July 6, 6:30pm Oregon Contemporary
8371 N. Interstate Ave
Portland, OR 97217

6:30 pm: Gallery 1, Oregon Contemporary
Carla Bengtson in collaboration with composer Juliet Palmer, choreographer Darion Smith, and perfumer Dannielle Sergent.

Other Nations: scent-sharing ritual and performance

Other Nations enacts the voicing, sensing, signifying life worlds of other creatures while shining a light on our own animal-related modes of being. Biennial artist Carla Bengtson’s floor graphic serves as a score for a scent-sharing ritual followed by a dance performance created by choreographer Darion Smith and composer Juliet Palmer.

Check out excerpts from the Other Nations:video 2024 below.

Choreographer Darion Smith and composer Juliet Palmer invite ground squirrel, coyote and rattlesnake to flow through the human body as movement and vocalization. Moving then sounding, the singers responded to three choreographic sketches by Darion Smith. Unaware of the animals they were channeling, their voices betray an intuitive, embodied connection to the more-than-human. Dancing between traffic, grass, concrete, and water, Smith underscores the illusory separation between human and more-than-human beings, nature and culture.