TREES & the things around at ARTIPELAG

Choreographer Cristina Caprioli describes TREES as an up-side-down make-believe forest that triggers odd sensations. Impenetrable, softly embracing, in a whirlwind, in stillness. Tree trunks in a row, clearings with no enclosure. Passing glances, fleeting encounters. Between the trees, through the interpersonal. The forest as a grid of in-between spaces, where the intimate is framed and constantly cropped. A no man’s land, void of overview, in the middle.

In The Enchanted Forest, TREES shimmers in its quiet splendor. The visitor observes from a distance, steps into the woods, loose its way, rests in wonder. As if the forest were a fuzzy sensory image. Irresistible. Empathetic.

choreography Cristina Caprioli
concept & design Cristina Caprioli, Panagiotis Michalatos
digital landscape & programmering Panagiotis Michalatos
sound alva noto, Opiate
dance Anton Borgström, Louise Dahl, Samuel Draper, Annika Hyvärinen, Frank Koenen, Hana Lee Erdman, Adam Schütt, Sigrid Sjöholm, Elinor Tollerz Bratteby, Kristiina Viiala

As part of this Summer’s divertimento, Cristina Caprioli and team are in residence at Artipelag.

Every Sunday, they perform an interactive version of TREES at 12.30 and 3 pm. Silent figures move amongst the trees and together with the visitors, dance a collective choreography. Mysterious and alluring, in participation. Tree trunks, light and shadows. Suggestive sounds and undulating moves. The dancers reach for your fingertips, wrap their arms and legs around you, guide your steps, follow your mood. TREES becomes a forest to dance in and dance with – dark, caring and uncertain.

Every Sunday the dancers also step out of their forest and familiarize their dance with ‘The Things Around’. Other choreographies, only suggested, sometimes overexpressed, mingle with The Enchanted Forest and linger a different gaze.

TREES premiered at the Venice Dance Biennale 2010. Since then, it has been performed over 800 times, for thousands of visitors, from the smallest town to established art museums, from Farsta to Florence, from Motala to the MoMA PS1 in New York. The Things Around have been performed in various formats in Stockholm and most recently at the Venice Dance Biennale. TREES & the things around was part of Artipelags exhibition ”The Enchanted Forest – A Divertimento” in 2025