In this playful double bill, Norwegian Mette Edvardsen and Dutch Tian Rotteveel present an ode to the imagination. They bring a whole world to life with seemingly simple words and movements. The human imagination is incredible: things that are not physically present, nevertheless ‘are’ somehow there - in our heads or as the subjects of a discussion. In Black, Edvardsen dives into this twilight zone between being and non-being. From an empty stage, she tells the audience what she sees. A witty story involving imaginary objects unfolds. Rotteveel calls his solo piece an 'ontological stuttering machine': singing and gesturing, he ‘pinches’ the innermost parts of his body outwards, where they become a socio-political motor.

Norwegian dancer and choreographer Mette Edvardsen (1970) danced with groups and makers such as Les Ballets C. de la B., Thomas Hauert and Bock/Vincenzi. Since 2002, she has been presenting her own productions throughout Europe. At Something Raw 2012, she presented Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine (2012), an intimate one-on-one performance in a library, for which each of the actors learned a whole book by heart. Imagination is a recurring theme in Edvardsen’s work, in which she regularly explores boundaries, such as that between movement and standing still, or between presence and absence.

Tian Rotteveel (1984) studied composition at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague (NL) and contemporary dance at Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (A), and is currently studying choreography at the Berlin University of the Arts/HZT, where he is working on perfecting a performance practice in which sound, movement and language are seen as equals. For Tian, movement, sound and speech represent a process that can manifest itself in language and comprehension, but can also develop as pure sensation and effect.  Rotteveel has worked for and with the likes of the MAE-Ensemble, Rosa Ensemble, David Zambrano, Jeremy Wade, Tino Sehgal, Diego Gil, Meg-Stuart/Damaged-Goods, Kristina deChâtel-Itzik Gallili, Liat Waysbort and the Goethe Institute.