Newsround session
Dear all,
I am glad to inform you that almost 50 people applied for our Newsround IETM Amsterdam.
Below you will find the selection of projects that will be presented at the session on Friday 15 April (10:00-12:00) at Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam - Koninklijke Foyer.
Don’t hesitate in the meantime to get in touch with the presenters if any of the projects seems interesting to you.
"VOICES OF EUROPE" -
HORTZMUGA TEATROA is a professional theatre company created in 1989 in Bilbao (Spain). After many theatrical and artistic experiences it is perceived that spectators want to reflect on their concerns, their emotions, their experience. This is the starting point of the project “Voices of Europe”, to create a space where to ask and share those reflections and deliver them to all European citizens, promoting a European collective consciousness for participation and motivation.
“Voices of Europe” looks for making people aware of the positive evolvement of society through participation and exchange of experiences. It aims to create new audiences and to develop new ways of sharing culture through the direct participation of the spectators in the process, by proposing innovative dynamics that show the European different social and cultural systems.
Innovative strategies will be used so as to attract new audiences. Workshops, seminars but also an artistic container will be the spaces where to develop collective thinking and start a dialogue among citizenship. This space will be freely used by citizens so as to express ideas, tell stories or even leave artistic testimonies in each city. To sum up, the container will be designed to make visible the voices of the inhabitants, the voices of Europe.
The project aims to be a starting point, a source of inspiration for the creation of the Voices of Europe Cities Network, composed of cities that want to join the project and to participate in the development of an active and continuous European social consciousness.
In conclusion, arts are seen as tools for social transformation. Art and culture should promote discussion, stimulate society’s thinking process, raise questions, and contribute to human development. This project seeks to incentive the audiences and, at the same time, to improve the skills of artists and professionals. And, on the other hand, V.O.E. will prove that the vast majority of the participants see culture as an essential factor for social cohesion, a tool for dialogue and a mean able to mobilise the people.
livescore is a year-long digital youth arts project which explores the concept of instruction scores and graphic scores, highlighting their potential for imaginative interpretation and cross art-form work. A creative team of artists will work with young people in Scotland and Belgium to create material and ideas through instructions scores and collaborating to develop the artistic potential of livestreaming, projection mapping and playing with coding.
Many young people involved in the project will also help shape the development of a live performance - As The Crow Flies - that will premiere in Scotland in October 2016.
Other activity includes the creation of an interactive website to facilitate the creation and sharing of instruction and graphic scores, training workshops for artists and workshops with young people.
Project partners are Argyll Youth Arts Hub, #artcore (Edinburgh Youth Arts Hub), Lyceum Youth Theatre, After the News and Kopergietery (Ghent, Belgium).
Weekly Ticket Footscray – An Artist at the Station
What if a public art work was an artist?
Weekly Ticket Footscray( WTF) is a fifteen year living experiment into the definition of performance.
WTF installs an artist at the busy Footscray Train Station, Melbourne, Australia, once a week for fifteen years. The artist is David Wells, local Footscray artist, This work is an experiment that tracks an artist who commits his life to a durational engagement. The project embraces one performer’s long-term, wide-ranging, spontaneous and planned collaborations and interventions. We are a society obsessed with the short-term, the rapid succession of technologies, people, trends, not least in the short-term cycle of performance creation. WTF matches the artwork to the real life-time of a person and a place.
David begins the project aged 55, and completes it at 70, the new “retirement” age. Over fifteen years, the station will become a site of conversation between commuters, locals, workers and artists.
As the project develops, other local, national and international artists will be invited to become part of an expanded performative conversation, with endless possibilities. This is why we are bringing WTF to newsround. We want to talk with you about ways that artists may engage with WTF, in the flesh, online and over short and long periods of time.
Some people will see and document the work over years. A variety of documentation processes will also inform a long-term online archive, shared across the world. The artwork will respond to the humanness of the station, becoming a poetic stage. This is a fifteen year commitment for us, a simple premise with profound ramifications. The typical will become surreal and the extraordinary commonplace, as commuters and locals become part of a living public artwork that grows together in an iconic Western Suburbs setting in Melbourne, Australia.
The WTF artistic team:
Concept/Artistic Directors: Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey
Performance Artist: David Wells
Performance Director: Merophie Carr
Producer/Engagement Manager: Bec Reid
When: 3 Feb 2016 > 3 Feb 2031
One hour...once a week...every week...for 15 years...(times will vary)
Contact:
Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey- Artistic Directors
+61 (0)406 949 842
contact@madeleineandtim.net
http://madeleineandtim.net
"Dream for me" is a collaborative performance between Beirut based performer Yara Bou Nassar,Swiss musician Paed Conca and Bern based performer Annalena Freulich. It explores the limits of anxiety and the interlaced relation it has with individual and collective violence.
In the midst of the refugee crisis, social anxiety has been escalating everywhere, from fear of invasion to the fear of rejected asylum, from the fear of disrupting a “balanced” equation to the fear of being lost at sea, and the higher the anxiety the more extreme inhuman behavior becomes!
