Infinite Pollination

Pollination is a vital act, a delicate exchange that transfers life from one organism to another and sustains the continuity of existence. Drawing inspiration from natural pollinators such as bees, whose quiet labor supports entire ecosystems, as well as from the Norse Norns, mythological figures who weave the threads of fate, this experimental opera performance explores how bodies, species, and ecological systems are interlinked across time, space, and dimension.

Created and directed by visual artist Cecilia Fiona, the piece unfolds as a meditative ritual—part funeral, part fertility rite where sculpture, movement, and voice are interwoven. The performers in this piece act as cosmic pollinators carrying small hybrid beings from one sculptural body to another, animating them with their voices, evoking the buzzing of insects and the murmurs of spirits.

This repeated act of transfer, combining movement and vocalisation, forms an ecological system within the installation and connects micro- and macrocosmos.

Wearing hand-sewn, handpainted costumes by Fiona, the cosmic pollinators move through a sculptural imaginative landscapes, crafted from organic materials. 

About the development of the music composition:

Cecilia Fiona has given each sulptural element its own sound and mapped out a choreography the performers are following. The assigned sounds are poetic sound concepts based on feelings and descriptions ex the sound of pollen, the sound of the goddess (life and death in one sound). Through the choreography in the space the music composition emerges as the performers intuitively interpret the sound of each element they are encountering with their voices. After each performance the music composition and choreography are transformed back into a visual music score by Cecilia Fiona. 

The sound in the video is the live recorded sound of the three performers’ voices a capella. 

The performance was reviewed in the Wire Magazine by Robert Barry: 

“Cecilia Fiona’s Infinite Polliation sees the kunsthall invaded by ambulant flora. From behind a false wall resembling a giant burnt hedge, a trio emerge dressed like something from a Yorgos Lanthimos adaption of a medieval herbal, their voices sighing and murmuring in ethereal harmony. These eerie, stately figures, their faces wrapped in tulip-shaped brocade, seem to float through the space on waves of sound, solemnly interacting with Fiona’s quasi-organic sculptures, made of loofah, seashells, rabbit-skin glue, sisal fibres and ceramics. The 20 minute performance has the air of an extraterrestrial ritual, a supplication before gods both ancient and futuristic…….works like Franz, Infinite Pollination and Rofûldur in particular prove that this small festival (Borealis) can still break new ground” 

Review in I Care If You Listen by Amanda Cook: 

“Other highlights of the festival included Sonic Entanglements at Østre and Infinite Pollination at Bergen Kunsthall….Earlier that day was Cecilia Fiona’s Infinite Pollination, a short operatic performance in the Iter Subterraneum exhibition in Bergen Kunsthall. The ritualistic activation of the surrealist, alien sculpture garden featured faceless “cosmic pollinators” clad in regal, almost medieval-looking costumes. Gorgeous, soaring two-part counterpoint in the treble voices was met with a textural underpinning of buzzing, humming, and whistling from the bass-baritone as the trio pantomimed the creation and destruction of life.”