IN FIRST PERSON:
The House [digital]
The Festival
The Dance
In First Person is a is a trans life project initiated by Daniel Mariblanca in collaboration with the filmmaker Ursula Kaufmann, inspired and performed by transgender people from Norway and abroad.
It consists of three singular pieces that function apart while simultaneously creating one coherent work:
The House [Digital], The Festival and The Dance
Through exploring and connecting different art forms with research and the academic perspective, the project gives space and visibility to personal transgender experiences with the aim to elaborate and deepen discussions about gender identity, collective transgender history and social norms. We aim to create space and visibility for every unique story from the first person perspective.
Transgender identities are not only influenced by gender experiences. They are intersected by other factors such as family and community support, educational access, internalised dysphoria, personal dreams, age, health, work opportunities, nationality, class and access to medical treatments. These factors and more are defining how transgender people are included and function in society. They also directly and indirectly affect the individual choices related to existing in a social construction. To understand the complexity of our transgender existences one must be aware of the relationship our societal connections create on the spectrum of gender diversity within the trans community.
I WAS BORN – MUSIC VIDEO
Music video created during the production of In First Person.
Produced by 71BODIES, Artist and lyrics: Daniel Mariblanca, Music composer: Florian Doerrhoefer, Videographer: Ursula Kaufmann
Featuring: Barry de Bruin, Bart Bloem Herraiz, Christer André Gudmundsdottir, Daniel Mariblanca, Isak Bradley, Judit Juanhuix Gibert, Koyote Millar, Silje-Håvard Bolstad
Production Team for In First Person/ I WAS BORN
Sound tech: Runar Gåsterud, Light Designer: Thomas Bruvik, Light Designer/tech: Lotte Flesland, Scenographer: Kjersti Alm Eriksen
Minidoc from the In First Person production period, by Andreas Foldberg for Karmaklubb, more info here
The House
The House [Digital] consists of ten video chapters inspired, created and performed by a cast of nine transgender protagonists. The chapters were live streamed from different locations in and around Bergen, reflecting on how transgender bodies exist in physical and non-physical social spaces. The chapters are now available to watch online, just click "Read more" below.
Through dance, performance, film, personal stories and select locations, In First Person: The House [Digital] will offer the audience unique narratives around how our transgender identities influence public spaces and question the codes in those spaces. In the course of the ten episodes we will invite you to live with us, share our experiences and engage with us through an interactive format. We aim to explore as well as challenge the connections and differences between personal, intimate, public, political and collective spaces where transgender people exist and live.
The House [Digital] premiered online 4–8 and 11–15 August 2020.
The Festival
The Festival was a three day event curated by Daniel Mariblanca/71BODIES. The goal was to disseminate and expand the knowledge about the transgender community from an academic and theoretical perspective, with the hope to enrich and generate other narratives in our structural imaginarium about gender and especially the transgender spectrum.
The Festival includes lectures, performance lectures and panel discussions with professor and activist Susan Stryker, LGBTQIA+ family rights lawyer Erik Mägi, activist Charlie Black and artist and activist Mathilde Decaen, among others. This was a free event, hosted by Litteraturhuset, Kunsthallen 3,14 and KRAFT.
The Festival at Litteraturhuset: 17 September 2020
The Festival at Kunsthall 3,14 and KRAFT: 18–19 September 2020
The Dance
The Dance premiered during Oktoberdans 2020, with a limited audience of 20 people per performance. This multidisciplinary, collaborative performance is an intimate manifestation of the topics discussed in the streamed episodes of The House [Digital] and mirrors the discussions of The Festival. The audience joins nine transgender protagonists on a journey of erasing the boundaries between trans/ not trans, performers/ audience and stage/ home, and experience the performance in first person. Playing with ideas of reality and fiction, consequences of choices, and what bodies are represented on stage, the performance proposes another way of producing beauty and generating desire. The Dance wishes to include, involve and acknowledge the society as a whole, and create a space where we have the courage to enter into the darkness and color each others’ grey areas. In times of social distancing, we aimed for intimacy.
The Dance premiered 24–25 October 2020 at Studio Bergen during the festival Oktoberdans.
CO-PRODUCERS AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT
