Format: Durational performance / installational textile sculpture
Project idea / project management / performer: Mari Bø​​
Visual design / construction / scenography / seam: Solveig Holthe Bydgnes
Construction / seam: Sally Turner
Music / sound: Frode Larsen
Technology / programming: Gaute Barlindhaug
Photos: Ingrid Eggen
Choreography assistant / outside eye: Eva Svaneblom
Performer project development / outside eye: Ellinor Ødegård Staurbakk
Scenographer pre-project: Mari Lotherington
Filming: Jacob de Hoop

ENE is an artistic exploration of the body through movement, sound, technology and textile work in public space. The project challenges expectations of what a body can be - how it can move, the sounds it can make and what it can look like. There are five artists working within different genres to develop ENE: Mari Bø (movement/project manager), Solveig Holthe Bydgnes (textile work/costume), Gaute Barlindhaug (technology/programming/sensors), Frode Larsen (sound/music), Sally Turner (seam/construction). Through collaboration between performance, sound, textile work/costume design and sound technology, we have created a "new body"—a sculptural, moving form that merges textile with costume and scenography, altering the performer’s attributes and generating sound through movement-sensitive technology.

The project began with a research phase in 2023 and is now in a stage where we are developing its performative elements and finishing the composition of the music/sounds in ENE. The attached video is not a documentation of a finished performance, but it shows what stage we are at now, and some of the performative elements of the project. Performances are planned in 2025 at Figurteatret i Nordland and Festspillene i Nord-Norge, where we will continue experimenting with how this new body interacts with its surroundings.

ENE will be a durational performance (between 1 and 2 hours) happening in public space, preferably outside where the body can be seen both in nature and the city scape.

In ENE, the body is turned inside out—revealing textures, structures, and layers inspired by internal organs. This "inverted" body seeks to disrupt how we perceive form, identity, and gender. The performer is equipped with sensors to trigger and manipulate sound, allowing the performer to physically shape the auditory experience. Sound and movement become intertwined, questioning what makes a body recognizable, expressive, or strange.

​

By introducing this body into public space, ENE investigates how different bodies are allowed to exist and take up space. The project engages audiences in an open-ended reflection: Who decides what is normal? How do we define ourselves through our bodies? Who gets to be seen and heard?

ENE is also an investigation into beauty – where pink polyester and sequins mix with horsehair, sheep skin and “bodily” shapes to explore beauty as a concept and a social construct.
 

Will play:

- 2025 Stamsund Theatre Festival (Stamsund) & Artctic Arts Festival (Harstad)
 

Supported by

- 2024-2025 Figurteatret i Nordland (Nordland Visual Theatre )

- 2025 Fond for Utøvende Kunstnere 

- 2024 Norsk Kulturråd - Fri Scenekunst dans

- Norsk Kulturråd - Kunstnerstipend for yngre nyetablerte kunstnere
- 2023 Raske Penger - Davvi - Senter for scenekunst

- 2022 Norsk Kulturråd - Forprosjekt scenekunst