3 NOV–17 DEC 2022

Play

Connie Kristoffersen

Uaajeerneq (performance) on December 17, 2022 at 13:00
Oqummiaq (installation with Uaajeerneq mouthpiece and sound), 2022.

Uaajeerneg is an ancient tradition practiced in secret in Greenland after Christian colonization. Kristoffersen has reworked her own Uaajeerneg in which she seems to transform into a being between worlds. She sets in motion a visceral terrain where the human body embodies relationalities of other beings and creatures, world makers that bring each other into being. Becoming-more-than-human is in connection with the spirits and the unknown (the black), with the life force, blood, love and temperament (the red) and with the ancestors (lines of skin color in the black), all represented in the performer’s face mask. Female genitals are typically marked as a triangle on the forehead while male genitals are the nose and cheekbones. It is not until the performer has placed Oqummiaq, a bone or wood piece, in her mouth that boundaries fall apart. Emotions and multiple bodies surface in the play with life: fright, fun and seduction or sexual drive. Expect some confusion. Even the performer becomes confused about who she is and what will arise.

Connie Kristoffersen is based in Horsens, Denmark. She holds a degree in education and finished a degree in acting in 2016 from the National Acting School of Greenland. With many leading roles, Kristoffersen’s experience includes being an actress on stage and in film, tv-host, theater assistant director, coordinator of theater festivals, to name a few. In recent years, Kristoffersen has developed her unique Uaajeerneq (Greenlandic mask dance) performance and holds workshops on the Uaajeerneq tradition.