Raspberry Tree
2025
Performance
Le Grand Palais (as part of Art Paris.)
Curated by POUSH
Costume design: Jón Albert Guðrún-Carlosson
Following the interspecies dynamics research with phasmids that I initiated in 2019 at Beaux-Arts de Paris, I performed Raspberry Tree for the first time in a public setting at the Grand Palais.
This ongoing project explores Marcelo Evelin’s concept of “being moved” rather than moving - i.e. allowing circumstances to guide a performance without a fixed intention. The actions are improvised, progressing as direct stimuli of mutual influence between the insects and I.
Raspberry Tree studies motion by mimicry. Whether in complete stillness like wooden sticks or rocking my body gently to imitate the phasmids’ camouflagic strategy of simulating branches swaying in the breeze.
I lend myself as a structure and a shelter — a tree.
For this occasion I worked with Onchestus rentzi, also known as crowned stick insects. The animals are raised in France by professionals who employ the utmost humane conditions. Ideally, this project will evolve by studying the motion behavior and morphology of different species.