Try again (2011)
Format: Performance
 
The 11th of June 2011 we staged at wedding ritual at UKS (Young Artists Society) in Oslo. The object was to investigate the performative aspect of this ritual. The result was a performance where the structure followed the dramaturgy of a wedding: Silence, Entrance, Welcome, Speech, Music, Marriage, Artistic Entertainment, Exit, Party.

On a personal level art has become the important framework according to which we structure our thinking and our lives. Our need for coherence and meaning has been shifted from the religious sphere to the sphere of art. Similarly, one can argue that the political sphere has become devalued as a credible context for meaning under the totalizing ideologies of the free market economy. The wedding, and, by proxy, marriage, is among those structures of society that no longer provides the same significance. Actions that transform and recontextualize these structures will have political implication when personal practices and rituals offer alternatives to the dominant models and narratives.

With our background in fine arts and music it was natural to try to create something out of these areas and our relationships with other artists. In 2009 we made three intimate performances in our own home, with musicians and performance artists. We invited several of these performers to be part of the ritual.

The participants were Linus Elmes (curator), Lars Petter Hagen (composer of entrance music), Tori Wrånes (performance), Trond Reinholdtsen (speech), Iseling Engan and T-Michael (design), Øyvind Torvund (exit music), Siri Liset (architect) and Signe Marie Andersen (photography).