Mårten Spångberg: The Internet

With and by Sandra Lolax, Mårten Spångberg, Hanna Strandberg, Rebecka Stillman, Marika Troili

13 March, 6–10pm: The Internet
14 March, 4–8pm: The Internet
14 March, 8pm: Party with KABLAM

Index presents The Internet, a new work by Swedish choreographer, dancer and artist Mårten Spångberg, on 13 and 14 March. Developed together with three long-term collaborators, The Internet extends the traditional limits of a dance performance into a durational work form for a gallery space. Almost four hours long, the work includes pop music, dance, changing dresses, and a setting with sculptural elements, in which audiences are encouraged to move around, watch, fade out, re-join, or interact. _The Internet_epic is Spångberg’s latest endeavor to work with an understanding of choreography that employs dance as a tool to organize time and space. Bodies interact with other bodies: people, objects, discourses. One of these objects, as indicated by the title, is the internet, as a metaphor for a radically monumental, although immaterial, structure with no end nor starting point. The work investigates some of the influences of digital communication on choreography and representation. Social networks become secondary audiences, and health apps, games, and dating tools are used to generate dance, rhythm and vibe.

“I like stuff that’s messy but without conflict or loud noises. Like a monumental sculpture, it’s not about size, it has to exceed context, be indifferent or simply material. I’m also obsessing about things that can’t be divided, and that nobody can be responsible for. Like the universe or the ocean, the nature – the internet is becoming a bit like that. Something that cannot be divided, can not be evaluated, and it can’t really be interpreted. Instead it makes me, or makes us do something.” (Mårten Spångberg)

Spångberg’s work has been described as unspectacular and quietly revolutionary on the one side, while also exploring hedonistic parts of popular culture and the potential of artistic forms to create enthusiasm and excitement. His piece Epic was “like being at an intimidatingly hip squat party, with guests in neon sportswear and face paint who never go home.” (The Guardian) While engaging on the one hand, introducing elements of everyday culture, sometimes corny, sometimes cool, the work unfolds in all its length also like a backdrop for other activities in the space, such as the audience coming in or interacting with each other, occasionally checking telephones, leaving the performance for a smoke or drink, and catching a song one knows and enjoys.

Mårten Spångberg has been active on stage as performer since 1994 and has choreographed his own works from solos to larger scale pieces, which have toured internationally, since 1999. His solo work Powered by Emotion (2003) has become a modern classic. In 2002 he choreographed Break, Intermission, Before and After for the Frankfurt Ballet. Together with the architect Tor Lindstrand, he initiated International Festival, an interdisciplinary practice merging architecture, choreography and performance. As a writer, he has published texts in numerous magazines and books, and worked as dance/performance reviewer for Dagens Nyheter, in Stockholm. 2008-2012, he was director for the MA Program in Choreography at the University of Dance in Stockholm. His last work La Substance, but in English (2014) was a commission by MoMA PS1 and toured extremely successfully through international venues, among others Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

Accompanying program

To celebrate The Internet, Index finishes Saturday, 14 March with drinks and music by KABLAM. A resident at Janus in Berlin, together with fellow DJs M.E.S.H and Lotic, Stockholm-based producer Kajsa Blom has earned a reputation for layered tracks with gloomy atmospherics and club-standard kicks, claps and all manner of digital and orchestral ephemera. Initially playing at Chesters in Berlin, she recently also appeared on CMT’s night at Berghain. She was named a “club producer to watch in 2015” by Fact Magazine: http://www.factmag.com/2015/01/14/10-club-producers-to-watch-in-2015/2/

The Internet is made possible through support from The Swedish Art Council, The Arts Grants Committee, PACT Zollverein, in collaboration with PAF, Supportico Lopez, Black Box Oslo, Index Stockholm, Tou Scene Stavanger, Rupert Vilnius, MDT Stockholm. With thanks to Peroni.