Aske Thiberg performance: Whereabouts

On Thursday 3 September at 6 pm and 7.30 pm, the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) presents Whereabouts, a performance by Copenhagen-based Swedish artist Aske Thiberg.

Whereabouts is a 25-minute solo performance. Surrounded by the audience, the performer executes precise, high-tension movements with an almost expressionless face, set to minimalist, looping digital melodies interspersed with sounds from online public audio libraries. The rhythmic sounds of the performer’s body – claps, footsteps, and occasional whistling – merge with the sparse synthesiser score, creating a melancholic, almost pop-like loop that fills the space.

The choreography draws on ‘locking’, a street dance style that emerged in the 1970s alongside funk music and is built on sharp pauses and freeze-like gestures known as ‘locks’. Thiberg draws on its mechanical vocabulary of claps, held poses, and abrupt transitions to create movements that hover between human expression and automated motion.

Triggered by looping sonic cues, each gesture raises an ambiguous question: is the performer responding to the music, or is the music controlling the body? As the performer moves, short texts are read aloud in a monotone voice – absurd stories of everyday relationships that gradually shift into something increasingly strange and dislocated. Drawing on Thiberg’s work with digital animation, both the movement and the narrative seem to unfold within a detached digital space, with its suspended gravity, distorted logic, and playful violence.

There will be two performances:

First performance: 6 pm

Second performance: 7.30 pm

Each performance will last approximately 25 minutes.