Over the Threshold, Into the Unknown

Sammanfattning

What does it mean to work with play as a starting point for artistic creation? This essay explores how improvisation, embodied knowledge and collaboration with the subconscious can function as guiding forces within artistic processes. With examples from my own practice, in relation to movements such as dadaism and surrealism, I investigate how works that emerge through automatist methods can be understood both as a form of resistance to sense and logic, and as a tool for invention. Drawing on Donald W. Winnicott and Johan Huizinga’s theories of play, the essay proposes a room situated between reality and imagination - a threshold within which play as well as artistic work becomes possible. The understanding of this intermediate space is central to my practice and often recurs as scenographic installations structured as private rooms. Spaces in which performances unfold as intermezzos - temporary breaks from reality. Collage and free jazz are used as examples to illustrate the logic of improvisation: beginning with the already existing in order to move towards the unknown. The essay argues that uncertainty, failure and unpredictable elements do not constitute obstacles, but can instead be embraced and made productive. Furthermore, I suggest that the raw and chaotic expressions that sometimes arise from intense play, can be understood as a response to living in an unstable world that is difficult to understand.