Henrik Hellstenius (born 1963) is a Norwegian composer who studied composition at the Norwegian academy of Music, and with Gérard Grisey at Conservatoire Supérieure. Hellstenius´ output encompasses a large range of works: chamber music, orchestral works, opera, electro-acoustic music and music for theatre and dance. His music has been frequently performed at concerts and festivals around the world by ensembles and musicians such as Cikada, BIT20, Oslo Sinfonietta, Court Circuit, Irvine Arditti, Peter Herresthal, Asamisimasa, Hans Kristian Kjos Sørensen, Ensemble El Perro Andaluz, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Stavanger Philharmonic Orchestra. His first opera Sera received the Norwegian Edvard Award in 2000, and has been staged in Oslo and Warszaw. His second opera, ”Ophelias: Death by Water Singing” was premiered in Oslo 2005 and staged in Warszaw, Oslo and Osnabrück, Germany. He has been composer in residence with the Bergen International Festival 2011, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra 2013/2014, and the Buffalo In June Festival 2017. In the last years, Hellstenius has been focusing on the musical relationship between sound, words and movements in its many forms. Ranging from staged concerts, performance works to music-theatre pieces. He is at present conducting an artistic research project «Exdended Compositon», where he focuses on the possibilities in composition with movements, sound and language. Henrik Hellstenius is also a professor of composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, and has been a guest teacher of composition at festivals, conservatories and universities in Germany, USA, Austria, France and the nordic countries. www.hellstenius.no
Work Group
Objective Enactive
This online lecture-demonstration unfolds the term ´Poetic Materiality´ within the context of designing and choreographing with Somatic Costumes. Through critiquing and applying the somatic practice of Skinner Releasing Technique, the poetics of philosopher Gaston Bachelard and the materiality of anthropologist Tim Ingold, this talk begins to map poetic and material agencies between bodies-costumes within the design-performance encounter.
Artist Talk
Objective Enactive
This talk will focus on the first outcome of Glitsch(ening) Ci(rculari)ty, a tripartite site-specific, where I am pursuing a speculative exploration of the ecology of the city, between the urban and the biological, unfolding its layers and materiality of time. The talk will end in a conversation between fellow researchers and artists in the collaborative project Urban Ecologies, where Glitsch(ening) Ci(rculari)ty, is generated from.
Presentation
Polyvocal Tongue
The presentation will focus on relational ethics and polyvocality in performative text. It will also explore the use of plural languages in a play, looking at how a polylingual praxis can open up new aesthetic potential in playwrighting and in artistic research in general.
Conversation
TRANSPOSITIONS— Panel Discussion
The Ethics of Vulnerability and Artistic Research
Any ethical framework must take account of the vulnerability of the human condition. This is significant in all creative endeavours – especially in artistic practice and the teaching of it – since the very act of creating something and putting it out into the world is an expression of vulnerability.
