"Fringe festivals are driven by their inner wills and can, despite their soluble structure, provide strong, composite experiences. The Swan Woman, Rebecka Pershagen’s solo performance, is such a piece. /.../

 

With pre-recorded interviews and a silent physical enactment, Pershagen gives the image of a living, complex woman behind the news headlines. Well done, sensous and moving fringe art." 

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- Lis Sveningson Hellström, Göteborgs-Posten

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"Despite the bombastic music with all it’s dramatic effect, I find myself surrounded by an inner silence as I peek through a window, into an apartment in Stockholm, and see this woman, this real woman who has lived, sitting on a chair, folding paper swans.

 

Rebecka Pershagens portrait of and tribute to The Swan Woman Marie hits you right in the heart." 

 

- Anna Gohr, Scenkonstguiden 

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"Rebecka Pershagen not only emphasizes The Swan Woman's social efforts as an animal caretaker in her interesting, content-rich and beautiful performance, which also tells how the beautiful swan through the ages has had different symbolic meaning.” 

 

- Ann-Marie Wrange, Tidningen Dans

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"A completely different tone was the one of Rebecka Pershagen's piece The Swan Woman, already recognized at several other festivals. /.../ The piece gave no explanations, but instead gave way to the mystery of the story. It became a wordless movement towards beauty, a beautiful gesture, where the slow pace was part of the point."

 

- Ann-Christine Snickars, Åbo Underrättelser

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"Swedish artist Rebecka Pershagen's piece The Swan Woman is a stage portrait of a person behind the headlines. The mysterious case is examined in the performance, with the help of a sound collage, while the artist presents the metamorphosis from human to animal.

 

The gradual deformation of a woman who folds paper swans in her loneliness is like a modern, albeit tragic, true-to-life tragedy, as described by H. C. Andersen from his fairy tale. /.../

 

The human-centered grip is only challenged by the sounds of swans and water in the sound collage. The pairing is an effective expression of our culture-penetrating relationship with nature, and raises many ethically charged questions about our ways of approaching animals."

 

- Mia Hannula, Turun Sanomat

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