MDT: Marcus Baldemar – Sex and Tornedalen / Seksi ja Tornionlaakso

Recommended from age 12 with adult supervision.

a pregnant silence
a collection of sexy things

moss
pine
rapids
people

(is it lust? or is it comfort?)

Sex and Tornedalen is an in between
shifting between insider and outsider

Sex and Tornedalen embodies a disrespect towards tradition as it simultaneously asks, lovingly, to be part of the community.

Tornedalen is a border region in northern Sweden and has a unique Meänkieli culture and beautiful natural landscapes along the Torne River. The region is also shaped by issues of identity and tensions surrounding language and cultural belonging, particularly linked to the historical suppression of Meänkieli. Marcus Baldemar, who grew up in Tornedalen, often draws inspiration from queer history and storytelling, with the ambition to “queer” both history and its narratives. Baldemar has previously presented works such as GALDR, Polari Speaking Sex, and Finally Fantastic at MDT.

Marcus Baldemar is a dancer and choreographer originally from Kiruna in the north of Sweden. After many years in Brussels, Belgium he is now based in Stockholm where he makes work, dances in other people’s work as well as teaches dance and choreography. Baldemar’s work wants to communicate a non-hierarchy between the emotional, the physical and the intellectual. One recurring interest is to find and/or create connections between a poetic/political language and a poetic/political body. This as an open, ever changing, question that accompanies him in the work. Author Leslie Feinberg once said “gender is the poetry we make of the language we are taught”. In Baldemar’s work he also sees movement and body as the poetry we make of the language we learn. He often works with text but in the end the dancing body is the main communicator.

MDT Moderna Dansteatern is a platform for contemporary dance and choreography, located on Skeppsholmen in Stockholm. With a theatre and studios at its heart, MDT co-produces and presents work by both Sweden-based and international artists. As a space for artistic development, critical discourse, and choreographic experimentation, MDT supports practices that challenge and expand the field of dance.

Image: Marcus Baldemar – Sex och Tornedalen. Photo: John Artur