knowledge perceived through desire and initiated through reconstruction. Remembering is an act where past events are given specific meaning. Remembering creates truths. Memory shapes an interaction between past and present. Memory functions as a link to the future in the constant present.


What happens when the reality that lies in memory is threatened by plans for fatal destructions of nature initiated by our collective oil nation complex?

The performance is an ode against the destruction of what is regarded as home due to wind power development.



Jonas Pedersen Øren 2019 — Oslo