THISENTANGLEMENT

(2016 – 2017)

This piece – two bodies captured in 1,000 metres of black rope – unfolds from the previous performance KNOT BODY. The work navigates the transitional space that trespasses the object/subject divide through an ongoing metamorphosis of a massive black thread: a pile of it becomes a lasso, a whip, a snake, and then a huge knot, a multidimensional pattern, an accidental spatial ornament, a labyrinth, a sprawling mass entwining, hiding, revealing, becoming the bodies that it connects and divides.

In the process, gaps between conventional binaries of gender (male/female) and substance (presence/absence) are revealed and inhabited. The blackness of the rope in the obscurity of the space, in contrast to the skin of the naked bodies, invokes an animistic ritual, which seems to imbue a utilitarian object with movement and energy, awakening its own inner life.

THISENTANGLEMENT is an independent continuation of QUARTO’s performances Knot Body, Beauty of Accident, and Durational Rope. Each part of the ROPE series deals with the 1,000-metre-long rope in distinct ways. Beauty of Accident, the first part of the series, explored the rope’s flux and continuous movement; it unfolded into a durational piece (Durational Rope) and a video piece (ROPE #1). In the second part, Knot Body, the stage performance deals with the rope as a knot/mass/body and has also unfolded into a video piece (ROPE #2), leading us to the current piece, THISENTANGLEMENT.

Credits

Choreography, Concept & Performance: QUARTO — Anna af Sillén de Mesquita & Leandro Zappala
Dramaturg: Igor Dobricic
Curator: Camilla Carlberg, Moderna Museet
Distribution: Koen Vanhove & Julia Asperska, Key Performance

Co-produced by: Moderna Museet and MDT

Supported by: The Swedish Arts Council; Stockholm City Culture Committee; Stockholm County Council; The Swedish Arts Grants Committee.