Photo: Håkan Larsson
In April 2023, the Swedish choreographer and performer in the broadest sense, who also integrates the genres of visual art, film and literature, was a guest at the Angewandte Performance Laboratory (APL).
The APL is a transversal platform for promoting performative art forms at the Angewandte. Performative practices and notions of performativity are recognised as full-fledged aspects of contemporary art and design. It is in this perspective that key-actors of the University of Applied Arts Vienna are launching the Angewandte Performance Lab (APL). The APL is a transversal artistic research and education platform that focuses on the relationship between the body, perception, and the arts and society in a post-digital context. Its purpose is to serve as an incubator to promote performance as an artistic medium and as a field of research.
Lilja had intense work on her project in the APL studio, worked with Mariella Greil in the project Bare Bodies and with Charlotta Ruth. She presented her artistic point of view in a lecture and performed at the Angewandte. Her residency also served for networking and events at other art institutions in Vienna like Tanzquartier Wien and University of Music and Performing Arts.
Efva Lilja is a choreographer creating dance, imagery and text in works that take us through different layers of consciousness, erotic episodes, contemplative calm, or playfulness with a political edge. Her works are both entertaining and worrying when she tackles the basic human condition with singular suggestive power. She is an unconventional artist, who uses choreographed sequences and her research in the formation of a reality where everyday events and actions are transformed and given new expressions. She creates cross-disciplinary works that have been described as beautiful, poetic, controversial and groundbreaking. Her works have been shown in some forty countries and her books and articles have been translated to several languages.