Exhibition

Listening Bodies

Anika Edström Kawaji

Dates
Saturday 23 May
Sunday 24 May

During this festival, Anika Edström Kawaji shares materials from the process of her current one-year research project Listening Bodies.

The project is centred on the notion of ‘dialogue’, explored through movement, text, and clay. By organising clay-dialogue sessions with local participants in Brussels, she investigates how verbal and material conversations interact, leaving traces in video, sound, movement, and sculpture. These materials will inform choreographic and text-based explorations.

What disappears or remains from these dialogues? What is repeated? What traces do we leave behind?

At its heart, Listening Bodies is a collaborative exploration of collective world-building through dialogue, imagination, and materiality - a practice of shared agency that fosters spaces for multiple narratives to coexist.

This installation at LanDans marks the midpoint of the research, which will culminate in a final residency and presentation at BODEEK in Brussels in early December 2026.

As part of the exhibition, you can view clay objects created by participants in the workshops taking place on May 9.

Vlaanderen

Anika Edström Kawaji

Anika Edström Kawaji is a Swedish-Japanese dancer, performer and choreographer. She studied at P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels) 2013 - 2016. After graduating she worked as a performer at Rosas/Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker (BE) for five years on a full time basis. She took part in several performances/projects such as: Rosas Danst Rosas, Rain, Drumming, Achterland, Bartók/Beethoven/Schönberg, The Dark Red Research Project and the performance installation: Brancusi (Bozar, Brussels). Since 2020, she has collaborated with Fieldworks/Heine Avdal & Yukiko Shinozaki (BE/JP/NO), Robin Jonsson (SE), Wee/Francesco Scavetta (SE/NO), Femke Gyselinck (BE), Karoliina Loimaala (FI), among others.

She is besides this developing her own work together with artists mainly based in Brussels and Stockholm. She is also part of the Brussels-based collective platform Y-Collective, which creates and arranges spaces for exchanges between artists and young people in Brussels.

Anika has been teaching and giving workshops in places such as: Kulturhuset Möbeln (Tierp, SE), The Royal Swedish Ballet School (Stockholm, SE), PRODA (Bergen, NO), Dans Haus Academy (Milano, IT), Shanghai International Dance Centre (Shanghai, CN), Women’s College of Physical Education (Tokyo, JP) and Architanz (Tokyo, JP).