ELINA BRY

WORK
The Complaint of a Lost Astronaut










Performance
Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, Scotland
2023 Performed as part of Bake Beans on the Doorstep at the Old Hairdressers, Glasgow

An audience-participatory performance following the poetic unraveling of a lost astronaut—adrift not only in space but in conscience. Having returned to Earth, they are struck by the weight of their own carbon footprint, a symbol of progress turned into a figure of ecological guilt. Once celebrated for exploration and innovation, the astronaut now grapples with the contradictions of their journey and the overwhelming realities of environmental crisis.

The piece explores themes of greenwashing, green shaming, and the collective failure to take responsibility for climate collapse. The astronaut’s “complaint” is a sorrowful reckoning with systems that prioritise productivity and growth over care and accountability.

Through direct engagement with the audience, the performance blurs the lines between absurdity and sincerity, inviting reflection on our own complicity in extractive systems and the narratives we choose to believe. A performance about floating in space—and the difficulty of landing.



Photographer : Alexis Galbrun-Thauré
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Founding Member: 
Creative Recovery Inverclyde

Creative Degrowth Scotland ELINA BRY is French/Finnish, Glasgow based multidisciplinary artist and award-winning filmmaker. They work across video, storytelling and live performance, and is interested at listening to and re-staging the malfunctions of the human body. They are curious about the body as a sentient arena; as a responsive tool and as a protagonist of an everyday drama. By that, they investigate the known, model it and work in collaboration with the instability of their body. It is essential that they don't cause any harm as they want to challenge their body with the everyday, in order to give a stage and witness what is already there.
The thematic undercurrents of ecology and slow travel prominently weave through their artistic endeavours. Through their multidisciplinary approach, they seek to unravel the nuanced interplay between the human form and its environment, exploring the intricacies of the body while maintaining a conscientious connection to ecological and sustainable principles.