The Valley

KWP production

One, dou­b­led, a copy, a fake, two fakes, two of the same fake, iden­ti­cal, One. This is The Valley, whe­re the 2 beco­me 1… or two.

The Valley
is a pla­ce whe­re man and machi­ne have mer­ged and the boun­da­ries bet­ween life­less bodies and ani­ma­te machi­nes have blur­red. The Valley is a pla­ce of dou­bles. Where two beco­me one, only to dupli­ca­te again, as it beco­mes unclear whe­re one thing ends and ano­ther begins. What is a repli­ca of which? Playing on the line of what is natu­ral and what is arti­fi­ci­al the per­for­mers use objects to make sounds and sounds to make move­ments as they ques­ti­on what is real­ly in con­trol. By dwel­ling in the ambi­guous grey zone, in the val­ley of the uncan­ny, they bring to focus the dou­ble mea­ning of mecha­ni­cal humans, arti­fi­ci­al natu­re, orga­nic machi­nes and syn­the­tic gar­dens. This dou­ble mea­ning puts off the soothing com­fort of the per­fect sym­me­try, the per­fect mathe­ma­ti­cal order.

We are for­ced to deal with cog­ni­ti­ve con­flicts in eve­ry­day life, when we find our­sel­ves in unfa­mi­liar situ­a­ti­ons. In days whe­re the vir­tu­al is valu­ed as a real world, we are asking our­sel­ves what is a repre­sen­ta­ti­on of which? Instead of jux­ta­po­sing the arti­fi­ci­al and the natu­ral, can we expe­rien­ce them together as some­thing real, as a syn­chro­ni­zed con­cept? When the line bet­ween what is gen­ui­ne and what is fal­se beco­mes obscu­red, the val­ley dee­pens and ambi­guous mea­nings arise.

Choreography and per­for­man­ce: Inga Huld Hákonardóttir & Rósa Ómarsdóttir
Music: Sveinbjörn Thorarenssen
Scenography: Ragna Þórunn Ragnarsdóttir

Supported by: KWP Kunstenwerkplaats, Vooruit, BUDA, wp-Zimmer, Work Space Brussels, De School van Gaasbeek, Tjarnabíó-Theater, Reykjavík Dance Atelier and Reykjavík Dance Festival. The Icelandic Ministry of Culture and Education, Reykjavík Culture Fund, Garðabær Fund.