Performance

SPIL

by and with Berit Einemo Frøysland and Anna Einemo Frøysland

SPIL

A Study in the Language Games of Wittgenstein

What does it mean to communicate? Spil is a dance performance, a study in the language games of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein perceived language as a practice that he called language games. This practice lays the foundation for a dance piece, a duet where meeting points are at the centre of attention: The meeting points between bodies as abstract conversations, as concrete play between dance, music and light, or as a blur of boundaries and rules. With these tools, we explore different ways of communicating with the audience and between us as twin sisters.

Dance / Choreography / Production: Berit Einemo Frøysland, Anna Einemo Frøysland
Music: Jostein Avdem Fretland / Fivrel
Dramaturgy: Ingrid Haugen
Light: Matias Askvik
Scientific consultation: Dr. Fabian Goppelsröder
Outer eye: Janne-Camilla Lyster
Photos: Mariell Øyre

Coproduction Berit and Anna Einemo Froysland, 23/7 Scene and DOCK ART Berlin
Support by: Arts Council Norway, DOCK ART Berlin

More information:
What does it mean to communicate? Spil is a dance performance, a study in the language games of Ludwig Wittgenstein. The idea of creating this performance occurred after visiting Wittgenstein’s hut in Skjolden in Norway, where he on several occasions stayed to find an atmosphere to think and write. In Skjolden, the Austrian philosopher wrote down some of his most influential thoughts on the philosophy of language, which later on were assembled in the publication Philosophische Untersuchungen (Philosophical Investigations). Wittgenstein perceived language as a practice, a conglomerate of language games. This practice lays the foundation for a dance piece, a duet where meeting points are at the centre of attention: The meeting points between bodies as abstract conversations, as concrete play between dance, music and light, or as a blur of boundaries and rules. With these tools we explore different ways of communicating with the audience and between us as twin sisters. The piece is an attempt to prolong Wittgenstein´s philosophy into our own medium of dance, and thus expand the possibilities it offers. Freed from the need to land or end up somewhere in a linear sense, we aim to move back and forth between numerous poles. The Old High German word spil originally signifies the dance movement in itself. In this performance, conversing is play, and play is dance.

"One can say that the concept of a game is a concept with blurred edges. -"But is a blurred concept a concept at all?" - Is a photograph that is not sharp a picture of a person at all? Is it even always an advantage to replace a picture that is not sharp by one that is? Isn´t one that isn´t sharp often just what we need? "

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations