Maison ouverte #7: Manuel Pelmus and Rachel Tess
Maison de la danse x Skånes konstförening
Sep 5–6, 2025

Free admission
The event will be held in English.

Curators: Frédéric Gies and Albin Hillervik

PROGRAM

Sept 5 19.00–21.00
19.00 Borderlines, performance lecture by Manuel Pelmus
20.00 Artist talk with Manuel Pelmus and Rachel Tess
21.00 Closing

Sept 6 16.00-20.00
16.00 Flip Side, performance with Rachel Tess
19.15 Mingle with light food and drinks
20.00 Closing

Flip side includes the following solos:
16.00–16.30: Visualizing the woman I want to become in the mirror by Frédéric Gies
17.00–17.45: Some parts altered by Ulrich Ruchlinski
18.15–19.15: She Drifts She Charges by Sophia Mage

There is a 20 mins break between each solo. You can stay for all three solos or attend just one.

Maison ouverte #7
Maison de la danse and Skånes konstförening present a program with choreographers Manuel Pelmus and Rachel Tess, who delve into personal stories and explore the conditions of choreography. In the performance lecture Borderlines, Pelmus reflects on identities and boundaries from personal, artistic, and historical perspectives in a darkened room. Tess premieres Flip Side, in which 10 choreographers have been invited to each create a solo for her as a dancer, to be combined into varied, durational performances. Over the course of two days, the art space is filled with gestures and language that renegotiate established relationships between choreographer and dancer, between audience and stage. 

Borderlines
Concept, choreography, text: Manuel Pelmuş
Approx. 40 mins

In Borderlines, Manuel Pelmuș revisits past performances and personal histories and aggregates notions of visibility and invisibility in connection to history and politics of representation. These histories playfully move back and forth in time and space, updating and reflecting on the notion of boundaries, whether they are boundaries between states or boundaries between artistic disciplines. The artist uses his own memories of the volatility of borders, also in regard to the fall of the Berlin wall. The performance lecture, which will be performed in complete darkness, addresses the hierarchy of senses and reflects on the dominance of the visual in our cultures. With Borderlines, Pelmus reconnects to his dance solo Preview (2007), which was also performed in a dark space.

Manuel Pelmuș (born in Bucharest, works in Oslo) has a background in choreography and dance and is interested in ideas of living presence in exhibition contexts and explores the relationship between the human body, memory and the construction of history. He was awarded the Berlin Art Prize in 2012 for performing arts, and represented Romania at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013 together with Alexandra Pirici. His works have been shown in numerous international museums and biennials, such as Palais de Tokyo (FR), MUNCH (DE), Tate Modern (UK), Centre Pompidou (FR), Para Site Hong Kong (HK), Kunsthalle Vienna (AT), Kiev Biennale (UA), Van Abbemuseum (NL), etc. He is currently vice rector for artistic research at the National Academy of the Arts Oslo.

Flip Side
Concept: Rachel Tess
Choreography: Frédéric Gies, Sophia Mage, Ulrich Ruchlinski

Flip Side is an ongoing series of ten solos being created with and for dancer Rachel Tess between 2025–2027 by contemporary choreographers based in Sweden and abroad. Commissioned by Tess as a dance anthology, the title refers to the “flip side” or lesser-known “B-side” of a record. The solos can be combined as triptychs, allowing each presentation to emerge as a unique composition.

Since 2013, Tess has created from the Scanian countryside with a focus on site responsive works, people and place. Flip Side reflects this approach and is crafted to showcase her skills as a maturing performer, unearthing an artistry accrued over a long career in dance.

In 2025, Tess invited Frédéric Gies, Sophia Mage, and Ulrich Ruchlinski to create solos, with the only guideline being that she would follow the desires of the choreographers. At Skånes konstförening, the works are presented as a continuous dance of lived experience, drawing from an eclectic range of material—including internet memes, angry women, an alien’s reflection, a custom-built drum kit, references to dance history, and Tess’s extensive movement archive.

The performance includes the following solos:

Visualizing the woman I want to become in the mirror
Choreography: Frédéric Gies

Some parts altered
Choreography and music: Ulrich Ruchlinski

She Drifts She Charges
Choreography: Sophia Mage
Music: Simon Olderskog Albertsen
Costume: Sofia Stål

Rachel Tess (born in Portland, lives in Knislinge) is an American choreographer, dancer and curator. She is the Artistic Director of Milvus Artistic Research Center (MARC) in Knislinge and was the Curator of Live Art at Wanås Konst (SE) from 2016–2022. She holds a BFA from The Juilliard School in New York City (2004) and an MFA from Stockholm University of the Arts (2013). Tess has danced for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, the Gothenburg Opera Ballet and the Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm. She has been commissioned by Corpus (DK), Dansk Danseteater (DK), Norrdans (SE) and Skånes Dansteater (SE) and presented at Wanås Konst (SE), River to River Festival, Lower Manhattan Culture Council (US), Baryshnikov Arts Center (US), Dansstationen (SE) and Brådjupa (SE). Tess is the recipient of Birgit Cullberg Grant (2019) and Region Skånes Kulturpris (2022) for her work as a choreographer, dancer and curator.

About Dance is ancient and Maison de la danse
Dance is ancient is an initiative for artistic creation and public encounters in dance and choreography led by Frédéric Gies. Through DIA, established in Malmö in 2019, Gies creates new works, tours his existing repertoire and presents a wide range of activities and public events in Malmö. Maison de la danse is DIA’s public context in the form of a nomadic platform for dance and choreography. MDD invites the audience to all stages of the artistic process by presenting performances, rehearsals, work in progress workshops, and artist talks.