KAZAK: the expedition

«To not see the forest for the trees”

KAZAK: the expedition is the first performance in the trilogy KAZAK.

It is based on documentation and material from NONcompany’s trip during summer 2011 through the taiga forest, starting in Elverum, Norway traveling east till we came out on the other side, in Vladivostok in The Russian Federation.

The starting point for the trip was to see the entire boreal forest, as a whole. In the world of NONcompany the national borders cease between the people of the taiga. Densely populated areas and cities with millions become groves and clearings in the totality of this enormous forest. All the inhabitants become one, Taigans.

In the form of a lecture performance, mixed with a staged travelogue, KAZAK: the expedition gives an introduction to the trilogy’s concept of seeing the boreal forest as a whole, without geographical and cultural borders, and what problems that can rise with this view.

The first part of the trilogy is about our expedition and our authentic experiences in encountering the Taigans and the taiga, featuring our immediate impressions and undigested experiences. But it also evolves around the search for belonging in an environment that feels familiar, but is unknown. Thematically it focuses on the change of perspective from how one relates to surroundings one has never actually been in, to when one is in the middle of them, to the relation to an environment one has just gotten to know. The question: if one can see the forest for the trees, is central in this first part of NONcompany’s trilogy from the taiga.

KAZAK: the expedition opened at Teaterhuset Avantgarden in Trondheim, Norway on October 22,  2011.

Made and performed by:

Lise Risom Olsen

Lena Lundsten Buchacz

Hans Skogen

Eirik Blekesaune

Morten Pettersen

Producer Tone Myklatun.

Interpretation and translation: Yngvil Berg.

Voice and musical contribution: Oyvind B. Lyse.

Photo: Bent René Synnevåg

Co-produced by: BIT Teatergarasjen in Bergenand Teaterhuset Avant Garden in Trondheim, Norway.

Collaborators: Arts Printing House, Vilnius. Gunn Hernes – MAP. Proscen. WRAP. BEK. The Norwegian Forest Museum. Reality Research Centre, Helsinki. Body Moving Arts Festival, Saint Petersburg. Novosibirsk Drama Theatre. Krasnoyarsk Drama Theatre.

Supported by: The Norwegian Arts Council, the municipality of Bergen, The Norwegian Fund for Sound and Picture and the Norwegian Fund for Performing Artists.