Performance

Permanent Collection – simultaneous ongoing action

Permanent Collection will be performed simultaneously at MUNCH, the legendary Sala Omnia in București and at London Pub in Oslo. In this way, Pelmuş creates a form of collective experience across time and place. Sala Omnia and London pub are both important sites of queer history: ‘London’ is Oslo’s oldest gay bar, and the majestic decaying hall of Sala Omnia was where the decriminalization of homosexuality in Romania was announced in 2001.
The ongoing action explores ways in which histories of solidarity can become a part of a new, movement-based permanent collection.

Permanent Collection is a collection of movement-based works that questions who and what gets a permanent place in museum collections and our relation to collective memory. Some ‘pieces’ will be recognizable to many, like the folk song Bella Ciao. Others are based on personal experiences, such as Ingunn Rimestad’s bodily recollections of having performed at the old Munch Museum at Tøyen in the 1970s.

Permanent Collection recreates memories through movement, and together the dancers form a horizontal, living monument.

Idea and direction: Manuel Pelmuş
Performers: Ingunn Rimestad, Jens Trinidad, Beniamin Boar, Elizabeth Ward, Mihai Mihalcea, Jack Hauser & Anton Skaaning Thomsen

What you are seeing here is a development of Permanent Collection, commissioned from Pelmuș for the opening of the MUNCH in October 2021. It is part of his PhD research fellowship at the Art Academy in Oslo/KHIO.

Everyone is welcome to experience Permanent Collection at London Pub, which is at C. J. Hambros plass 5 in Oslo.

MUNCH: https://www.munchmuseet.no/hva_skjer/manuel-pelmu-permanent-collection/