Nana-Francisca Schottländer is a Copenhagen-based cross-disciplinary artist working at the intersection of dance, performance, installation, and conceptual art. Her work revolves around encounters with other-than-human entities and phenomena such as rocks, fungi, water, soil, and entire geographical areas with their inherent lifeforms and dynamics. Central to her work is the use of her own body as a living tool for research and creation.

“I am really excited to bring my work here,” said Nana-Francisca Schottländer, “and to begin to understand how these mutually shaping dynamics between rock, water, and humans have unfolded here over time, both ancient and recent—how the material stories reverberate in the land, in the city, in people, as well as in my own body as it comes into contact with the place.”

In the series Heavy Kinship, Schottländer explores the co-creative potentials of encounters between rocks and humans, between stony and fleshy bodies, trying to understand what it takes to engage in respectful, reciprocal, and intimate exchanges with something existing on radically different terms than ourselves. By invitation from partners of the In Situ network, Schottländer has done a series of research residencies focusing on landscapes of rock and water marked by human extraction and production, investigating the ongoing, mutually forming dynamics of entanglement that shape landscapes, bodies, and civilizations. This exhibition is a first attempt at juxtaposing archival material from these research processes.

“We are thrilled to welcome Nana-Francisca to present the continuation of this thought-provoking series at the Flynn,” said Jay Wahl, executive director of the Flynn. “I have met and worked with Nana-Francisca through the Flynn’s partnership with In Situ and I am interested in how her explorations of landscapes might connect to the ways in which we inhabit and understand Vermont’s natural resources.”

Nana-Francisca’s research in Vermont is presented by Metropolis in partnership with In Situ. Metropolis, located in Copenhagen, Denmark, is a meeting place for performance, art, city, and landscapes—an art-based laboratory for performative, site-specific, international art. In Situ is the European platform for creation of art in public space. This exhibit is co-funded by the European Union.