Gry Worre Hallberg

I work in the intersection of performance art, curation, activism and research. I am currently writing a practice based Ph.D. based on two projects in which I am the Co-Founder and Artistic Director; respectively Dome of Visions (2012-) and Sisters Academy (2012-). I continuously explore new ways to integrate and unfold the aesthetic dimension in and outside the cultural institutions and the ”stage”. Currently, I work from the vision Sensuous Society – a radical future scenario where the sensuous and poetic dimension is at the center of society. I continuously unfold and explore this vision through my 1:1 performance experiments –  also see my TEDxtalks Sensuous Society (2013 at TEDxCPH) and Sensuous Learning (2015 at TEDx UppsalaUniversity). The point of departure in my PhD is also how we can move towards a more expanded sensuousness through sensuous learning. I was an external lecturer at Roskilde University (2011-2017) in the programme Performance Design and furthermore, I was the curator of performance art at Roskilde Festival (2013-2017). Moreover, I am a part of the working community NXT and the international independent urban research center Theatrum Mundi initiated by Professor Richard Sennett and Professor Saskia Sassen. See Sensuous for a full overview of my activities.

 

In my Ph.D., I explore how we can stimulate a more expanded sensuousness through “sensuous transformation” initiated by sensuous learning. This is rooted in Critical Theory’s and the Philosophical Aesthetics’ critique of civilization, but methodically, I am preoccupied with transformation through intervention, inspiration and dialogue. In connection with my practise as respectively Artistic Director and Curator of Dome of Visions and Artistic Director and performer in Sisters Hope, I develop new methods that can stimulate sensuous learning and thus sensuous transformation. In the work with Dome of Visions (outer landscapes), new and inviting curatorial methods are central, and in Sisters Hope (inner landscapes), I work with a new performance method, which takes it’s starting point in what we call ‘The Poetic Self’: our inner, inherent, poetic potential. In the encounter with our Poetic Self, we take our starting point in the sensuous and poetic sides of our being and thus create an inner starting point for sensuous transformation, which can be opened trough sensuous learning processes. We create and experience this in the performance laboratory Sisters Academy. Furthermore, I am currently specifically interested in what I have termed, “The Critical Gaze and The Devoted Body”. This deals with, among other, the potential of devotion, the courage and vulnerability that devotions requires and how critical approaches don’t always take this vulnerability into consideration. Simultaneously, I am interested in the potentially very fruitful interplay between these two positions and in the intersections where one position strengthens the other. I connect this to the interplay between the immersive and interventionist strategies in the performance projects that I work with, where I also seek to stimulate this.