Hydrologics / Shedding

25.04.2022 – 23.05.2022

Pontus Pettersson is Protozone6: Are you coming? artist-in-residence. Throughout his time at Shedhalle, Pettersson will base his investigation on his ongoing research project on water, “All Departures Are Waves”, using this as an open model to invite in and connect to the larger Zurich audience.

“In 2018 I made the choreographic installation “Bodies of Water” based on the text “Hydrofeminism; Or, becoming a body of water” by phenomenologist and gender scholar, Astrida Neimanis, as well as texts about love by Russian Marxist and feminist Alexandra Kollentai. This work became the beginning of a larger collection of work and research, “All Departures Are Waves”.

Complicit or implied, water can suggest a different ontological understanding of the communal, but also individual embodiment. As Neimanis tells it, for an posthumanist phenomenological understanding of water, one could argue that individualism or collectivism must be rearranged to fit this thought. This puts dancing in its current state of hyper individualism on the threshold to something a bit different. In the long run, different patterns of movement create different patterns of thought. I believe there are ways we can learn from water about our dancing and being in relation. That’s both dancing from a long time ago and a dance that is still not here, yet.”

Pontus Pettersson is a Swedish choreographer and artist based in Stockholm working in the intersection of visual arts, the expanded field of choreography and contemporary dance. Petterssons unique style is always a mix of practices and genres, where text, objects, sculptures, and choreographic instructions are always a part of the whole piece. The work ranges from fortune telling, cat practicing, writing poetry, making festivals to dancing. Within his artistic practice, hosting has been a key component to understand not only dance but also the architectural qualities within “the social”, which has resulted in several curatorial projects, the annual dance and performance festival My Wild Flag is one of them. Pontus received his MFA in choreography at Uniarts in 2014, and a second one in visual arts at Konstfack 2018. Pontus is an affiliated artist at the theater Weld in Stockholm and the research center MARC in Knislinge, Sweden.