In “Portraying Endings of the Year 2020” I perform a portrait of 2020 as a year of endings.

My practice is rooted in the “Color Spectrum of 11 Spaces” which consists of eleven books, with each book’s color standing for an aspect of our being: White (Beginnings), Blue (Wisdom), Orange (Pleasure), Red (Battle), Green (Love), Yellow (Balance), Purple (Language), Beige (Time and Space), Brown (Nourishment), Pink (Skin—the Private, the Intimate and the Erotic), and Black (Death). These eleven colors are a language to speak about our being, and I unfold them in various mediums and materials. In the spatial performances, I use these colors to portray anything from a situation, an institution, or our past in spaces such as a parliament, nature, or iconic antique sites. I perform to the space rather than an audience and express the meeting between the existential topic of the book and the space around me, in me—or in us. When performing, I am not conscious of the choice of movement, but give in to the feeling of the book as it meets the space. It is only afterwards that the performance becomes a narrative and interpretation. It is therefore crucial to collaborate with a photographer to capture the essence and narrative of the performance.

“Portraying Endings of the Year 2020” was a spatial performance in relation to my eleventh book, The Black Book—on Death, that portrayed the year that shut down the world. The performance took place at the very end of the year in two locations in nature in Denmark. It started in a plantation of young trees and moved to an old forest with tall trees, only to end in the first location. The documentation of the performance goes in a loop. I wore a black silk dress, a scarf, and a velvet cape. The latter I took off during the performance, so as to feel the cold winter against my skin. I choreographed a spontaneous, felt dance with the black veils in the dress, being absorbed by it or seeing through it, being drawn to the cold earth, held by trees or morphing with them or their remains. Endings are important, they invite us to face what it is we need to let go, and if we do, they are followed by a new beginning.