The research phase of this project explores the scope of anxiety from the social to the very personal. It questions the fear of having one's place disrupted by an outside force and where it might lead in terms of social cruelty to ensure stability. It also questions the “luxury” of artists to have creative means as an outlet to anxiety and their responsibility to create art relevant to social and political crisis.
The performance focuses on how anxiety affects daily behavior of different people(particularly body language and obsessive behavior) and the emotional graph it produces especially in the midst of political and social crisis. It also tackles the performers' anxiety during an artistic creation, using themselves for research as well as testimonies from fellow artists on the issue of socially engaged art and the pressure of staying in context as an artist.
The performance will vary between fiction and documentary unfolding the confessions of different people, including the performers, while dealing with their daily anxieties at the peak of their restlessness.
One of the aims of this presentation in News round is to generate a discussion on this issue among artists and find people who might be interested in joining the research process whether by giving testimonies or by interviewing others.
VIDEODANCESHOW It's an open research about the connections between the spontaneus dance improvisations and movement experiments of children and contemporary dance.Between the human way of dancing, the joy of moving and the way that animals and elements of the nature moves.
The aim of the project is to create an interactive video dance show that for a main goal has to reach the experience of a painted videogame completely invented and realized by and with the kids,about their ideas of dance and nature, that promotes painting, dancing and moving as a cooperative adventure, a discovering game, and that can involve adults and parents of children of different age,with or without special needs, in children's dances.I've conducted dance workshops with children from Italy and Switzerland working on their improvisations skills and desires of movement with pursue of finding examples of qualities they want to explore in nature elements (like fire and water) and animals,with follow to procreate the invention of dance games that request us to move with that kind of energy.
Then they painted nature worlds as a set for playing the games they invented and realized with me the video elements of the show(as the dancing mermaids); those worlds were animated and projected on the floor during the show, they become, with a vj interaction, the playground for new experiences of dance adventures (transform into fire, being a squirrel or a mermaid, make happy a sad gorilla with dance) to play with their families and the public.The next step for the project would be to do the same process with other kids in other countries,that have another idea of nature and dance, creating new games with them,realizing,i hope,a video interactive game of dance made by kids all around the world.To do this I would like to collaborate with dancers and dance companies that would like to conduct workshops with me in their countries and being on stage at the end in the show, contributing with their skills and sensibility to the methods and contents of the research, as well communicating with the children in their native language.
Also I am searching institutions that would like to host the format in a period of time, work on a special program and propose it to school classes or informal groups of kids.
Samovarteateret – the world’s northernmost professional theatre
This is the first time Samovarteateret participate on an IETM meeting. Therefore, we want to make a brief presentation of the theatre to come in contact whit partners and artist for future collaboration, exchange knowledge and get a network for our tour activity.
Samovarteateret is a professional theatre established by actress and director Bente Andersen in 1990. The theatre is localized in Kirkenes/ Norway - in the border area between Norway, Russia and Finland.
The theatre has set up more than 50 professional theatre productions with stage artists from 16 different countries. Samovarteateret works locally, nationally and internationally, and produces 2-3 performances each year that tours Norway, The High North and Europe.
Samovarteateret has eight permanent employees and engages between 15 and 35 artists every year in our different productions and projects.
We want to create performances that focuses on, and questions, the present. We get ideas, inspiration and stories from the society around us, from national and international politics and people we meet. It is therefore fundamental for Samovarteateret to have a strong community involvement. We think that theatre can communicate where politics and words do not.
In over 25 years, Samovarteateret has developed new-written drama. Our goal is to create unique performances that touches and engages. We have developed our own distinctive Samovar methodology, a unique way to produce our performances.
In advance of a production, we have an idea and then conducts different kinds of research and scenic exploration. Then a cooperation between director and play writer is initiated. Thereafter the text is translated and adapted into the respective languages of the stage performers. Often we engage stage performers with different nationality, language, cultural and professional background.
The process ends in a performance with a scenic idiom where text, movement, music and multilingualism is merged into a whole.
Our collaboration partners is often from other border area in Europa, among others from Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Poland, Spain, Turkey, Lithuania, Russia and the Nordic countries.
In Addition to produce professional performances, the theatre does commissioned work and directing, and take part in different national and international collaborations.
Samovarteateret has also since 1991 run an educational theatre programme for children and youths in Sør-Varanger. Our theatre school has about 60 students aged 7 -19 years. Every year we set up
1 – 3 performances whit the students. The theatre school is also involved in various international projects.
Samovar (Russian tea boiler) means self boiling.
It is warm, beautiful to look at, something that you can fill up, drain off and it is constantly simmering.
Just as we believe that theatre should be,
therefore; Samovarteateret.
