Nefeli Oikonomou is a dancer, performer, choreographer from Greece, based in Sweden. Nefeli has been creating her own choreographic work since 2006. Having been educated in Dance (MoC) and Design (UoA), she has finished her Master in Choreography at DOCH and the interdisciplinary course Organizing Discourse in Konstfack University. She curated Pracrising Transitions Festival in WipKonsthall in Årstaberg and Rhymes mini-festival in Weld, which invited different artists with performances, open discussions, exhibitions, screenings and workshops. Lately, she is a partner in the duets D ANCER and POLY by Sebastian Lingserius, that premiered in MDT and presented her own work The Art of Laboring that premiered at Weld.
In recent years, Nefeli has devoted herself in producing a variety of stage dance works, which strive to move the audience into and through poetical landscapes (verbal, visual and bodily) to activate new performative proposals. From small to social movements, mechanisms of crisis, twisted bodily effects and poetic meetings, she engages in performing practices to intensify the body as a place for constant transformation and renegotiation, which can facilitate philosophical speculations across a broad spectrum.
WHAT DOES THE SITE RESIDENCY ENABLE YOU TO DO?
The SITE residency enables a platform to strengthen my artistic ideas and practices, collaborate with an inspiring network of people and have a physical space of work and train. It provides support, thoughts, space, tools, collaboration, context and mentorship to communicate my artistic ideas and research.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT?
At the moment I am working on my two upcoming productions, Punks Not Dead, a creation for 4 performers that will premiere in Weld and The Art of Performativity, part of a trilogy on working conditions and alternative political history that will premiere in the fall of 2020. Parallelly, I am in the planning phase of ‘Work force’ festival, a festival that explores work, performativity and alternative modes of production that will happen in different venues in Stockholm. An overarching interest of mine is questions on working conditions and choreographies related to perceptions of creativity.
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO FURTHER DEVELOP DURING YOUR RESIDENCY AT SITE?
I would like to further develop through challenging my artistic work and through expanding my network of collaborations. Working on both the organizational/communication skills around my work but also on exchange within my artistic practice. I see SITE residency as a great meeting point that could give many new perspectives to my artistic activities.
The residency aims to enable artistic and organizational development, through free access to office space and studio time as well as counselling. Please contact Anne-Sofie Ericsson for more information.