Counterpoint is a performance by artists Runa Carlsen and Unni Gjertsen, and the first format in the larger project The Difficult Conversation, an artistic exploration of the potential of dialogue through performance, podcast and stage play.
PERFORMANCE
After 7 October 2023, the relationship between Runa and Unni, whose affiliations lie on opposite sides of the Israel-Palestine question, reached a crisis point.
Runa was raised on the radical left, where the Palestinian cause was a central political issue, and has been deeply involved in the question of Palestine.
Unni is married to a Jewish partner, with whom she also has a child, and has family in Israel.
The artists are friends and colleagues, but hold diametrically opposed understandings of reality when it comes to the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Each time the subject came up, their friendship was on the verge of breaking. Counterpoint is the first step in an artistic collaboration that attempts to approach this wound.
The Difficult Conversation is built on the two friends’ conversations, at which Astrid Folkestad Kraidy from the Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue was present as a dialogue facilitator. The performance at UKS is a choreography in which dancers Mariko Miyata and Lisa Teige interpret Runa and Unni’s differing experiences of reality, with a soundscape by Hanna Fe Lumen.
LISTENING TO EACH OTHER
After the performance, the audience is invited to a conversation led by Miriam Wistreich, Director of UKS. The artists will share what it feels like to stay in a difficult conversation over time and use it as material in an artistic practice. They will also speak about the dialogue method, which is concerned with building and rebuilding relationships rather than resolving specific issues or conflicts. The ambition is to create a space that makes room for different perspectives through dialogue, rather than polarisation or entrenched positions.
The Difficult Conversation is supported by the Arts Council Norway and Fritt Ord.