A central part of WORLD EXPO is a programme of artists, musicians, composers, choreographers and poets invited by Carl-Michael von Hausswolff and Leif Elggren to perform their work. On four nights during the spring, a total of twelve performances (three per night) will be presented. The works are related to artists, choreographers and composers who have passed away. New interpretations and celebrations will bring the work of the dead artists into our age. 

On Wednesday 29 March, Joachim Nordwall, Pär Thörn, Lotta Melin, Anna Westberg and Robin af Ekenstam will perform works related to Mika Vainio, Sten Hanson and Birgitta Trotzig.

Joachim Nordwall will perform a new piece entitled BURY A HORSE’S HEAD (FOR MIKA VAINIO). Based on thesound art of Mika Vainio, Nordwall has created the work as a “tribute to his work that extends far beyond death”.Nordwall and Vainio collaborated frequently and Nordwall released Vainio’s music on his record company iDEAL Recordings.

Pär Thörn will perform a new piece related to Sten Hanson’s practice. In the work  Pyjarr, Thörn mixes concrete poetry, looped voices and pure tones, which often recur in his musical performances. 

Lotta Melin has created a performance in relation to Birgitta Trotzig. In Trotzig’s 1954 book Bilder (Images), Melin found the poem “Dagbok” (Diary): “Jag är den trevande, den tillbakaslagna, den bedövade, blind och mjuk och formlös, klädd i ogenomskinlig hud” (I am the tentative, the repulsed, the stunned, the blind and soft and formless, clothed in opaque skin).
A kind of self-portrait. A diagnosis?
Is the poem about an illness that tears my body and life to shreds? She sees me. She opens my eyes. She shows me another darkness, a deeper one. “… en mask, en parasit, ett gammalt ofullgånget foster, vaggande i min oförlösta tyngd, min oförlösta smärta.” (… a mask, a parasite, an old unborn foetus, rocking in my undelivered heaviness, my undelivered pain).
Recorded music by Robin af Ekenstam on electronics and Lotta Melin on theremin. Performance by Anna Westberg.

From 16:00, von Hausswolff and Elggren will be onsite in the exhibition at the Elgaland-Vargaland’s Passport Office. Here visitors can apply for citizenship of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland. 

Performance: 18:00-20:00

The Passport Office will be open from 16:00

Free entry. No pre-booking required.

Participants

Joachim Nordwall (b. 1975) has, since the end of the 1980s, created electronic and experimental music with a predilection for the psychedelic, the monotonous and circular rhythms, as a soloist and member of various groups. Nordwall runs the record company iDEAL Recordings.

Mika Vainio (1963–2017) was a prominent musician in the genre of Finnish experimental electronic music. From the 1990s to the 2010s, he published music under his own name and under the name Ø, among others. He was a member of the band Pan Sonic. 

Pär Thörn (b. 1977) is an author, sound artist and fanzine editor based in Gothenburg. Since his debut in 2002, he has published some twenty books, translated into, among others, Danish and French. In his music performances he frequently combines loops, concrete sounds, voice and pure tones. 

Sten Hanson (1936–2017) was a composer, poet and performance artist who was active from the early 1960s. He was a pioneer in experimental text and sound compositions. As a composer, he was an autodidact.

Lotta Melin (b. 1961) is a choreographer and artist based in Stockholm. Death and ephemeral corporal conditions have played a central role in her practice. As a choreographer, she has frequently collaborated with artists, experimental musicians and practitioners of other art forms.

Anna Westberg (b. 1969) is a dancer and choreographer with a special interest in improvisation, somatic practices and archive activism. Long active at Atalante in Gothenburg, she relocated to Stockholm in 2014.

Robin af Ekenstam (b. 1984) is a Stockholm-based composer and sound designer who works with theatre, film and games.

Birgitta Trotzig (1929–2011) was a Swedish author and critic who made her debut in 1951 with a collection of short stories entitled Ur de älskandes liv (From the Life of Those Who Love). She wrote novels, prose poems and poetry. In 1993, she was elected to the Swedish Academy, occupying Seat No 6.