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The Ocean Is Not Unfaithful

The performance, commissioned by Kunsthall Oslo, written and directed by Marianne Heier with Marco Vaglieri, is based on the artists’ first hand experience with migration.

Marianne Heier and Marco Vaglieri, Havet er ikke troløst, Oslo 2016

Starting out from Heier’s and her family’s own first hand experience with migration, the performance Havet er ikke troløst (The ocean is not unfaithful) is based on quotes from acclaimed literature mixed with extracts from conversations with migrants to and from Norway. The script invests all text fragments with the same dignity, and challenges the simplified public and political discourse about migration based on polarised notions of us and them, centre and periphery, success and failure, valuable and dispensable.

Marianne Heier and Marco Vaglieri, Havet er ikke troløst, Oslo 2016. ph Kristine Jakobsen/Kunsthall Oslo — Marianne Heier and Marco Vaglieri, *Havet er ikke troløst*, Oslo 2016. ph Kristine Jakobsen/Kunsthall Oslo. **Top:** the text by Irma Vaglieri says: "My father arrived in Norway, to be my dad, just before my birth. If I was born today, in 2016, I wouldn't have had a dad. Because he couldn't have had the permission to come"

Two figures, Snake and Cheetah, meet on a beach after crossing the ocean while Gull observes from above. The dialogue between the figures gives life to two contrasting positions with regards to the experience of migration. Snake is thoughtful with a deep intellectual and sensual connection to his roots, while Cheetah, ready to leave the past behind, represents ambition, speed and direction.

The piece explores the tensions between these two temperaments in a play of equilibrium and conflicts. It questions the very idea of integration, showing how the policy intended to integrate the newcomers in society instead ends up producing explosive friction between polarised positions.

Havet er ikke troløst
Text and direction: Marianne Heier
Co-written and directed: Marco Vaglieri
Curated by: Elisabeth Byre/Kunsthall Oslo
Performers: Evelyn Rasmussen Osazuwa, Kevin Mgubua, Irma Heier Vaglieri
Lights: Tobias Leira
Music: Per Platou
Sound: Erlend Hogstad
Produced by: Kunsthall Oslo, it is part of Oslo Architecture Triennale extended program

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The Ocean Is Not Unfaithful

The performance, commissioned by Kunsthall Oslo, written and directed by Marianne Heier with Marco Vaglieri, is based on the artists’ first hand experience with migration.

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