Ar and Foad are both active within the queer collective fake daughter and have organised artistic programs, parties and political actions together in and beyond höjden studios since its start in 2019. In the fifth episode of drift dialogues they discuss their approaches to music and choreography with a curiosity towards explorations of listening and feeling without a set aim.

During the winter of 2024 Foad shared a practice with Ar directing focus towards the small units in music, opening a restricted frame to play with variation, texture and harmony. Ar invited Foad into a visualisation practice that explored the forms we see the world through by defining emotions as imaginary entities with texture, colour and place.

Foad Arbabi is a composer, sound designer and song writer. As a self taught producer they have over a decade of experience creating music for performing arts. Foad’s body of work is unique in tone and wide in expression, as of 2024 Foad is working on commissions and self initiated projects whilst undertaking a formal education in musical composition.

Ar Utke Ács is an artist working within contemporary dance and an expanded understanding of choreography. They work with the poetics and politics of the body in the seams of performance, dramaturgy, text, installation and the imaginary. Throughout the past years, they have created works focusing on affect landscapes and subversive poetics of positioning oneself non-verbally, including the performance echoes that was co-produced with MDT (SE) and Dansehallerne (DK). Now they are working on a series of works from the perspective of speculative characters and worlds built on lived experience of dancing with chronic illness.

Works mentioned:

Pauline Oliveros’ deep listening practice / scores

Alvin Lucier - I Am Sitting In A Room

In the fourth episode of drift dialogues Karina and Molly discuss their practices, and their use of text as well as the role that spaces outside of the studio and institutions play in their practices of dance, curating and poetry.

They touch upon the use of montage and collage and dig into their motives for making art departing from two meetings in the studio at höjden, right in the beginning of 2024 where they exchanged practices by sharing, leaking, and finding common points of interest.

Karina Sarkissova is an independent curator and dramaturge based in Uppsala and Stockholm. She graduated in 2012 at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam (SNDO) and in 2019 at Dutch Art Institute (DAI). Karina is together with Pontus Pettersson curating the annual festival My Wild Flag, as well as curating the performing arts program at Norbergfestival with Olof Runsten. Karina is a cofounder of höjden in Östberga, a space for artistic production. Karinas practice is dramaturgical, choreographic and curatorial; she is regularly working with other artists’ work and develops choreographic contexts.

molly is a dancer, choreographer and poet based in Stockholm with a BFA in Dance performance from Stockholm University of the Arts (2019). molly works experimentally with dance, voice and text to make work that takes place in different spaces; like a body of water shifts shape, the choreographic leaks in and out of stage rooms, art galleries, magazines, and unconventional places e.g. outdoors. Through strange, tender and shivering fictions she wants to create situations where relational and poetic encounters can take place. Currently she is investigating the poetics of monstrosity, abjection and desire.

Works mentioned:

And then it got legs, Jeroen Peeters

Generative Fictions, or How Dance May Teach Us Ethics, Alice Chauchat, Post dance book

Red doc, Anne Carson

Kafé mix, a series of performance evenings at höjden arranged by Jennie Bergsli, Stina Ehn, Lisen Pousette

Edith Ekström, graphic designer

INTER, by Karina Sarkissova. Commissioned work for the project Myths and realities, a lesbian oddysé

höjden studios is an artist-run space for work and a shared context for artists and cultural workers to meet. Join us at https://hojden.house

drift is a proposal that aims to trace artistic and discursive tendencies moving through höjden studios. It simultaneously constitutes a forum where materials and ideas can transform, resonate or fall apart in the movement of recurring meetings. drift is a record of cacophonies landing slowly over time as artists at höjden studios invite for openings and points of connection.

drift is produced by Oda Brekke and Scott Cazan

Mastering by Foad Arbabi

Graphics by Edith Ekström

October 2023 Paloma and Robin met in Vinterviken where they engaged in a shared curiosity towards the ancient wisdom of forests and gardens. In the third episode of drift dialogues you are invited to listen to their practices, unfolding through mantras and stories on a rainy afternoon.

Paloma Madrid/Mar Lobos has been working in the dance field since 2005 as a choreographer, dance educator, dancer and artist. Recognized as an active and emerging artist, she is often described in the field as the "poetical body investigator," exploring the body as a medium in constant (r)evolution and a producer of consciousness. Madrid's work consistently delves into the intersection of collaborative art and social choreography. Pioneer of Communitydance in Sweden, working with participatory embodied processes since 2008 at Botkyrka community dance and theater. Paloma is artistic director of Rosales, a dance company and platform that investigates the spaces between oppression and resistance to gather knowledge and establish a practical and theoretical framework through participatory methods, moving away from polarized dance practices. Her collaborations include commissioned work for Riksteatern, Moderna Museet, Dramaten, The Swedish Television, SKH. Engaged in the longlife process with the collective Tvillingskapet and V.C.V.T. Paloma holds a Master of Fine Arts in Choreography and a Bachelor of Arts in Dance Pedagogy from DOCH-SKH Stockholm University of Arts, Sweden.

Robin Dingemans is a choreographer, performer & teacher from Aotearoa, a Pākehā based in Europe since 1999. Robin's work includes dance for the stage, non-traditional performance spaces, video, social dances, work for children, symposiums, and writing. He often collaborates with a broad spectrum of artists, including dancers, dramaturges, composers, writers, illustrators, video designers, psychologists, and more. His practice is centered around playing with creative processes and outputs which are often sociologically informed. Since 2015 explicitly committed to anti-racist/bigoted imperatives informed by his tricultural childhood, life in hyper diverse London and racism in Sweden and internationally. His works have been commissioned and presented by many different organisations in the UK, Sweden and internationally. He has interpreted and collaborated with a broad spectrum of contemporary dance choreographers and theatre directors since 1996, performing in works of Weld Company, Fevered Sleep, Station House Opera, DV8 Physical Theatre, Wally Cardona, Lito Walkey, Requardt & Rosenberg, Ricochet, Protein, Theatre Rites, Yvon Bonenfant, les gens d'Uterpan and many more. He has created works, supervised, taught improvisation, composition and creative practices at many Conservatoires, Universities and a broad spectrum of professional and community contexts internationally.

Works mentioned in the episode

Gloria E Anzaldua- Light in the dark, zapatistas movement -https://www.iwgia.org/en/news/4511-building-alliances-in-pandemic-times-the-zapatista-journey-through-europe.html

Photo: Javier Lopez

höjden studios is an artist-run space for work and a shared context for artists and cultural workers to meet. Join us at https://hojden.house

drift is a proposal that aims to trace artistic and discursive tendencies moving through höjden studios. It simultaneously constitutes a forum where materials and ideas can transform, resonate or fall apart in the movement of recurring meetings. drift is a record of cacophonies landing slowly over time as artists at höjden studios invite for openings and points of connection.

drift is produced by Oda Brekke and Scott Cazan

Mastering by Foad Arbabi

Graphics by Edith Ekström