“traps” can be seen as a confluence of different actions, dragged by linguistic elements. A hypnotic zoo invites the viewer into its trap. By featuring the unknown as a source of compositional information, where words, bodies and configurations morph, a collective playground is created. It is not a game, but rather an overt observation of a hidden manifesto.
Work “traps“ finds itself between the wet walls, inhabited by an unknown identity that seeks to make eye contact with the surrounding. It constantly (re)creates us by adopting different fictions. “traps“ falls into the captured within estrangement and dares to gaze back to reflect its own sociality.
“traps” seeks to trace our forgotten belongings. ‘traps’ is a trapping pulse and a raw meat programmed to consume. It’s a place where drugs and identities are sold and dissolved. It’s a tongue hole, wasted head, wolf-wheel, a person’s dirty mouth and a leaky engine. It travels, restricts, attrapts (?), pokes, and strokes our presence while we’re caught in our own traps.
Credits
Choreographer and performer: Johhan Rosenberg
Scenographer: Johhan Rosenberg and Júlia Sára Vavra
Sound designer: Karl Saks
Light designer: Priidu Adlas
Advisor and dramaturge: Netti Nüganen, Maike Lond
Technical support: Henry Kasch, Kristiina Tang
Light technician: Kristiina Tang / Hendrik Kaljujärv
Photographer: Alana Proosa
Project manager: Eneli Järs
Co-Producers:Johhan Rosenberg, Kanuti Gildi SAAL
Thank you: Sille Holm, Madlen Hirtentreu, Heneliis Notton, Bosa Mina, Nele Kurvits, Ekke Hekles, Henri Künnap, BTO team, Maarja Kalmre, Liisa Saaremäel and Karolin Poska
Artist / Company biography
Johhan Rosenberg (1997) is an Estonian choreographer and artist working in the fields of dance and performance art. He received the Estonian Theatre Prize Dance Award 2022 with Jette-Loona Hermanis for their performance “Eden Detail”. Hyper sociality, post-internet world and nostalgia horror are some of the keywords that are used to characterize Rosenberg’s works. Dance is seen as a transformation of movements and patterns of thought and states of the unconscious. The way in which creation interacts and constructs surrounding imagery is always under the microscope.
The choreographic haunting of his work constructs environments and artefacts of movement, mediated through the self and the gaze of the public. In his practice, the functionalities of language and identities become embodied contexts towards the process of creating surroundings. Through raw vocabulary and playfulness, he layers body, text, and sound to meet-cross in the architecture of collective consciousness.
Funded and supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia and co-produced by Kanuti gildi SAAL. Performances in Helsinki is supported by Estonian Ministry of Culture.
