Gunilla Heilborn ^(SWE) Works and days 7-14 March 2026

Programme

In Works and days mixes experiences from a trip to ancient Greece with fragments of a fifteen-year-old play. With humour and seriousness, Gunilla Heilborn tries to find out how all the loose episodes she has collected are connected and whether it is really possible to understand the world better by reading both the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Works and days consists of two parts. In one, we are greeted by grand tableaux with names such as ”A place that is terrible in winter, harsh in summer, never pleasant” and ”The rose-fingered dawn”. Through fog, mist and music, two dancers move; let's call them Shady-eyed Sophie and Many-worded Louis. With fleeting ease, they stroll across the stage and ask questions to themselves and to the audience. Do you get seasick easily? Would you describe me as a typical Renaissance person? That I have many strings to my bow? Do you know what it feels like to drift around in a ship frozen in the ice?

In the second part, Heilborn herself navigates through earlier works in her search for a beginning. Taking her cue from the stories of ancient poets, a recent trip to Greece and her earlier work, she This is not a love story From 2011, she attempts to see if it is possible to link one event to another, or if perhaps it is a lack of logic that characterises everything we do. She makes lists of ships that have sailed the seas and of what has been done or should have been done. The essence of the work is its chaotic structure, but a number of things recur in the two parts: travel and what we remember of what we have experienced. As well as the question of whether it is possible to know what to do on which days and why.

The room, the lighting, and the music play a major role in the performance and are created by Heilborn's long-time collaborators Katarina Wiklund, Minna Tiikkainen, Mårten Nilsson, and Kim Hiorthøy.

Gunilla on the title:

"I am very fond of the title, which I have borrowed from a poem written 700 years BC by the Greek poet Hesiod. Works and days - that's what life is all about. Our days and what we do during those days. It's a perfect title for a piece where I take a closer look at a work I've done. What was it, what thoughts did it contain? What did we do all those days? The title can also be associated with the unique and temporary nature of performing arts. The ephemeral and the intense. How different a work is on different days and how a work changes with the passing days. "

Co-produced of Dancing House and Dance network Sweden.  Touring with Dance network Sweden our 2026.