Waiting for the elves is a new commission for RDF, the last chapter of a long choreographic research by Helle Siljeholm on and with mountains, exploring deep past, present and possible futures. In Reykjavik the creation is co-created with italian curator Lisa Gilardino and Mazen Maarouf, a Palestinian writer, translator and journalist. The work hosted at Mazen’s home is a nod to Godot, to absurdism, to stillness, to politics, to spirits. A title that suggests both reverence and irony. And maybe something else: a willingness to believe, or to suspend Disbelief. Because belief — like geology, like performance — is layered, tectonic, a slow-motion shift.

Waiting for the elves was developed by writer Mazen Maarouf, curator Lisa Gilardino and choreographer and visual artist Helle Siljeholm.

Helle Siljeholm is a visual artist and choreographer based in Oslo (NO), currently

pursuing a PhD at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Her artistic practice spans

film, installation, sculpture, choreography, and performance. Her work is exhibited and

presented nationally and internationally. Her research project explores geological

entities such as mountains and land formations, and their human, nature, culture

entanglements within geological time, present, and possible futures. Helle´s artistic

work, research and practice is much influenced by 10 years of working in various artistic

collaborative projects in the Middle East (Lebanon, Palestine and

Jordan).

www.themountainbody.com/

www.hellesiljeholm.com

Mazen Maarouf (1978) is a Palestinian writer, translator and journalist. Born in

Beirut, he has published three collections of poetry: ‘The Camera Doesn’t Capture

Birds’, ‘Our Grief Resembles Bread’, ‘An Angel Suspended On a Clothesline’, three short story collections: ‘Jokes for the Gunmen’, ‘Rats that Licked the Karate Champion’s

Ears’ and ‘Sunshine on a bench of Substitutes‘ and one novella titled ‘Curse of mud-

balls Kid“. He was awarded and LiteraturLana prize for poetry and Al-Multaqa prize

for best short story collectionand was longlisted for Man Booker International Prize,

longlisted for Edinburgh Book festival Award and shortlisted for Saif Ghobash Banipal

Prize

Lisa Gilardino is a curator based in Bologna (IT). She has been working for twenty years

curating festivals, leading cultural institutions, producing and developing

internationally artists’ creations. Among other things she co-directed Santarcangelo

Festival, the major and oldest Italian festival for contemporary creation, co-founded

Samara Editions-Performances by Post, a publishing house for performative arts

commissioning new works to be sent to spectators by post and co- curated Høstscena

festival in Ålesund, Norway. In 2024 she curates The Sea of rocks by Helle Siljeholm a

choreography for and with a mountain, five climbers and a live musician, set across four

vertical cliff faces in an absolutely breath taking scenery in the Dolomites. She loves

hiking and being surprised.

A commission by Reykjavik Dance Festival 2025, made possible with the support of Perform Europe as part of The Mountain Range Beyond Borders project