Letter project – A choreography

Typography, editorial
An abstract map of Bergen with colour dancing lines, and some landmarks names.
A green stamp with colourful dancing lines.

A stamp

A map

A letter with dancing text in green and purple in a white background, and yellow smooth round shapes.

A letter

Letter Project: A Choreography is a performing arts project started by Mirte Bogaert.

In this project, I worked on the graphic design and choreography of the text, together with creative performer and writer Vicent Stephen.

Letter Project: A Choreography is an experimental project that questions the idea of togetherness, simultaneity and presence. In this project the audience receives a letter at their chosen address.

A view from outside bit teatergarasjen looking in, to a women writing fitted on a desk.
A woman at a desk.

Photos by Eirik Gjære

The performance starts with Mirte Bogaert folding the contents of the letter into an envelope at BIT Teatergarasjen in Bergen. She then puts the letters in a postbox in the city centre.

A woman folding paper at a desk.
Hands folding a letter at a desk, with envelops, multiple letter contents and stamps.
A woman putting letters in a postbox in an urban environment.

The beginning of the performance is Mirte Bogaert folding the letters and then sending them by mail. Photos by Eirik Gjære.

The performance continues with the group of letters performing a choreography in the public space before reaching each address. The content of the letters is also choreographed. Ideally, it is a never ending performance. The reader is made aware of their body and movements. The letters address the concepts of presence and absence.

Two stamps, marked with date stamps in a white envelop.
A close up detail of the letter from the Letter Project, showing text taking different forms.
A close up detail of the letter from the Letter Project, showing text in a circle and inside a circle.

Details of the letter, folded. Photos by Raquel Maia Marques, including the photo of the stamps above.

A photograph from above of the letter for the "Letter Project" with dancing text.

The letter unfolded – printed with a risograph printer, at Pamflett in Bergen. Photo by Eirik Gjære.

Visual interpretation

I interpreted the text visually and gave form to letters, words, phrases, and paragraphs. I did this by giving the text more or less space, using bold letters, italics, two typefaces, and different shapes and sizes for the text blocks and lines of text.

The structure of the text was maintained although it is easy to jump around from word to word and thus read the letter in different ways.

The first part of the text appears more dense on the page as it slowly opens up towards the end, until it gathers in a circle, mirroring where it started.

The text is spread across an A3 page folded in three. The three folds define three phases (starting off less abstract, opening up in the middle, and being freed up at the end).

The whole performance is in the hands of the reader on a single page. This way, the reader has an overview of the whole choreography and can read the text in many ways.

A close up detail of the map from the Letter Project, showing text letters drawn with lines, and dancing colourful lines in the background.
A close up detail of the map from the Letter Project, showing the colophon.

The map was printed using a risograph printer. Photos by Raquel Maia Marques.

Photo by Eirik Gjære.

A photograph from above to the map from the Letter Project.
A close up detail of the map from the Letter Project, showing placement of the post, bit teatergarasjen, and dancing colourful lines in the background.

There is an abstract map of the city of Bergen showing the score for the choreography of letters. BIT Teatergarasjen and the two main post offices are marked on the map. Blue dots mark the water and green dots mark the land. The mountain Ulriken and the lake Svartediket are the only other landmarks featured on the map.

Idea and creation: Mirte Bogaert. Creating performer/ writer: Vincent Stephen. Choreography of text/graphic design: Raquel Maia Marques. Co-production: BIT Teatergarasjen. Supported by: Kulturrådet (Arts Council Norway)

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