Close Encounters - Embodied Journeys - PRO

Close Encounters#5 is a unique choreographic exhibition that combines visual art, dance and performance. For each edition of CE, we present a new angle on the fruitful relationship between contemporary art and choreography.

Close Encounters #5 is curated by Julienne Doko and titled JOURNEYS - a choreographic exhibition that brings together performers, visual artists and dancers in a presentation of reflections on inner and outer gazes on the black body. Doko has invited Danish-based pan-African/Afro-European artists to produce works that, through dance, performance and installation art, explore their identity as one of the "others" in Denmark and give us an expanded perspective on Danishness.

The 6 artists for Close Encounters are announced:
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Jeannette Ehlers presents CAST ON WATER: Eulogy to Sisterhood Across the African Diaspora”. The piece explores the idea of sisterhood, particularly within the context of the black female experience. The work confronts the legacy of the Middle Passage and the ongoing effects of the transatlantic slave trade as well as emphasizes the importance of solidarity and connectivity among women from the African Diaspora.
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Jupiter Child presents UNRAVELLED. By making an installation of knitted sweaters, Jupiter Child engages the audience to unravel the sweaters by removing the strands with their bare hands as a way to indicate whose labour it is, as well as to activate the collective physical labour of handwork. In essence, it is about cultivating collective liberation practices and collaboration continuity. By resisting and dismantling complex intertwined structures.  
The piece is a re-enactment inspired by Yoko Ono’s “cut piece” performance. Jupiter Child examines the shape, texture, and composition of something. In order to learn about ourselves in relation to our surroundings and the way we interact with each other.

Julienne Doko presents CORPS ACCORDS. We walk alone in the world, carrying our inheritance in our genes and our life experiences. CORPS ACCORDS explores cycles of confrontation and synergy between the self and the other on the journey towards reconciliation of identities.  ⁠

Wanjiku Victoria Seets presents the work BLINKERED a cross-disciplinary piece that invites you to listen, see and challenge your biases through an array of narratives. It breaks down the single story told about Africa. By way of story sound, music, video and performance it suggests a humane alternative to the prevailing stereotypes.

Sall Lam Toro presents the work OBSIDIAN DREAM LOVE LETTERS (2023), a multimedia performance installation piece created by Sall Lam Toro. The work is drawing upon a love letter to black erotic consciousness built upon universes of phantasmagoria, obsidian sculptures, fictionalized and non-fictionalized acts of archiving and sensuous rituals.

Phyllis Akinyi presents the work FLAMENCURA. Locura y cura. Madness and cure. With Flamencura, dancer and choreographer Phyllis Akinyi takes us on a flamenco journey – a journey that examines clichéd contradictions, freedom in the in-between, ‘invisiblized’ African flamenco roots, folkloric futurism, communities and solitude, and an eternal struggle to claim space and oneself.

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