MASS — BLOOM EXPLORATIONS

RECOIL PERFORMANCE GROUP 2017

A choreographic installation on decay, decomposition and death by awarded choreographer Tina Tarpgaard with a text by acclaimed author Ida Marie Hede Thousands of plastic-eating worms are the tiny heroes of the work as they literally digest the installation. In collaboration with the performer, they break the framework for recoil’s choreographic work in this choreographed decomposition. A six hour performance over three days that transforms the plastic habitat of the work into organic debris.

MASS — bloom explorations invite the audience to come close to the perishability, decomposing and death that all living beings on the earth are confronted with and eventually become part of. A single human dancer and thousands of mealworms inhabit a transparent plastic dome. In this unlikely (bio) logical combination of greenhouse and mausoleum, we are reminded of the basic circumstances of life; to sleep, eat, defecate and multiply; the living and the dead, the urge and the will. The relationship between what perishes and what remains is central to the speculative nature of the work – the visions of a future of extensive man-made environmental change. The work reconsiders a culture of consumption and superior self-esteem, which are some of the less flattering characteristics of humanity.

CREATIVE TEAM

Choreographer Tina Tarpgaard / performer: Hilde I. Sandvold / scientific research and installation design Pei-Ying Lin / writer Ida Marie Hede / technical design and engineering Minshu Huang / sound design Søren Knud / dramaturgical consultants Inge Agnete Tarpgaard & Ida Larsen / photos Søren Meisner

REVIEWS

Mass – Bloom Explorations is an impressive background study and artwork by Tina Tarpgaard that has now proven its lasting appeal for a fifth consecutive year, touring countries including Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands. Mealworms are, evidently, fascinating companions—whether encountered at festivals or, as here, in a cemetery. This peculiar biotope radiates a sense of timelessness through its unconventional coexistence, grounded in mutual respect.
— Dorte Grannov, Iscene.dk

With its glacial pacing, Mass – Bloom Explorations gives us time. To watch and ponder but also, to remember. We live in a networked, co-emerging biosphere that continually remakes itself. Its processes may be slower, and mostly overlooked by us, yet they remain implacable. The scale of evolutionary violence far exceeds our species’ capacity for cruelty and blunder.
— Paul Ransom, Dance Informa