3 Sides of a Triangle (2014)

3 Sides of a Triangle is a performance and installation that takes as its context the witch trials in Finnmark, Northern Norway during the 17th Century. The work looks in particular at the first major witch trial in which 13 people were implicated and 12 lost their lives. In 1617 a natural disaster just off the coast of Vardø sunk 10 ships and drowned 40 men who were on government business. The God fearing citizens believed the disaster was the work of the devil and in 1620 after the passing of new witchcraft legislation Karren Edisdatter was brought to trial. Her trial was the first of the 13, during which she implicates two others starting a chain reaction of accusations. 

The performance looks at the premise of telling a story and how words are both the upholders of truth and lies. Using the actual confessions of those put to trial the original words have been worked with in attempted to weave a narrative that connects the natural disaster to the confessions as the audience become implicated in the work and on trial. Two narrators attempt to give different versions of the truth whilst the audience members read words that have been put in their mouths reciting confessions that will have been given to others hundreds of years before hand. 

Performed with: Kachun Lay, Sara Rönnbäck, Istvan Virag
Photography: Eirik Slyngstad