May 4, 2026·Prize

RC Prize 2024 Winner Interview

Still from Fragmente2 by Kerstin Frödin and Åsa Unander-Scharin.

https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2045845/2045846

The Society for Artistic Research’s RC Prize for Best Exposition was awarded this year to Fragmente2, a choreomusical project by musician Kerstin Frödin and choreographer-dancer Åsa Unander-Scharin. 

Their collaborative work takes Makoto Shinohara’s composition Fragmente (1968) as its point of departure, expanding it into a contrapuntal dialogue between music and dance where both forms are treated as equal partners. In Fragmente2, sound and movement are explored as interwoven materials, not merely coexisting but actively shaping one another. 

The project draws on experimental phenomenology and perspective variation, metaphorical mapping, and choreomusicology, using methods such as annotated scores, choreography scripts, video analysis, and metaphorical frameworks to articulate complex relationships between gesture, rhythm, and sound. What emerges is a performance structured as 17 fragments, where both performers are fully choreographed and engaged in a layered interplay of musical and choreographic “objects.” 

At once rigorous and playful, in Fragmente2, artistic research serves as both method and outcome where the development, staging, and refinement of the choreomusical work, generate knowledge about how dance and music can function as equal, contrapuntal partners. 

In this interview, Frödin and Unander-Scharin reflect on their creative process, their collaboration, and the artistic methods that underpin their research.

To start off, could you share a bit about how Fragmente2 first came about?
 

Kerstin:
Sure - I can start by talking about the music we’ve been working with, which is a contemporary classical piece for tenor recorder, written by Makoto Shinohara in 1968. It’s one of those pieces that many (many!) recorder players go through. I’ve lived with this piece since college. Many years ago, we created an initial version of it, and we found the music very enjoyable to explore, especially in relation to dance. 

The music is very flexible—written as a set of short fragments that can be combined in different orders. You can decide that order before the performance or even during it, if you