In a place where everything is leaking and dripping. In a place where things are not as they seem. In a place where everything is on the edge of tipping over into something else. A place where everything is holding onto breath. Where the relations between cause and effect, living and non-living, artificial and natural, are uncertain, uncanny. Various landscapes appear to quickly blur together again. They morph between swamps, mountains, underground caves, bacterial cultures. They melt, morph and mix, they get stuck in endless contaminated loops until they dissolve, disintegrate, sulk and spill.
Invisible forces play a leading role: humidity, waves, gravity and the electromagnetic field become a moving force, and something so simple as causality becomes a magical affair.
Image: Hákon Pálsson and Dora Durkesac
Concept, choreography and performance: Rósa Ómarsdóttir
Scenography: Dora Durkesac
Music by: Nicolai Hovgaard Johansen and Rósa Ómarsdóttir
Sound design: Nicolai Hovgaard Johansen
Light installation, light design and technical manager: Hákon Pálsson
Light assistance: Kjartan Darri Kristjánsson
Costume: Kristjana Björg Reynisdóttir
Dramaturgy: Ingrid Vranken
Artistic Assistance: Ana Dubljevic
Production: Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek
Co-Production: Chaillot Theatre National de la Dance, Bora Bora Dans og Visuelt Teatre, C-Takt, Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek and Tjarnarbíó
Supported by: KAAP Brugge, Dansverkstæðið, Reykjavík Dance Festival, Icelandic Embassy in Paris
Special thanks for advice and assistance: Inga Huld Hákonardóttir, Vala Ómardóttir, Védís Kjartansdóttir, Sveinbjörn Thorarensen, Gulli Már, the crew of Tjarnarbíó, Halli í Þjóðleikhúsinu, Nicolas Bouscaud, Nicos Xenos, Michael Janssens, Jurica Seva
Spills received five nominations for the Icelandic Theatre Awards Gríman for: ‘Dancer of the year’, ‘Choreography of the year’, ‘Light design of the year’, ‘Soundscape of the year’ and ‘Performance of the year’. Spills was awarded for the category ‘Soundscape of the year’.
Performed at:
November 20th 2019 - Reykjavík Dance Festival (IS)
November 21st 2019 - Tjarnarbíó, Reykjavík (IS)
November 27th 2019 - Tjarnarbíó, Reykjavík (IS)
October 23rd 2021 - Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL)
October 24th 2021 - Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL)
June 29th 2022 - ICE HOT Nordic Dance Platform, Helsinki (FI)
August 31st 2023 - Anthropo.10, LOFFT das Theater, Leipzig (DE)
“The concept of the holistic artwork is well expressed in the work of Spills.
Art, design, music and dance come together as a whole
and create an experience that none of these forms could create on its own”
Image: Owen Fienes
“..through her movement Rósa becomes anything between a frog, a lizard, a mix of a forrest goddess from Cambodian jungles, the ghost from the Ring movies, an astronaut on an unexplored planet, and all this, perhaps with a bit of Greta Thunberg”
Image: Owen Fienes
“Simply georgeous”
“Watching Spills is a little bit like watching Russian Sci-fi… it is a sort of exploration through mutated nature and something uncanny”
Image: Owen Fienes
“I related this work to a new way of understanding and relating to the environment, where man and nature are intertwined ”
“It was like she was connecting to elements which we humans don’t see or feel.. like bats or octopus..giving us an experience of other species”
Image: Owen Fienes
Image: Owen Fienes
The sound score for the performance is it’s own ecosystem, filled in by sounds in the space
Image: Owen Fienes
Image: Owen Fienes