Performance “Choreographies of Hugging: Variation”
Performance “Choreographies of Hugging: Variation” (2024), by the artists Eline Selgis and Sofia Filippou in the Kumu Art Museum, is a careful adaptation of “Choreographies of Hugging” (2022), which received the annual dance award at the Estonian Theatre Awards 2023. The performance, which grew out of the practice of hugging, features two bodies moving towards an embrace, affecting and being affected.
““Choreographies of Hugging” lives and breathes in many forms, spaces and worlds, ever-changing and eternal. Every single meeting is new, a variation.” ‒ Eline Selgis and Sofia Filippou
of all the forests of the world you walked into
the stories melted through
cold wet maybe
left right left right left right left right
dark light
the space-in-between yawning in choir
toes-nose-pose
close-
held in the
“Choreographies of Hugging” explores witnessing the emergence of worlds that form in response to something in a constant state of change.
The negotiation of openness, trust and respect creates a fluid choreography of whimsy, flesh and contradictions: personal and mutual agency, intimacy and distance, human and other, this world and not, serious and funny, documentary and fantasy. This creates a dynamic practice of playful intimacy and engagement with both life and nature, composed into a work of art.
18:00-19:00, ticketholders are invited to join Ann Mirjam Vaikla’s curator’s tour of the exhibition “They Began to Talk” in the Gallery of Contemporary Art on the 5th floor. The dance performance starts at 19.00 in the exhibition hall.”
Gallery
Sofia Filippou (b. 1995 in Greece) is a dance artist. Her practice has evolved through a diverse range of workshops and residencies. Through her artistic endeavours, she seeks to deepen our understanding of movement and its potential to connect individuals and communities. She holds a bachelor’s degree in drama and dance from Royal Holloway, University of London, and a masters’ degree in contemporary physical performance-making from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.
Eline Selgis (b. 1990 in Estonia) is a freelance dance artist. Her choreographic practice is based on contemporary dance and improvisation, exploring the relationships between the body, space and dramaturgy. In her work, she often finds herself telling stories through aspects of movement. She graduated from the Viljandi Culture Academy with a degree in dance and earned a master’s degree in theatre studies from Tartu University. Since 2021, she has been curating the TantsuRUUM residency space.
This performance is a part of the public programme of the exhibition “They Began to Talk”, an international group exhibition which takes the intertwinement of the body and the environment as its point of departure, in an era marked by rapid environmental change and inequality. Sudden changes in the physical environment, often caused by human activity, can evoke mental suffering in land-based communities. Stored in the body, this trauma is passed on to future generations, who perceive it as an interruption in their relationships with their surroundings. The exhibition brings together the practices of artists working in this region with those from indigenous communities in the Nordic countries, exploring the possibility of recovering and cultivating a sense of connection.
