blue synnyt (2024)
Vestre Fjordpark, Aalborg, Denmark
Installation, F-eks.
Photos: Rikke Ehlers Nilsson

Blue synnyt is a six-piece hydrofeminist exploration of care drawing on Karealian knowledge practices of synnyt - a mythical aetiology practised by tietäjät, the ancient healers, who worked with spells to connect phenomena to their origin contexts. Comprising an audio-visual installation with four separate video pieces created during two seasons of ice-swimmin, a 24 piece synnyt (oral poems), and an environmental noise piece created in collaboration with sound artist Tanja Schlander. The work has previously been presented with the platform F-eks, as a one-day event with supervised ice-swimming, sauna, and a collective listening moment.


The project examines the aesthetics of bodily (dis)comfort, in an attempt to dismantle numbness towards natural ecologies, and open up for new agencies as a temporary form of eco-surrender and solidarity. Can water - with its currents, coldness, ice, and waves - momentarily reorganize the body? blue synnyt focuses on care and temporality that centers practice-based forms of knowledge - such as hydro feminist and queerfeminist perspectives - in which knowledge is not to be uncovered, but relearned in bodily, material, and social contexts in which it can nurture new relations. 


Special thanks to Tanja Schlander, Nina Wöhlk, Caro Gervay, Liisa Annikki Jönsson, Katrina Louise Jönsson, Elisabeth Thomsen, Clara Dybbroe Viltoft, Helle Nygaard, Sara Hagins, Limfjorden, Nikolaj Kühn, Tine Steensgaard Bach, Käte Vestergaard Pedersen, Jens Bugay-Hougaard, Julianne Concepcion, Nikolaj Skjold, Simon Bendix Borregaard, Sackit, Isbjørnen and its iceswimmers for their contributions, and to The Danish Arts Foundation, Huset i Hasserisgade, Vestre Fjordparken, and Aalborg Streetfoodfor additional support.


The research is kindly supported by The Danish Arts Foundation. See more at F-eks.