- The Ecological Theatre (Den Ekologiska Teatern ) is an art project in the Biological museum in Stockholm that was presented through a talk, art installations, performances, a book and a sound installation. This series of independent performative episodes was initiated by the choreographers Anna Asplind and Daniel AlmgrenRecén during the year 2015.
To do this “Den Ekologiska Teatern” invited International and Swedish artists from as diverse artistic expressions as written text, dance, fine art, installation, poetry, light and interactive sound art.
The Biological Museum was inaugurated in 1893 in a three-way intersection between industrialization, nature romanticism and the climax of positivistic nature science. As a visitor in the museum, you find yourself in the midst of an harmonic nature scene filled with an large backdrop by Bruno Liljefors, a meticulously constructed environment by the taxidermist, hunter and amateur zoologist Gustaf Kolthoff and stuffed animals, shot, collected and conserved by the same man.
The animals in their stagnated positions create, in contrast to the founder’s intention, situations far from the reality they were taken out of. The fact that a hare sits peacefully, only a few feet from a fox, is not very likely to happen in the forest. This distorted picture provides an experience of layered time, or even an absence of time, somewhere in between the living and the dead, as if a number of photographic negatives would have been multiply exposed on to the museum.
What are then the stories that are being provoked in this place where the only living are the bugs that try to feed on the dead and an occasional sparrow that lost its way in the daylight that showers the silence? What is the animal’s reflection on the time and the society that is changing around them? Who is actually looking at whom? Who has the right to tell the story and whose reality is being told?
“Den Ekologiska Teatern” is the first joint work of Anna Asplind and Daniel AlmgrenRecén.
The project is supported by: Innovativ Kultur, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Kulturbryggan, Swedish Arts Council and Stockholms Stad.
Special thanks to URBANEARS, Linda Karlsson, André Wunstorf and Frida Sandström
The Ecological Theater is co-produced with: MDT and Biologiska museet
- The Ecological Theatre consists of:
DEEKTE – Art and performance evening as part of Kulturnatten 2015
Participating artists and writers:
Anna Asplind
Anna Koch
Bob Hansson
Daniel AlmgrenRecén
Department (Technical concept and development)
DJ Phillip Mox
Duilio Forte
Elis Burrau
Emil Kjær Voss
Erik Berglin
Helena Lundström
Ida Linde
Johan Forsman
Johanna Frid
Johan Rödström
Jonas Liveröd
Nicke Helldorff
Niclas Svensson
Rune Bosse
Sarra Anaya
Tomas Björkdal
