MOLTA

-Roots, rot, riot

MOLTA is an immersive interdisciplinary installation and a live performance which will open in Gerðarsafn. The artist Rósa Ómarsdóttir creates ecosystems which are transformed through natural processes. This ecosystem melts, leak, decomposes, grow, morphs and evaporates. Molta means compost in Icelandic and is a metaphor. Compost is a place for both decomposition and fertility, where obsolete and outmoded phenomena break down and new ones spring up. In the work MOLTA Rósa explores tentative and ever changing ecosystems. She explores the boundaries of man, environment and technology, where everything affects each other. Humans morph together with mushrooms, plastic particles and electrons. What springs out of the compost?

During the opening hours of the Gerðarsafn museum, visitors can freely walk around the installation, dwell in it and interact with it.

After closing, on advertised evenings, a live performance takes place for the duration of four hours. The piece is a collaboration with the Icelandic Dance Group. In the performance Rósa explores the relationship between dance, choreography, music, art, body and materials, audience and performers.

The audience is invited to a picnic inside the installation. An encounter between the performers and the audience takes place, where the performers appear as sculptures, creatures, animals, nature or forces and are part of the ecosystem. The audience is offered a place and time to experience ever-changing environment, roots, rot and riot. The work explores an experience of transformation and time. Sometimes the changes are so slow that they are barely noticeable, while other times they are so fast that they are barely missed. The audience is invited to dwell, watch, listen, be, hang out, eat, drink and rest while the performers and the environment transform. Look more, listen, sense, take a break and come back to a new space that after a little over four hours has possibly become a part of themselves.

Food and drinks will be served during the performance, produced by chef Kjartani Óla Guðmundsson, where ecosystems, the environment and the performers themselves are part of what is on offer.

photos: Hákon Pálsson

MOLTA was created in close collaboration with the entire artistic team.

Artistic team:
Performers: Saga Sigurðardóttir, Karítas Lotta Tuliníus, Erna Gunnarsdóttir, Andrean Sigurgeirsson and Gabriele Bagdonaite.
Music: Nicolai Johansen
Dramaturg: Ásrún Magnúsdóttir
Costumes: Kristjana Reynisdóttir
Installation: Rósa Ómarsdóttir, Guðný Hrund Sigurðardóttir and Hákon Pálsson
Light: Hákon Pálsson
Technical advice: Valdimar Jóhannsson
Interns: Olivia Pyszko and Júlía Kolbrún Sigurðardóttir

The project is funded by the Performing Arts Fund, the City of Reykjavík, Nordisk Kulturfond,
Landsbankinn and Kópavogur Arts and Culture fund.
Co-producers: Íslenski Dansflokkurinn, Reykjavík Dance Festival, Dansehallerne Copenhagen, C-takt Belgium
Residency support: Dansverkstæðið and WpZimmer Belgium.

DATES:

Performances in Gerðarsafn:
Premier: January 25th, 2024
January 27th, 2024
February 3rd, 2024
February 4th, 2024

The installation is open every day for museum visitors from January 26th - February 4th.

Upcoming dates:
Dansehallerne, September 26, 27, 28, 2024
Reykjavík Dance Festival, November TBC

“To me, the type of art where fixed frames are moved and even broken into pieces, promise an original and mind-blowing work of art. That kind of artwork is Molta."
- Trausti Ólafsson, Víðsjá

"the work broadened my mind and gave me freedom, joy and even the conviction that it is worth continuing to deal with being a living human-being despite what the hell is going on in the world"
-Trausti Ólafsson, Víðsjá

“Long live Rósa and creative composting”
- Trausti Ólafsson, Viðsjá

"Most of us go to nature to experience calmness and timelessness (...) and the longer we stay, the further we step into ourselves. That's how the choreography worked"
-Morgunblaðið, Sesselja Guðmundsdóttir

"Afterward, when the memory had compressed the time and the experience together, what remained was a memory of a well-executed and coherent dance piece that had reached not only the eyes and ears but all the senses”
-Morgunblaðið,
Sesselja Guðmundsdóttir

"It must be said that everything that was heard during these four hours was wonderful"
-Morgunblaðið, Sesselja Guðmundsdóttir

"The performance of the dancers in this process was unbelievable"
- Morgunblaðið, Sesselja Guðmundsdóttir