Presented by the Barbican in association with Bird on the Wire
The Practice of Love is coproduced by Black Box teater and Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival. Premiere: 20 September 2019, Black Box teater/Ultima Festival.

The practice of love is the practice of magic.

The Practice of Love is a multidisciplinary immersion in music, literature and movement by Norwegian musician, composer and writer Jenny Hval. It will explore sonic, visual and choreographic ideas while transforming voices, sounds and even bodies into texts, in a process that Hval herself describes as a form of magic. With a multinational ensemble including experimental musicians, vocalists, dancers and video artists, this new project extends Hval’s work into new and even more challenging territory.

The piece investigates the connection between life and art in a specific way - an umbilical magic, which brings together the possibility of creating art, creating life, and relating to other people, looking for empathy and a common language through speaking, singing, writing together. It also looks at the relationship between voice / presence / life and written word / absence / death: The voice comes from a living body, it is how we first relate to other humans, hearing our mothers' voice and responding to it ... Whereas the dead body can no longer say"I", and the written words are the remains that are chiseled into our tombstones. Is being drawn to words a death drive?

Using sound, text and image manipulation, The Practice of Love is both a magical seance and an inquiry into the nature of creativity.

birdonthewire.net
barbican.org.uk