Debut Fest: Modsat Moderskab

Andrea Svaneeng draws on her poetry collection "Opposite of Motherhood" and poses a question that runs through the entire performance: What does it say about a woman that she does not want children?

The performance moves through situations many childless women know - family gatherings, curious or boundary-crossing questions from both acquaintances and strangers, political voices and biological arguments - and into the more private reflections that come with choosing outside the norm. The choice not to have children is portrayed in all its nuances: strong, funny, lonely, relieving and indifferent, sometimes all at once. The work particularly circles around biology, inheritance and ideas about the future.

Svaneeng is a poet and performer based in Copenhagen and has been reading at the city's poetry scenes since 2011. As a 37-year-old voluntarily childless woman, she works in the field between the personal, the political and the artistic - using humor and skewed observations as tools to examine how norms embed themselves in language, relationships and the body.

Follow the project and the artist on Instagram: @modsat_moderskab & @svaneeng_digte