Art Beyond the Curtain: A Review of September Sessions' Rouge Ravager Show
The much-anticipated September Sessions, a vibrant weekend filled with contemporary art, has come to a close. Stockholm played host to a diverse group of international artists, each bringing their unique talents and vision to the city. Among the many highlights was the electrifying "Rouge Raver" show, held at the historic Skandia Theatre on Saturday night the 21st of September. It was an evening of exceptional artistry, where thought-provoking installations and performances left an indelible mark on the audience.
Alex Margo Arden's Stage Alarm Systems (2024)
Opening the night was Alex Margo Arden, a London-based artist known for her explorations of theatrical methodologies. Her installation, Stage Alarm Systems (2024), featured a 12-meter-wide safety curtain—an art piece that both symbolically and literally explored the concept of protection in theatre history. The piece interrogates the safety regulations and breaches that have been used to protect audiences, blurring the line between audience and performance.
The curtain, never raised, stood as a barrier, making its liminal existence heavy with meaning. It created a tense atmosphere, reflecting how the 'safety' offered by such curtains is also a barrier between trust and danger. Arden’s work examined the power of expectation and anticipation within a performance space. Her use of theatrical backdrops as metaphors for societal and institutional safety brought forth an exploration of authority and vulnerability, all within the folds of history and artistic interpretation.
“She questions authority, authenticity, and labour with the emphasis on the subjectiveness of art as a whole”
Alex Margo Arden posed in front of her installation, Stage Alarm Systems (2024)
Craig Jun Li's Untitled (for the people of Stockholm, and for you) 2024
The next installation was a powerful tribute by Craig Jun Li, a Chinese-born artist based in Brooklyn. The piece, Untitled (for the people of Stockholm, and for you) 2024, drew inspiration from the conceptual work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, reimagining art through absence and anticipation. Li’s installation comprised 500 light bulbs, left unassembled in their shipping packaging in the theatre’s backstage area, leaving the decision to unpack or return them in limbo.
The unassembled bulbs stood as a metaphor for transience, unspoken ties, and the fragile nature of relationships. Li extended this concept further by accompanying the installation with postcards of the light bulbs, mailed from his New York studio. The piece conjured the presence of love and loss, drawing attention to the symbolic power of utilitarian objects imbued with deeper emotions. In combining the personal with the political, Li’s work spoke to the complexities of migration and the silent weight of separation.
Left: the boxes of lightbulbs, Right: postcards
Cara Tolmie's Cyacrual (2020)
Glasgow-born, Stockholm-based artist Cara Tolmie gave a haunting and surreal performance with Cyacrual (2020). Tolmie’s show opened with a deeply personal exploration of sound and identity, referencing "Dinkinesh" (also known as "Lucy"), one of the earliest bi-pedal females. The performance featured a fabric version of Lucy’s ribcage sewn into her shirt, playing with sound through subtle ASMR-like brush strokes and whispered repetitions of her own name, ‘Cara,’ and Lucy’s name in reverse, ‘Ycul’.
The ethereal soundscape created an eerie yet captivating atmosphere, as Tolmie aimed to “tame” the sound of The Beatles’ song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds—a song tied to the naming of "Lucy." Her performance was an attempt to redefine the sonic space associated with these historical bones, offering a quiet but profound exploration of sound as an entity that transforms rather than defines.
Sam Cottington's Spray
Sam Cottington, a London and Frankfurt-based artist, presented Spray, a poetic play performed by actors Olga Pedan and Hanna Nygårds with sound by Mahmoud Tarek. Cottington’s work examined love through an alienating lens, turning away from traditional narrative cohesion. The play centers on a man standing at his bedroom window, while a woman passing by falls in love with him. The dialogue explored the physicality of looks and words, focusing on distance and disconnection.
Spray treated theatre as a material space rather than a medium for melodrama, a love story unraveled through abstract encounters with geography, sociology, and politics. Cottington’s fragmented characters defied the usual structure of narrative fulfillment, leaning instead on alienation and distance as central themes in love and relationships.
z.No Scotts' gods the time ‘til knowing (2024)
Closing the evening, poet and artist z.No Scotts delivered an audiovisual performance titled gods the time ‘til knowing (2024). The performance was an experimental exploration of pidgin poetics and harmonic struggle, an intense and raw expression of language turned into a creative weapon. z.No’s work, performed in the "undercommons," thrived on a blend of song and spoken word that pushed the boundaries of conventional art forms.
With each of the night’s performances and installations, Rouge Raver challenged audiences to rethink traditional boundaries in theatre, art, and love. The evening provided a rich tapestry of global talent and avant-garde ideas, culminating in a thought-provoking artistic experience that will undoubtedly leave lasting impressions on Stockholm’s vibrant art scene.
A massive congratulations to everyone involved with the production of September Sessions 2024!
A special mention to Yaby (Beatrice Ortega Botas and Alberto Vallejo) for curating Rogue Ravager.
TEAM:
September sessions are organized and were initiated by Index and Mint
Coordinator: Nora Pollak
Graphic Design: Aron Kullander-Östling
Light Design: Caitlin Royse
Skandia Team: Douglas Lundkvist, Thomas
Project Assistant: Charlotte Keegan
Intern: Tiffany Lousie Hoff, Misael Ordonex, Lilian Claasen
Information included in this text was sourced from the Pamphlet given at the event
