ASSOCIATE ARTISTS

Or: People we Like to keep close :)

  • ERNA ÓMARSDÓTTIR

    Following her studies at the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios in Brussels (P.A.R.T.S) under the direction of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Erna Ómarsdóttir worked with choreographers such as Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Jan Fabre, Damien Jalet, and Les Ballets C de la B. As a choreographer she has since collaborated with artists such as Björk, Matthew Barney, Ben Frost, Gabríela Fridriksdottir, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Ragnar Kjartansson, Jonas Åkerlund, Duran Duran and Sigur Rós.

    Ómarsdottir is a six-time winner of Gríman, the Icelandic theatre award for dance, and in 2019 she was nominated for the prestigious German theatre prize Der Faust for her version of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, created together with choreographer Halla Ólafsdottir for the Gärtnerplatzteater in Munich in 2018.

    During her extensive carreer as an independent artist, choreographer and artistic director of Iceland Dance Company, Erna Ómarsdottir has created and directed a multitude of highly acclaimed works that have been presented in festivals and venues around Europe.

    https://www.shalala.is/

  • BROKENTALKERS

    Brokentalkers are an internationally renowned theatre company, based in Dublin, Ireland and led by Co-Founders and Artistic Directors Feidlim Cannon and Gary Keegan, along with Creative Producer Rachel Bergin. 

    Described as ‘one of Ireland’s most fearless and path-breaking theatre companies’ Brokentalkers make formally ambitious work that defies categorization. They devise original, accessible live performance and explore new forms that challenge traditional ideologies of text-based theatre.

    https://brokentalkers.ie/

  • KRIÐPLEIR

    Kriðpleir's projects for stage and radio attempt to explore ideas about people’s personality and theatrical representation . The group’s material usually derives from the member’s everyday life. The projects should be understood as a possible response to man's chaotic interpretation of reality and the indefinite search for "realism" on stage. The dramaturgy of the works can be described as a row of detours, where dramatic rules or traditions are persistently worked against each other and the characters will evade conflict as much as they can. Kriðpleir's working methods are also intertwined with the daily lives of the group's members. The work is written, staged and rehearsed based on organised chaos; the script, which gradually emerges, being a kind of result of the words and actions that finally end up on stage. Thus unsettled ideas and thoughts, chaotic meetings, conversations over a cup of coffee or by the vending machine become source material and a conceptual core of the work on stage.

    https://www.facebook.com/kridpleir

  • Kviss búmm bang

    The performance making group Kviss búmm bang was founded in 2009. The founding members are Eva Björg Kaaber, Evar Rún Snorradóttir og Vilborg Ólafsdóttir. They have a background in performance making, gender studies, foreign affairs and nursing.

    Kviss búmm bang's works are progressive performance art works with an emphasis on the inner experience of the audience. The works often involve participants who followed a script in an artificial situation, often over a long period of time.

    Their first work Norm Olympics premiered at the Art fart festival in 2009 and then at the LÓKAL international theatre festival the same year. The work was invited to the Wiener Festwochen in 2011. In the following years, Kviss búmm bang showed their work at various performing arts festivals in Europe. They produced works for the Riga European Capital of Culture 2014 and participated in the international network of performing artists Global City - Local City on behalf of the Baltic Circle festival in Helsinki. At home, the group has created works for the Radio Theatre, Akureyri Theatre Company, Reykjavík Arts Festival and the City Theatre. During their career, the group has also created documentary theatre such as Downtown 24/7 (2012), a work about the experiences of women who had been in prostitution, worked in collaboration with them through Stígamót, and Horfin heimili (2017), about the experiences of people who have lost their homes due to various circumstances.

    Kviss búmm bang's works have always had a documentary theme, where people appear as themselves, such as Þorgrímur Þráinsson in Eðlileikunim, people struggling with mental illness in Hotel Keflavík, as well as residents of Hotel Keflavík who received a visit from the participants in the work.

    Kviss búmm bang's later works have been more in the spirit of community events, with less emphasis on participation and individual experience. Such as the Gala Celebration of Minorities produced by the Mladi Levi festival in Ljubljana and the Baltic Circle festival in Helsinki. There, the audience was invited to a party where various minority groups were celebrated, such as Honda car owners, People who do not have a passport, People who have survived sexual violence, and the Society of Happy People. In recent years, the members of Kviss búmm bang have been focusing on other things. Eva Björk is a psychiatric nurse, Eva Rún is a writer and producer of documentary works and Vilborg a foreign affairs specialists.

    Currently they are working on a new project about heterosexuality. More news of that soon.