I step into the obvious working space of Marthe KoniNg and Gerben Vaillant. The studio is filled with books systematically placed on the ground, post-its hanging on the wall, an almost empty clothes rag, a table with a computer. The two artists have been in residency through HAUT for almost two weeks and the studio seems to be a mirror of that process.
I am invited to be a fly on the wall for an hour during their process at their IN CONNECTION residency at HAUT in May 2025. I arrive right after their morning practice; we exchange sweaty hugs and step right into a song exercise of theirs.
They put a timer to 30 minutes. Both artists lie down on the floor and close their eyes.
Gerben: A deep base sound vibrates down through the floor, moving out of his back and down through the floor, switching into a swinging throat sound.
Marthe: A light sound seeming to come from the back of her mouth escapes the body transferring into a nasal sound keeping a steady pace.
G: eeeh, eeeh, (he rolls to the side of his body), eeeeeehhhhh
M: Her sound is filled with more air, hhhhhhhhhhh
G: eeiihhh, eiiih, iiihhhh, the sound lowers and disappears into the ground, (he moves to a seated position), the sound starts to remind of a singing uuuhhhh
M: A deep throaty sound squeaks, aaaahh, as she opens the mouth down towards the floor, (she rolls to the side of her body)
G: (He moves to an all-four position), sounding uhhhh
M: (She comes to sitting), heavy sounds escape her mouth, hmmpf, njyest
G: (He starts standing up, moving the arm like grasping something in the air and throwing it to the side repeatedly). Words start to be formed and transformed: “I want, I want, I want, I want, I won´t, I won´t, I won´t”. (He walks backwards throwing an arm to the shoulder)
M: (She moves to all four crawling), she sounds like an awkward animal growling or weird language comes out of her mouth aiiiist, hjuooost
Silence
Gerben sits down and starts to observe Marthe as she continues her journey into the weirder animalistic landscape, folding her legs underneath her, sounding like an unknown animal.
They continue this sound-body dialogue. Their process transforms into a synchronized, almost choreographic, way of waving their bodies in the same swinging matter. Their sounds turn from a high tone to lower tones and layered words appear, both of them saying: “for you, for you, for you, for who, for who, for who…”, which turns into a dialogue and question at the same time.
M: “For who am I, for who am I, for who am I….”
G: “The ocean”
M: “For who am I”
G: “The waves”
M: “For who am I”
G: “The beach”
M: “For who am I”
G: “The people”
M: “For who am I”
G: “The day”
M: “For who am I”
G: “The end”
M: “For who am I”
G: “The night”
M: “For who may I?””
The words seem to layer on top of each other at the same as asking this very existential-poetic question reminding us of how and if we are connected (?) and to whom we are the world (?)
This makes me think of people who are the world to me and if I am the world to someone (?)
The sound-body dialogue moves into an almost meditative state, floating out of time and space.
WORKSHARING
Entering this ‘out of time and space realm’ the next day, the studio has changed. Chairs are placed in a half circle in front of the table. The table has been turned towards the short wall. Books and notes are placed on the table. Behind it Marthe and Gerben are sitting.
The small group attending the worksharing are being asked to close their eyes and enter a meditative state, breathing deeply, connecting to the body. As we open the eyes again Marthe starts telling a story. We are invited to imagine that we are standing in a small room, one door behind us, one door in front of us, no windows, no furniture. We take the door handle, step into the next room, identical with the first one, step into the next room, identical with the first room, step into the next one, identical, identical, identical. At the same Gerben is moving his body in small and awkward manners giving weird life to the story as if he is both the person in the room and observing us.
I feel trapped. In the loop of life almost. Sensing that even though I am not in this specific room, imagining being in this situation, creates a small sense of panic.
Suddenly a bed appears in a room. We are tired and want to lie down. But we keep going, step into the next room, a bed in the corner like the room before this. Suddenly a table appears. A table with a lot of meat. And we eat. We are hungry and tired and we eat. And suddenly a weird and small couple appears on the other side of the table and we eat together with the couple.
The story is absurd.
It slowly starts to remind me of the song exercise from yesterday where words were identical and then started to transform into something else. The room is doing the same. It goes from being identical to suddenly transform into a room with a bed, with a bed and a table, with a bed and a table with meat, with a bed and a table with meat and the couple.
Marthe and Gerben leaves the situation and moves into the song exercise from yesterday. They both seem to be the small weird couple from the story and themselves at the same time. It creates a strange feeling of layering time and space and people.
The more I dive into writing about their residency and process the less I seem to be able to grasp what it is actually all about. At the same time, I am fully aware of what is happening. The layering of things drags me out of the understanding of a linear time line and a linear way of understanding our relationship with other human beings. Past and now and future are combined. It seems like a dream of being lost and disoriented. A dream of longing for deep connection with another human being and at the same time being disturbed by real raw humanness dragging us away from each other. The sharing takes us into an absurd story and asks existential questions about how we perceive life. And maybe that is why I am confused and lost at the same time as having an underlying feeling of knowing what it is all about. Cause this is life; the combination of sound and body, touch and distance, concrete words and actions in contrast to abstraction and fluffy sensations. It is walking on the edge, failing, failing, failing, failing, falling, falling, falling, in, falling in, falling in love, falling in love, falling in love, falling out of love, falling out of love, of love, of love, of love for life, of love for life, of love for life, for life, for life that is, that is, that is, is, is, is…