Date: Premiere 15 October
Time: 19:00 – 21:00
Audience can come and go during the duraration of the performance
Place: Uppsala konstmuseum
Address: Uppsala slott, Drottning Christinas väg 1, entrance E
Free admission
A rehearsal of coded communication
Loud noise, extended speech and communication through touch. “Volume 1” is a collection of practices that obscures and codifies language to the extent of being illegible by surveillance. Through communication forms inspired by bats, audio jamming devices, gestures and references from black and queer popular culture, the performance explores coded language as a form of resistance.
In an era where right-wing extremism and techno-fascism increasingly permeate our society, marginalized communities face unprecedented surveillance (digital, institutional, and physical). “Volume 1” emerges from this reality as a speculative performance practice: a group of four performers gather to rehearse alternative communication forms, developing strategies to hold critical conversations beyond the reach of hyper-surveilled systems.
Choreography, Performance: Amina Seid Tahir & Adam Seid Tahir
Co-produced by: Köttinspektionen Dans
Supported by: DanceCooperative, Dansstationen, Uppsala Region, Plats för Dans
Adam Seid Tahir (they/them) is a choreographer and creative technologist. Their two roles involve crafting performative work, web-based work and more.
Seid Tahir is interested in runology and the idea of an Afro-Nordic folklore. Their work tries to retell the history and mythology of the Nordic land on which they grew up and still live on through a queer Afro diasporic and post-anthropocentric lens. All of Seid Tahir’s works deal with the personal and mythological as political. Through this they construct emotional and sensory fictive worlds where they critique certain societal constructions. In other words, they use fiction to create resistance, question and distort different subjects and realities.
Seid Tahir has presented their work in contexts including: Kunstenfestivaldesarts (BE), MDT (SE), Kampnagel Summer Festival (DE), Tanzquartier (AT), Dansehallerne (DK), Emergentia (CH), Bâtard (BE), My Wild Flag (SE), Dubrovnik Summer Festival (HR), Dance Umbrella (UK) and more. They continuously work with other artists including: Lydia Östberg Diakité and Amina Seid Tahir.
Website: adamseidtahir.xyz
Amina Seid Tahir (she/her) is a Swedish–Eritrean artist and choreographer working interdisciplinarily at the intersection of choreography, sound, installation, and social practice. Using the imaginary as a tool, she explores Black queer healing and resistance, weaving together oral traditions, rituals, and myths to create immersive, fictional universes.
In her artistic practice, she works with sound installations, healing sound frequencies, vibrations, and the politics of rest—as acts of resistance and as invitations to collective recovery and dreaming for the global majority. Amina’s works often take the form of ritual spaces, collective songs, or dreamlike portals. Her practice also explores the idea of Afro-Nordic folklore, a concept that weaves together narratives from Nordic folklore with experiences of being Afro-Swedish alongside Eritrean traditions. It is a way of creating mythologies, stories, traditions, and practices that reflect the intersection of being a queer Afro-Swede.
Her artistic practice is shaped in close relationship with her communities and would not be possible without the conversations and collaborations with, among others, Adam Seid Tahir, Ailin Mirlashari, Rebecca Beyene, Aditi Jaganathan, Lina Alarabi, Nora Seid Tahir, Sara Rad, Dina Said, and many, many more.
Her work has been presented across a variety of venues and contexts including Botkyrka Konsthall(SE), Primary (UK, Nottingham), SouthNord (SE), Dance Umbrella (UK), URB Festival – Kiasma Museum (FI), Rakete Festival (AT), ICE HOT (NO), MDT (SE), Kampnagel International Summer Festival (DE), KUNSTENFESTIVALDESARTS (BE), Rädda barnen(SE), New Sh*t (DK), Emergentia (CH), Bâtard (BE), Index (SE), Sergels Torg (SE), My Wild Flag (SE), and Mobil Ung Salong (SE, Bålsta).