being

As a poetic generator of subtext, the moving body can express different layers of sensations and experiences. In being, Bára Sigfúsdóttir uses this body as the common ground to explore and to put in dialogue the West-European with the Iranian identity. 

Rooted in an ongoing curiousity towards new cultures and the development of movement in different contexts than her own, Bára travelled to Tehran (Iran) in 2014 to take part in the UNTIMELY Festival. While teaching a workshop there, she got intrigued by the skills and presence of two local artists, Masoumeh Jalalieh and SeyedAlireza Mirmohammadi. This planted the seed for being, a piece where Bára creates an onstage encounter for and with Masoumeh and SeyedAlireza. For this performance the three of them explore the concept of ‘meeting’ and reflect on the West-European and the Iranian (and by extension the Middle-Eastern) culture and society. Their bodies serve as the common ground to depart from.

The meeting between bodies, between Masoumeh and SeyedAlireza on stage but also between them and the audience, serves as a sober gesture: a place to explore what we share rather than to underline our differences.