Mette Edvardsen
All you have to do is die

The ghost lamp, in French ‘la servante’ (the housemaid), is common in old theatres and still used today in some places. It’s an electric light, typically a light bulb on a high stand, that stays lit when the theatre is plunged into darkness. The ghost light is usually placed near the center stage and stays on while the theatre is closed. The practical use of a ghost light is for safety, to avoid accidents in the dark, but the light is also said to ward away bad spirits or to guide the ghosts that are believed to haunt the theatre. The ghost light is like a sentinel, an eerie outpost watching over the theatre. For this work Mette Edvardsen is working with long-time collaborator and light designer Bruno Pocheron. Together they are trying to bring out the voice of the ghost light, to let the lamp speak and to hear what she has to say.

● The work of Mette Edvardsen is situated within the performing arts field as a choreographer and performer. Although some of her works explore other media or other formats, such as video, books and writing, her interest is always in their relationship to the performing arts as a practice and a situation. She has worked since 1994 as a dancer and performer for a number of companies and projects, and has been developing her own work since 2002. She presents her works internationally and continues to develop projects with other artists, both as a collaborator and as a performer. A retrospective of her work was presented at Black Box theatre in Oslo in 2015, and the focus program Idiorritmias at MACBA in Barcelona in 2018. Her project Time has fallen asleep in the afternoon sunshine is ongoing since 2010, presented twice at Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels in 2013 and 2017, Sydney Biennale in 2016, Index Foundation in Stockholm in 2019, Oslobiennalen First Edition in 2019-2020, Trust & Confusion at Tai Kwun Arts in Hong Kong in 2021, São Paulo Biennale 2021. She presented works and a performative exhibition Suppose a Room at Amant in New York in 2022, and had a long term residency at Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers in Paris 2022/ 2023. Mette Edvardsen received the National Ibsen Award for We to be in 2016. She is currently finalizing her PhD in artistic research at Oslo National Academy of the Arts (Khio).