Cecilia Runesson

Interviewed by Christina Molander

Learning

Practice

“Trained in physical theatre, my main area of interest is theatre, or ”something live on the stage”. I always work with artists from other fields; visual art, sound art. I also work as a curator sometimes.”

“Sometimes it can be harder than one would expect, you´d think dance and theatre would be close to each other, but in my experience, that is actually the most difficult crossing.
Maybe sculpture is the easiest format to mix with my practice. Objects and music.
Visual artists are generally very suspicious of theatre. They don´t understand that it´s actually up to you to decide what theatre can be!
There will always be pit falls, traps and misunderstandings – we share some experiences and points of departures, but we also differ from each other- our temperaments and visions might look very different.”

Q: Could you describe your artistic practice?

A: Trained in physical theatre, my main area of interest is theatre, or ”something live on the stage”. I always work with artists from other fields; visual art, sound art. I also work as a curator sometimes.

Q: What defines your practice as being cross arts?

A: I think i's probably that when I work with other art forms, I don't consider them as vehicles for my vision, but as 100% independent. For me, this fusion is of the greatest importance and part of the practice, it's crucial to the way. I consider what theatre can be!

Q: How are you approaching cross arts collaboration(s)?

Sometimes it can be harder than one would expect, you'd think dance and theatre would be close to each other, but in my experience, that is actually the most difficult crossing.
Maybe sculpture is the easiest format to mix with my practice. Objects and music.

Q: What have been your key learning moments related to cross arts making or collaboration?

Visual artists are generally very suspicious of theatre. They don't understand that it's actually up to you to decide what theatre can be!

There are many people who works succesfully in the merge between theatre and visual arts – Ragnar Kjartansson, Elmgreen & Dragset, Annicka Lundberg are amongst them, and I think the more trans disciplinary works of art that get´s done, the better!

The notion of improvisation can be difficult to communicate with visual artists, the kind of TIME framed art that we work with where the present is something you really have to deal with, and which is not possible to predict on beforehand.

There will always be pit falls, traps and misunderstandings – we share some experiences and points of departures, but we also differ from each other- our temperaments and visions might look very different.