IPAF presents: Charlie Laban Trier: Surfacing HypoKrisia
Surfacing HypoKrisia is a series of performative efforts and spells to invoke manifestations of a speculative, trans-mythic figure. Her name is HypoKrisia. She’s a figment of Charlie’s fantasy – imagined as the forgotten little sister of Tiresias, the blind prophet from Greek mythology. The performance embarks on a journey researching resilience through the guidance of her.
According to the myth, Tiresias sees two snakes in a mating spiral. He is disgusted by the sight of something he does not understand and strikes the female snake. Because of this action, Hera, Zeus’ wife, transforms him into a woman.
Both Tiresias and HypoKrisia could be read as trans figures, but HypoKrisia resists a full becoming. She insists on the liminal space and chooses to live in a performative state of “half un-done.”
In this imaginary myth she is deemed unworthy and dangerous by society and therefore erased from the stories. She’s the embodiment of the snake: smooth, elusive, and constantly on the verge of shedding skin.
The wish is to summon her from the depths, because she has been held down beneath the surface for far too long. But in this act, friction is inevitable; it’s not smooth sailing to bring forth what has been forgotten or perhaps never existed. It is like reaching through a portal to a time we cannot reach—and what emerges may be unknown and difficult to face.
In this dance-piece the audience is taken into a mythological spin, where we no longer know who are speaking through whom. We’ll meet a lonesome character, but there’s another presence hiding deep under. The boy attempts to invoke her, he speaks in/with multiple tongues.
The pursuit is to dance with her; a dance-duet leading perhaps to a momentary take-over of his body. In this complicated partnership, he tries to follow the laws of the trickster and together they embrace total pretense. Their tool-box is filled with contradictory disagreement, faking and mimicry.
About the Artist:
Charlie Laban Trier (b. 1987, dk) is a performing artist who chooses to situate his practice deep within the realm of dance, though the dances often appear through other forms such as; bottom-barrel yells turned into songs, text-sampling, endlessly becoming costume, carrying/caring for screens, extreme sculptural headbanging and more. He sees dance as inherently messy, slippery and emergent – a form of knowledge that resists legibility.
Living as a transperson, is a big teacher in his thinking/approach to work. Charlie thinks of transness, like dance, as a technology that helps him complicate material. It allows for embodying multiple images, seducing viewers, and shifting fluidly between forms.
He is currently investigating practices of collective myth-making, wanting to foster conversations that resist fixed meaning and invite a dis-positioning of the hero/center-stage.
Credits:
Choreography & performer: Charlie Laban Trier
Dramaturgical partner: Noha Ramadan
Light designer: Angela X
RC-vehicle builder: Anders Toft Pedersen
RC-driver: TBA
Music: TBA
Text: Charlie Laban Trier, sampled from TBA….
Developed with support from:
HIMHERANDIT, Warehouse9 and Åbne Scene/Godsbanen – Queer Practice Residence 2025/26,
HAUT – IN PROCESS residency, Performance space & PACT Sydney – Queer Development Program 2024, Museion Bolzano – Opening the pill symposium 2022, Arts Centre BUDA residency, Jakoozi Amsterdam…
Good to know:
Smoke in performance.
Language: English
IPAF:
IPAF is Warehouse9’s international performance festival. The festival is a vital extension of the organisation’s dedicated work to support and present LGBTQIA+ artists and cultural practitioners. IPAF is a dynamic meeting place that creates opportunities for artistic development, live performances, and facilitates spaces for dialogue and community.
This year, the festival is co-produced with Dansehallerne and presents genre-bending work in Copenhagen that actively engages with identity politics, sexual expressions, and body representations. IPAF is founded on the strong belief that dance and performance can offer new perspectives and understandings of reality, inspire collective imagination, and advocate for better and more just futures.
IPAF is made possible with support from the Danish Arts Foundations, the City of Copenhagen and Dansehallerne.
Tickets:
tickets are purchased via Dansehallernes website: https://dansehallerne.dk/en/public-program/
Note that there is a sliding scale option.
Accessability:
Dansehallerne in Copenhagen offers good accessibility with step-free access via an elevator to all floors, accessible and gender-neutral restrooms on the ground floor.
Jasmin has a master’s degree in English and cultural communications from the University of Copenhagen and has worked with several fields within the cultural sphere. She has worked with executing and communicating films, festivals, art fairs, and literature, and has now embarked upon queer performance art at Warehouse9.
Emma (they/she) has been a core member since 2012 and a leading effort in driving organisational development. They have helped shape WH9’s artistic profile, initiated national and international collaborations and consolidated WH9 through fundraising strategies, and insisting on production methods centering care and accessiblility.
In addition, Emma works as an independent curator, e.g. through the curatorial duo osborn&møller, where they have acted as guest curator at the Wellcome Collection (UK) and curated part of City of Women’s 25 year anniversary festival in 2019 (SL). Emma has experience as a freelance producer in the UK, where they worked with artists such as Poppy Jackson, Manuel Vason and SPILL Festival. Emma holds a MA in Theater and Performance from Queen Mary, University of London and a BA (Hons) in Drama, Applied Theatre & Education from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Jørgen Callesen (They/He) is co-founder and co-director of Warehouse9.
For the past 17 years, they have been an integral part of developing Warehouse9 to become a leading organisation for cross-aesthetic queer art, including international festivals and socially engaged projects. He holds a Ph.D. in information & media science from Aarhus University (2005) and has an artistic practice with the performance figure “miss fish”. They have presented solo work in Denmark and internationally since 2002 and work in collaboration with numerous queer artists as well as in lager scale productions.
