Residency story
Liv Aira & Jimmy Lundegård
From the Arctic Circle to Martinique, Liv and Jimmy dive into an intense sensory and cultural experience. Between the heat, nights alive with sound, artistic encounters and shared daily life, this residency becomes far more than a stay: the starting point of a dialogue between territories, bodies and practices.
Liv & Jimmy in Martinique — or how to go from Arctic Circle snow to warm sand in a matter of hours.
It all starts at a distance.
An introduction through John Dower, a few video calls, conversations about motion capture, about music-and-choreography practices… and fairly soon, one thing is obvious: we have to meet.
A few months later, they’re on a plane.
On arrival, no gentle transition.
We go straight into a cultural immersion at Tropiques Atrium, then off to the sea. Les Trois-Îlets, the sand, the sun.
First observation: Liv is discovering the tropics. Truly.
First sand, first constant heat, first encounter with an environment that never hits pause.
Jimmy, on the other hand, is finding something again. A buried Caribbean memory.
Very quickly, the stay takes on another dimension: a sensory one.
The heat never lets up. Neither does the sound.
At night, it isn’t silence — it’s an orchestra. Frogs, insects, a constant hum. Where we sleep, Liv struggles. The body takes it, adapts… or tries to.
Welcome to Martinique.
The residency takes shape in everyday life.
We cook. A lot. Local fish, shared meals.
We go to the gym in the mornings.
We collect shells.
We talk. A lot, too.
For a week, we don’t just share a house — we live together.
Alongside all that, we move through places.
The Fondation Clément, between heritage and contemporary art (with, as it happens, an exhibition by one of my former teachers — small world).
A pitt, a traditional cockfighting arena — straight into a cultural practice, no filter.
La Pointe Faula, other sites, other contexts.
And above all, the encounters.
The choreographer Murielle Bedot joins the residency.
An exchange between two women artists, two professional realities, two territories.
Then, in the studio, the dialogue turns physical: passing on movements, talking about bodies, places, paths.
Another presence: E.sy Kennenga, who adds yet another layer to these crossings.
One evening, the patron saint’s celebrations in Le François.
For us, nothing unusual.
For them, a festival.
And that’s where something tips over:
their gaze sends us back to our own territory. What we consider normal becomes exceptional.
Then there are those simple moments.
Liv, in traditional Sámi dress, dancing at sunset in Tartane.
No setup. Nothing at stake. Just a tradition coming through her body, in a landscape.
In the middle of all this, we work.
We lay the groundwork for Lūmen, a project now supported by the PIDA of the Institut français for 2026.
An intense week.
Physically hard at times. Culturally dense. Rich in human terms.
A residency, yes.
But above all the beginning of a collaboration.
What comes next?
That will happen in Sweden.
