Astrid Specht Seeberg
CLAY COSTUME
Ever-shifting collaborative performance between sculptor ASTRID SPECHT SEEBERG (DK) and performance artist ROSA JARANOVIC (DK)
About the Performance:
CLAY COSTUME is a live performance created on a stage made of approximately 1 ton of clay. The performer Rosa Jaranovic is presented bare, as an ever-moving sculpture of clay created on her body by sculptor Astrid Specht Seeberg.
Astrid appears as the sculptor and enters the stage with the task of maintaining, rebuilding, and transforming the moving canvas. Rosa's movements constantly urge Astrid to rethink the sculpture, and the relation between the two characters on stage will transform in the clay that correlate between them.
The pace of the performance, can evolve both slowly or rapidly, drawing connotations to an interactive croquis.
With the possibility of lasting everywhere between 1 - 4 hours, the performance offers itself as an artwork to be a selfstandign act.
During one daily performance, the space will serve as a scenography, while for the remainder of the opening hours, the stage will show the remains of the performers interactions, and in this way, it becomes a sculpture in itself.
In the meeting between clay and physical performance, many new spaces are created for both the sculptor and the performance artist. Here, we can make it possible to break the product-oriented practice that sculpture work can represent and open up new ways of creating bodily material for the performance artist.
The capitalist society we live in appears to us as a long product presentation. And we are convinced that there is a great intuitive power and creative nerve in the personal process that involves the creation of art. This creation can be perspective too many facets of a human life that will never be a final product but always something that is changeable and in motion.
The sculpture's balance point versus the balance point of the body.
Seeberg focuses on balance points and the organic result that comes from creating stability in a sculpture that is collapsing.
She believes that it is when the work is on the brink of losing its balance point, and the natural weight leads the clay to collapse, that the interesting matter happens.
Seeberg's approach to clay is an inspiration for Jaranovic's movement qualities. The idea of the "clay that struggles with its balance point" inspired Jaranovic to work with the body as if it were clay, constantly changing positions under the influence of strong gravity. This created bodily material that came together in a higher unity when Seeberg began to shape the clay on her body. While Seeberg experiences Jaranovic's body as a canvas, Jaranovic experiences it as a costume that invites movement qualities and character expression.
The focus is removed from the final product and directed towards the creative process, which requires improvisation, intense presence, and constant further development of the story. It is a process that involves powerlessness, joy, and freedom in losing control.
Working as a woman with a young girl's body and all that it symbolizes, constantly confronts Jaranovic with complexes of sexualization and objectification. As a performer whose naked body is a part of this project, Jaranovic experiences a desexualization of her body, when Seeberg shapes her body into what she experiences as universes, shapes and costumes. The performance becomes a form of liberation from the negative spiral of sexualization and objectification women go through, and creates a feeling of sisterhood and common healing.
Extract from rehearsing with 30 kilos of clay.
About the artists
ASTRID SPECHT SEEBERG (b.1999, DK)
Astrid Specht Seeberg is a self-taught ceramic artist and sculptor with no formal art education. Her’s art practice is deeply connected to the aquatic environment. Her large-scale ceramic sculptures take inspiration from creatures evolved from water and aim to highlight the energetic language of these organisms through abstraction and indirect personification.
Astrid is fascinated by hydro-existence, the idea of living in an aquatic ecosystem, and draws inspiration from it for her ceramic sculptures. Her attraction to bodies of water also connects to hydrosexuality, which influences her work.
Astrid has partnered with marine biologists from Hungary and Mangrove ecologists from Bremen University in collaborations to develop future ceramic installations that allow viewers to fully immerse themselves in her art using all their senses.
Her abstract and expressive works often feature organic forms and textures, as she embraces a raw and improvisational approach.
The automatic and intuitive play an essential role in Astrid's work. She experiments with taking components from automatic drawing and anagram poetry, both of which were common practices among surrealists in the 1930s. Through continuous conversations with marine biologist Susie Bagotai about organisms and life forms in the ocean, she stores this information in her subconscious, to finally let it flow through her when she constructs her sculptures. This occurs in a deeply meditative flow stage where she focuses on her intuitive sense and lets the logical fall away. By suppressing and restricting the rational and conscious control of the mind over the creative process, it allows the body's and psyche's subconscious to manifest itself.
By discovering the natural bends and shapes that the clay takes through her manipulation, she can spot the elements in the artwork that she must highlight to eventually tell a story that blends science with her own personal interpretation and experiences.
Seeberg’s work focuses on creating balance points and organic results in sculptures that are on the verge of collapsing. She highlights and stabilizes the collapsing works, seeing "mistakes" as beautiful and creating movement and curiosity in her pieces.
She has rapidly gained recognition for her art practice and was awarded the Danish Carl-Nielsen Foundation Talent Prize in 2022. She has exhibited her works at galleries in Copenhagen, including Galleri Kant and Anne Aarsland for Kunstsalonen.
