About Performing Landscapes 2025
A nomadic community of artists sets up camp in the Danish landscape
In August-September 2025, you can experience the intensive festival format Performing Landscapes across the country, where a nomadic community of 30 artists presents newly created mini-works over one to three days in 10 very different landscapes. You can experience works in different formats – walking performances, participatory workshops, performative installations, rituals, etc. – and everything is created in close dialogue with the characteristics and conditions of the local landscapes,
Performing Landscapes has its roots in an artistic practice where nature, on its own terms, becomes an active co-creator and agent of change in a time marked by ecological collapse. Neither the big city nor the village is sufficient anymore if we want to challenge the dystopian tendencies of the time and create change. Rather, art must take up residence in nature to investigate how we put new values into play.
Performing Landscapes are both performative interpretations of the landscape and the landscape itself performing in its own right. Beautiful horizons, old city gardens, but also industrial excavations, polluted soils and the depletion of oxygen in the fjords are the framework for the artists.
Experience, among others, Tora Balslev’s vulnerable performance walk, which seeks to connect the materiality of the body and the landscape; Sisters Hope’s strong and sensory silent walks; Astrid Randrup’s collection of beautiful, rusty pieces of iron that come to life; Madeleine Kate McGowan and Lucie Cure, who give voice to the red-listed birds; Alex Mørch, who amplifies the resonance of the landscape; Sarah Lee Armstrong, who connects folk traditions with the rituals of rave culture… and much more.
You can experience Performing Landscapes for free in the following cities / municipalities (final program will be available in mid-July):
GRIBSKOV at Tegners Museum, Munkeruphus & Kagerup Savværk 1, 2, 3 Aug.
in collaboration with and with support from Gribskov Kommune
NYKØBING FALSTER at Havnen 15, 16, 17 Aug.
in collaboration with and with support from Guldborgsund Kommune
EGEDAL at Egelund 21, 22, 23 Aug.
in collaboration with and with support from Egedal Kommune
TÅRNBY at Naturpark Amager 22, 23, 24 Aug.
in collaboration with and with support from Naturpark Amager and Tårnby Kommune
HOLSTEBRO on Sygehusgrunden 30 & 31 Aug.
in collaboration with and with support from Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium
ODENSE at Odense kanal 31 Aug.
in collaboration with Dynamo and Teater Momentum and with support from Odense Kommune
HELSINGØR at Flynderupgård 6-7 Sept.
in collaboration with and with support from Helsingør Teater/Passage Festival
EBELTOFT at Horisonten 12-13 Sept.
in collaboration with and with support from Syddjurs Kommune
BORNHOLM at BIRCA 14-15 Sept.
in collaboration with and with support from BIRCA and Bornholms Kulturuge
MØN at Teater Møn 20 & 21 Sept.
in collaboration with Teater Møn and with support from Vordingborg Kommune
Performing Landscapes started in Copenhagen in May, where all 30 works were presented.
Participating artists
Alex Mørch, Astrid Randrup, Barbara Simonsen, Charlotte Østergaard, Daily Fiction/Tora Balslev, Georg Jagunov, hello!earth, Institute of Interconnected Realities, Jacob Juhl, Jannie Schjødt Kold, Katrine Faber, Linh Le, Lisa Brüning, Lucie Cure, Madeleine Kate McGowan, Maja Kristine Christensen, Seidlers Sensorium, Nana Francisca Schottländer, Oleg Koefoed, Peter Vadim, Rune Fjord, Sara Vilardo, Sarah Lee Armstrong, Secret Hotel/Christine Fentz, Sisters Hope, Sonja Strange, Sophie Dupont, Thomas Seest, Tomas Lagermand Lundme & Wunderland
See video
Audience-engaging performances
Many works invite the audience to join in. Art experienced intensely with the body and senses sticks and creates strong communities – and perhaps even shared responsibility.
The works open up connections to nature, but also for critical reflection on the human presence in and influence on the landscape in the past, present and possible futures.
Each work is created by an artist who is a mediator of the voice of the place and works with the authenticity of the place with a minimum of technique and scenography. Typical duration is 45-75 min. for an audience of 15-40 people.
An ecocritical movement
Performing Landscapes is part of a growing, open community for a new ecocritical artistic practice, which we gather under the title of our curatorial approach for the coming years: “from Metropolis to Ecopolis”.
Performing Landscapes speaks to a current trend in art and society to take the needs and value of nature more seriously as ecological collapse becomes more evident in both urban and natural landscapes.
Cross-aesthetic landscape
The artistic community of strong solo artists has a wide range of artistic backgrounds, aesthetic formats, knowledge of the landscapes, responsiveness and readiness to act. The artists have previously worked with a multitude of different natural and cultural landscapes: fields, forests and heaths, but also in disused factories, polluted waterholes and open gravel pits – critical landscapes.
Experiences and knowledge are continuously shared between the artists, who work with different formats; walks, podcasts, performances, bird operas, performative installations, rituals, staged conversations, open archives and participatory workshops, always site-specific, in nature and in the landscape. The artistic landscape is cross-aesthetic, interdisciplinary and sensory with dancers/choreographers, singers, narrators, sound artists, designers, scenographers and performance artists.
Photos: Hans Ravn (1) Marine Gastineau (2,3,4)
Video: doxafilm
Supported by the Danish Arts Foundation and the participating municipalities and partners.
