Counting Backwards

Someone suggested to me recently that as human beings we should see ourselves as co-evolved parasites of the earth’s systems. If this is so, maybe nothing we do will ever solve the problems we've created. Maybe we should think instead of undoing: of letting go, descending, releasing – decaying, even. Perhaps before optimism and action, we need to experience collective grief – to cultivate acts in which we can submit to the necessity for our own inertia.

“Counting Backwards” was created for the BIT20 Ensemble and premiered at Borealis festival, Bergen, in 2023. The performance was conducted by Jack Sheen, with sound by Thorolf Thuestad and lights by Silje Grimstad. The child narrator was Dulcie Pugh.

Participants also included:

Mirte Bogaert, Alexander Fiske Fosse, Gunhild Sannes Larsen and Philipo Njaidi (movement performers).

Marcus Baker, Tora Finne, Katja Nyqvist, Andrea Ostenfeldt Nielsen, Andrea and Daniel Schlitzer, Liv Sommerfelt and Anja Wernick (speech choir).

Venice lockdown audio recored by Michele Braga.

You can here extracts from the premiere performance on NRK’s Spillerom program here.

Counting Backwards was commissioned with funds from Arts Council Norway.

Photos: Thor Brødreskift and Ida Westberg.