ROSA JARANOVIC (DK)
Rosa Jaranovic’s art work focuses on vulnerability and honesty. And often offers a raw exposure of what she considered the ‘‘young girls’’ body and mind. She’s done a lot of experimental performances where she uses her body as a tool for expressing her art, constantly trying to push the boundaries of who and what we look at in the name of performance. This practice really claimed itself when she educated herself at Akademiet for Musik, Dans og Teater. Where she discovered the room of performance as the artform where she connects with the receiver of her art mostly. Therefore she is often always a part of her pieces directly. When that is said she has always had a multidisciplinary art practice including visual arts, writing, contemporary movement, dance, film work both as a director and actor, and a big part of her practice is to mix them and make them enlighten each other. At the moment she does most of her work, together with fellow artists and performers in the art collective Final Planet, which she has been a part of for the last few years. It's a DIY queer art collective and platform for arranging events, exhibitions and performances. Working collaboratively is a key for Jaranovic’s work, and with a background in film and theater productions it feels more natural to work collaboratively than by herself. It makes her focus more on the process than on the result. For her the collaborative performative room has no boundaries, which makes it an amazingly frustrating and inspiring field to work in.
Stage ideas
Picture for inspiration. From Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen's performance "Lucy" during the Culture Night 2014 at Nikolaj Kunsthal. Photo by Frida Gregersen.
The stage should have dimensions of roughly 2 meters by 2 meters and a thickness of 15-20 cm made of moist, fresh clay. It's a straightforward process to create it using only clay and a white fabric to serve as a base.
If the performance budget allows, we can enhance the stage by incorporating other constructions.
THE CLAY AND BUDGETING:
To reduce the budget and keep the environment in mind, the clay for the performance is sponsored by Egersund Teglværk, with clay dugged up in Denmark.
The budget will be described once more about the time and place of the performance is figured out.
Keep in mind that the budget estimate may not account for unforeseen expenses, and does not include any fees for artistic or honorary contributions.
ARTIST CV
ROSA JARANOVIC (DK) - CV
1999 Born in Copenhagen, Denmark
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Professionel membership in Dansehallerne.
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Member and Co-founder of artcollective FiNAL PLANET.
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Member of KFP, Københavns Frie Promotere.
EDUCATION
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January 2022 - December 2022: Akademiet for Musik, Dans og Teater Danseteater (DT) / Dance Theater student
- The course focuses on contact and solo improvisation, theater, contemporary dance technique, choreography, Video installations, site-specific performances, greek theater, acting and manuscripts, dialogues, musical interpretation, instant composition. Including end of semester performances at krudttønden. -
August 2018 - June 2020: Vidar Skolen, Rudolf Steiner HF. - Contained ceramic, dance, drama and stone carving classes.
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August 2017 - November 2019: Christianshavn Gymnasium, (STX) Main subject - Design. August 2015 -
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June 2016: Flakkebjerg efterskole, Main subject - visual art.
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WORK EXPERIENCE
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December 2022: Performing at Maindream(festival), Art Collective Final Planet, in cooperation with Gro Selv, at Volume Village in aarhus.
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November 2022: Setting up a Workshop and Performance for students of BGK Artlab.
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October 2022: Group Performance in collaboration with Musician ‘’Yinawe’’ at Absalon Kirken in Copenhagen.
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August 2022: Performative live installation in Final Planet Exhibition at Gallery Q.
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June 2022: Performing in ‘’The Real Life Theater’’, Exhibition at The Royal Danish Academy
of Fine Arts, Skjold Rambow. -
May 2022: Creating the Scenography for the performance and concert by Slimo and Crackcloud at Mayhem.
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November 2019 - Marts 2020: Starring in Michella Bredahls graduation film at The Danish Filmschool.
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June 2019: Performative catwalk for ‘’Smerz’’ concert, Roskilde Festival.
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November 2018 - Marts 2019: Starring in Michella Bredahls midterm film at The Danish Filmschool.
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ASTRID SPECHT SEEBERG - CV
1999 Born in Copenhagen, Denmark
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Member of Billedkunstner Forbundet and Dansk Billedhuggersamfund.
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Represented at Anne Aarsland Gallery.
Prizes
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Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Foundation's talent prize 2022.
Exhibitions/Projects
2021
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Solo-exhibition, "Bondage" Galleri Symbol, Guldbergsgade 9, 2200 kbh N
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Reglazing Plates for GANNI A/S
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Artfair "Kunst for alle" in Lokomotivvaerkstedet, copenhagen, Upcoming area
curated by Connie Boe Boss
2022
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Group Exhibition "There is a crack in everything" at KBH Kunst, CPH, with Hanne
Scmidt -
Reglazing vintage plates for Bestseller
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Galleri KANT, Group Exhibition "TERRIOR" Curated by Emil Hesk, 7/7 2022
-14/8 2022 -
ConFeria art Festival 19-20/8 2022, exhibiting sculpture in open air
2023
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Exhibition at Riises Landsted. Curated by Kunstsalonen and Anne Aarsland.
Collaborations
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“Memories of the future, a case for ornaments in an economy with no space for craftsmen” thesis for Master of Architecture by Filip Nyborg, AARCH, Aarhus.
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“In love, Paralyzed” - under continuous collaboration with marine biologist Susie Bagotai.
Other:
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2023 - Albisola, Italien - Asger Jorns residency and sculpture center.
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2022 - Davide Ronco Studio
Education, work and life experience:
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2015-2016 - Danish Craftsman Folk High School in Skjern, specializing in ceramics
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2016-2019 - Christianshavns High School, linguistics and culture.
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2020 - Sailing and freediving in the Great Barrier Reef, among living and working as painter amd gardener in Myocum, New South Wales, AU
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2020 - Bricklayer apprentice at TH Bækhave
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2021 - staring artist company full time.
Commissions
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Ganni A/S
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Salling Fonds
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Bestseller A/S