This accessible page is a derivative of https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2730852/2733827 which it is meant to support and not replace.

Page description: The page shows a collage-style layout featuring a combination of photographs and text. At the top left, there is a large image of a person kneeling outdoors near a sea with a forested shoreline in the background, under clear skies. Beside the large image is a video belonging to the installation. Below the main image are six smaller images arranged in two rows: these show close-up views of a circular, shallow bowl-like object with smooth surface, in some images placed on dark blue flooring and in others near projected visuals on walls. The bowl appears metallic filled with iced water, which has reflective qualities. On the right side of the layout, there are blocks of text with the heading ‘NEW MOON’, describing artistic concepts and project details. Under the six images there is a text block titled ‘(Old) Moon’, discussing the cultural, mythical, and artistic significance of the Moon in relation to outer space and art. It references iconic imagery such as werewolves, the Moon as cheese, and Méliès’ 1902 film A Trip to the Moon. The text explores the Moon as a symbol combining science, folklore, technology, and existential ideas, and describes its role as a mirror for human self-location in the universe. At the bottom right corner, there is a small diagram with faint lines and nodes, representing a conceptual map.

Video description: The video is a montage of different images and texts used in the installation. Some images are close-up shots of the circular moon-like iced water bowl in the hands of a choreographer-performer, and some are shots of a choreographer in various movement positions on the rocks by the sea holding the ice bowl in his hands towards the early morning sunlight. In the video the text is running together with the images exposing the poetic and intimate narrative of the work.

(NEW) MOON 

— Did you know that the Moon is gradually moving away from Earth at a rate of about four centimeters per year?
Also, Earth experiences a slowdown in its rotational speed by approximately two milliseconds per year.
All this far away in the past.
Open the log data.

(Input: Abrupt movement in the eyes.)

(NEW) MOON is a work in which planetary and spatial movements move the body. The performance took place on a new moon morning — 14 October 2023 — in South-West Finnish archipelago. The video work combines Kellokumpu’s choreoreading practice, speculative fiction, and site-specificity extending into outer space scales and movements. Within the quiet space of Työhuone, (NEW) MOON invites the visitor to sense the choreographic relationships between corporeality and the planetary.

Premiere: 12 April 2024 Pengerkatu 7 — Työhuone, Helsinki

Visual documentation and video: Vincent Roumagnac

 

Below is the transcript of the text from the video.

(NEW) MOON 

Did you know that the Moon is gradually moving away from Earth at a rate of about four centimeters per year? Also, Earth experiences a slowdown in its rotational speed by approximately two milliseconds per year. All this far away in the past.

Open the log data.

(Input: Abrupt eye movements.)

The morning air is vaporing when exhaling. I check the rotational forces and charge the telescope. There is no one left in this part of the archipelago. In the clear morning sky, I still spot the Moon. No more birds. They all migrated south. Few weeks ago, I witnessed the last ones departing in unusual formations.

The aeropod was damaged during landing, and I still can’t fly. 
Exo-academy old notes: the Moon is a dual entity originating from Theia and Earth. No one knows the exact composition, how much each one’s material forms the origins of the body of the Moon. The collision occurred around 4.5 billion years ago. Gravities are twisting. 

(Pause. Start filtering the impact.)

Do you sense it? 

I place myself on the rocks of this island, direct my sensors toward the Moon, and wait. The mineral powder dusts when my weight falls on it. The rocks scrub the granulation tissue of the wound. The protective atmosphere is diminishing, and fireballs hit here more frequently. Has the Moon’s sky always been black? No atmosphere to impart color. Sad. The same celestial sphere keeps water in a liquid state, likely contributing to the conditions that transformed lifeless matter into the origins of life, as humans knew it. 

(First forces skimmed. Processing new body cells.)

I’m thirsty. The morning coffee lingers on my palate. The distancing Moon and Earth’s slowing rotation warp the time within which my body moves. The time that I comprehend…. Pulse, circulation, breathing — how the body aligns with the deep lava core of this planet and the receding Moon. Sensors display the felt data. Tectonic plates shift the flesh, and the celestial body liquefies space like honey. 

Flickering light and blink of an eye. 

Today, solar radiation remains low. I left my visors in the cabin. The Moon fades into the morning blue glow. I pivot on the rock, gripping the sensors. Originating from iced liquid with drifting formations, cruising particles embedded in non-moving matter. The warmth of the hands and droplets. A few more, right and left, right and left, then release. 

Collision, did you feel?

(Old) Moon

When working with outer space and art, it is rather impossible to bypass the cultural, ritualistic, mythical, and artistic history of the Moon. Perhaps the most familiar mythical images of the Moon include werewolves, the idea of the Moon as a giant cheese, or the iconic scene from Méliès’ 1902 sci-fi film, A Trip to the Moon, where a rocket lands in the Moon’s eye. Or maybe the romantic paintings that capture its influence over the dark night sky come to mind. As curator Laurberg (2018: 20) writes, the moon can be understood as a basic symbol in which science, folklore, technology, fiction, existential searching, and economic and cultural expansion meet. The Moon has throughout times functioned as a mirror for humans to locate and place themselves in the universe. In this project, the Moon functions as a celestial, kinesthetic body that shares a common material history with the Earth. I reimagine and re-sense the echoes of the ancient collision that formed the Moon and ponder the impact this collision might have for my choreographic thinking and practice. It reflects my attention back to planetary awareness, and specifically to my existential, actual and situational relationship with the rocks upon which the experiment was performed. An ice plate in the installation gestures toward the Moon’s influence on Earth’s movements, its tides, its rhythms. It also refers to the first known photograph of the Moon (ca. 1839–40 by John W. Draper), which is now partially decayed by mold and water damage. In choreographic terms the project touches upon the geological and atmospheric intensities and gravitational forces as preconditions for choreographic to emerge. These preconditions are embodied and textualized in the video with a science-fictional tone, which aims to draw attention toward the planetary ‘destiny’ of the Earth.

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