Research Catalogue

This exposition is a documentary project on the artistic research project Neither Fish nor Fowl. The research project consists of theater making, film making, workshops, performances and writing, and explores the wondrous worlds of becoming in theatre for early years. Together with my theater company Teater Fot, I have been investigating the significance of affect as philosophical, emotional, and material inspiration in the creative process, and in relation to young children in Theater for Early Years. Neither Fish nor Fowl was conducted as a performance project from April 2017 to March 2020. During this period, the research process was documented in RC, presenting methods, writings, and reflections along the way. The pre-production performance (for babies 0-2) was shown at the festival Olavsfestdagene in Trondheim, Norway, summer 2017 and at Trondheim Kunsthall autumn 2017. The full production, Begynnelser (for 3-5 years), was presented in april 2018 in co-production with the venue Teaterhuset Avant Garden in Trondheim. Baby Becomings (0-2 years), was presented at festivals and for kindergartens in Trondheim autumn 2018, and the final version Himmel & Hav / Sky & Sea was presented at Rosendal Teater in in March 2020, touring kindergartens for one week. Animalium (2019) was a spin-off production with film making, workshops, visiting exhibition spaces and other public spaces. An exposition in VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research #2 on the theme Estrangement was published in 2020 through RC. In the period 2020-26 Animalium has become a new site specific research project, looking at post humanist approaches to different sites such as kindergarten spaces, libraries and art exhibition spaces, documented as an ongoing research project here. In 2026 a new version of Sky & Sea will be produced for kindergarten touring: Himmelfiskene.

Arts-based-philosophy is an emerging research concept at the cutting edge of the arts, philosophy and the Sciences in which cross-disciplinary research collectives align their research practices to finally stage their investigations in field-performances, shared with the public. Our research explores the significance of the HEART in artistic research and performance philosophy from a cross-cultural perspective, partially based on the concepts of the HEART in the works of two artist-philosophers, in which philosophy already became arts-based-philosophy: Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Aurobindo’s poetic opus magnum Savitri. We generally assume that the works of artist-philosophers are not only engaged in “creating concepts” (Deleuze), but their concepts are also meant to be staged artistically to let them bodily matter in fact. The role of the HEART in respect to this process of “bodily mattering” is the core objective under investigation: Firstly, because we hold that atmospheres trigger the HEART of a lived-body to taste the flavor of things it is environmentally engaged with basically in an aesthetic manner (Nietzsche). In this respect the analysis of the classical notion for the aesthete in Indian philosophy and aesthetics, sahṛdaya––which literally means, “somebody, with a HEART”––becomes crucial. Secondly, because the HEART is said to be not just reducible to one’s manifest Nature, but has access to one’s virtual Nature as well. The creation hymn in the oldest of all Vedas (Rgveda) for instance informs us that a HEART is capable of crossing being (sat) & non-being (asat), which makes it fluctuate among these two realms and even allows its aspirations to let virtual possibilities matter. Such concepts show striking similarities with contemporary concepts in philosophy-physics, e.g. the concepts of “virtual particles” and “quantum vacuum fluctuations” (Barad).

An overview of Elisabeth Belgrano's artistic / performance / research and teaching in higher arts education 2004-ongoing

In this exposition, I explore my artistic practice based on collaborations between female folk singers in Finland and Bulgaria from 2018 to 2022. The artistic material of the exposition consists of a music video trilogy (2019, 2020 and 2022) based on my compositions and arrangements in the solo album Nani (2020), produced in cooperation with the younger generation of the Bulgarian women's choir, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. In addition to the collaborative artistic practice, I interviewed six of the Bulgarian singers. Insights from the data gathered in these ethnographic interviews are intertwined with the analysis of the artistic practice. Throughout the artistic and ethnographic research processes, I applied a feminist intersectional pedagogical approach by focusing particularly on the power relations and the question of female agency in the arts and wider society. In this exposition, I argue that the incorporation of intersectional feminist perspectives in transnational artistic work can contribute to both artistic practice and transnational interactions in ways that may strengthen women's agency in the folk music field of their respective cultural and social environments. Feminist folk music composition was applied at all stages of the artistic and research work. By highlighting the stories, voices, and bodies of women of different ages and cultural locations, the artistic practice represented the construction of counter-myths and transgenerationality. In addition, an intersectional feminist approach helped to identify the power relations involved in transnational collaboration, particularly regarding economic inequality and the roles and different opportunities of women musicians in Finland and Bulgaria. Download Accessible PDF

ES: ¿Existe un enfoque, principio o disposición de la investigación artística que dé unidad a los elementos heterogéneos que la conforman (diferentes procedencias disciplinares y enfoques epistemológicos) y le confiera carácter propio? Ese proceder, se propone aquí, es el especulativo. Desde la danza y mediante ejercicios coreográficos, se quiere hallar descripción de lo que sería una especulación estética, aquella que consideraría al acto de creación como parte del proceso del pensar. Con tal propósito, se desarrolla una propuesta acerca del amor y, específicamente, el eros, entendido como disposición frente a lo que se quiere investigar; añadiendo que esta disposición es también la fuerza que reúne todos los aspectos de la investigación. La acción especulativa estética sería el proceder investigativo del amor que une la dimensión poiética (creativa-imaginativa) y la gnoseológica en la investigación en las artes. EN: Is there an approach, principle or disposition of artistic research that gives unity to the heterogeneous elements that comprise it (different disciplinary origins and epistemological approaches) and gives it its own character? This procedure, it is proposed here, is speculative. From dance and through choreographic exercises, we seek to find a description of what would be an aesthetic speculation, one that would consider the act of creation as part of the thinking process. To this end, a proposal is developed about love and, specifically, eros, understood as a disposition towards what we want to investigate; adding that this disposition is also the force that brings together all aspects of research. The aesthetic speculative action would be the investigative procedure of love that unites the poietic (creative-imaginative) and gnoseological dimensions in research in the arts. Download Accessible PDF

The concept of non-hierarchical collaboration in score-based music offers a new perspective on the score and the instrument as distinct agents within the creative process. This case study, based on my co-creative collaboration with composer Francisco Corthey, explores how my relationship with the instrument – and other experiential factors – shaped the development of the composition, addressed ethical questions surrounding collaboration, and contributed to the production of musical meaning in a work presented to me as a notated score. By sharing control over musical parameters with my instrument and body – and by deliberately unlearning aspects of my instrumental technique – I aimed to cultivate a practice specific to this work, one that treats the musical composition as a site- and context-responsive event. This approach led me to examine how elements such as performance context, venue, and audience affect the emergence of meaning and inform my evolving performance strategies, through processes of responsiveness and an awareness of fragility as a generative force. Several of these reflections are gathered in the Shared Space model – an ongoing artistic experiment that explores inclusive, responsive practices within concert settings. Download Accessible PDF