For more information abbot the theatre: www.samovarteateret.com
The Phoenix Theatre and Workshop Studio is the only host theatre in the countryside of Hungary, presenting the cream of contemporary performance art productions all over the year – from Hungary and abroad alike. The theatre, located in Jászberény, 80 km from the capital of Hungary, Budapest, offers a perfect environment for coproduction performances, residence programmes, workshops and training courses. Since it was founded in 2009, it has hosted 55-65 different productions each year. Apart from presenting classical plays in Hungarian language, the primary aim of our studio theatre with an accommodating capacity of 120 spectators is to present productions of dance, circus, fine art and music, and especially performances that were born out of combining the above.
Our aim is to host a greater variety of productions from all over Europe. If any troupes are interested in presenting their shows in our studio theatre, they are more than welcome to contact us.
We also wish to become co-organizers with European organisations that are similar in structure and capacity.
Furthermore, we are looking for partner organizations for implementing residence programmes, as well as training courses on themes combining dance, circus, fine arts and music.
Contact: Tibor Varszegi info@malomszinhaz.hu +36309081656
Revitalizing the Past, Creating the Future.
The new generation of Ukrainians, which was born after Ukraine became independent in 1991, has to live during the most complicated and dramatic changes in post-soviet history of young Ukrainian state. Being in the conditions of a non-stop pressure from a soviet mentality, which is still persist, and paternalism of the elder generation, these young people are nonetheless the main mover of the changes, which happens in Ukrainian society during last years.
The struggle with the remnants of the soviet past, which became in Ukraine the governmental program named «decommunisation», is in fact a banal demolition of architectural, art and decorative objects, which symbolizes communistic ideas.
We propose to reconsider architectural and art objects of the soviet past of Ukraine by making them a part of performative works of contemporary choreographers (as well as musicians, light designers, video designers) from Ukraine and East and Central Europe countries (which existed for a long time under the influence of the communistic ideas).
The goal of the project is creating the cycle of the site-specific works, aimed to explore the history of Soviet Ukraine by examples of soviet architecture objects and comprehension of their complex influence on the contemporary man.
The curators of the project are Anton Ovchinnikov (zelyonkafest@gmail.com) - artistic director of Zelyonka fest Contemporary dance festival and Alexander Manshylin (manshylin@gmail.com) - choreographer, professor and historian of dance.
Introducing NYC's prestigious League of Professional Theatre Women, the International Committee and the Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award. The League provides cultural exchange, performance events, networking forums, cross-pollination of theatrical practice, increases visibility of women in theatre, expands access to global resources, and advocates for economic parity for women artists everywhere.
The International Committee exists to broaden members’ awareness of other cultures and promote opportunities for theatre exchange and collaboration between women working in the U.S. and abroad. We welcome international affiliates FREE and host and support them when they come to the U.S. We also support the formation of League chapters in affiliates’ home countries and facilitate dialogue and advocacy for women in theatre across borders.
The Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award was established in 2011 in honor of Rosamond Gilder and Martha Coigney, two legendary theatre women whose work on the international stage proved that theatre knows no boundaries. Presented every three years, this award acknowledges the exceptional work of theatre women around the world and aims to make a difference in the life and career of an international woman theatre artist. Patricia Ariza of Teatro la Candelaria, Bogota, Colombia, received the 2014 award of $1,000 plus a trip to NYC, where we created a week-long celebration of her work at La MaMa, Martin Segal/ CUNY Graduate Center, and the Lark. The week culminated in an Awards After-Party at 230 Fifth, NYC's largest rooftop cafe, opposite the Empire State Building. 21 finalists were also honored.
We are strongly seeking FREE international affiliates and nominations for the next International Theatre Award (deadline June 30th). I will distribute cards to potential affiliates, offering to be your League SPONSOR, and forms for award nominations. To meet or talk: +1 917 566 5030, Melbalarose@gmail.com, or Melba LaRose on Whatsapp. Apply for affiliate membership here: http://theatrewomen.org/apply-for-membership/
L’âge de la tortue is a team that designs and implements art projects in the fields of visual and performing arts. L’âge de la tortue is an NGO founded in 2001 in Rennes (Brittany, France), with an horizontal governance, and active in the field of European cooperation since 2009.
Based on current critical thought within our contemporary society and respecting cultural rights, L’âge de la tortue sets out to question our relationship to political and societal representations to challenge our view of the world. The methodologies applied, which will take the form of interdisciplinary laboratories led by artists working on a long term basis within communities, will feed into the production of the outcomes. These laboratories shall be comprised from different art disciplines, think tanks, and contributing laboratories with individuals and teams in their particular territory.
Considering the deregulation of looks and the intersection approaches as a major social issue today, L’âge de la tortue defends a transversal approach to artistic creation in connection with actors from diverse backgrounds to question our representations on migration, urban transformations or the place of women. As such, L’âge de la tortue is part of a logic of cooperation and complementarity considering partnerships and works with arts and cultural organizations, as well as with universities and research laboratories in the humanities and social sciences, social structures, local authorities and communities.
Established in the district of Le Blosne in Rennes, said as a popular neighbourhood, L’âge de la tortue develops its projects from a micro-local level in coordination with other territories in Europe. L’âge de la tortue calls on international actors to think about political and societal issues and challenges of European integration, considering the European level as a joint action scale while taking into account its various intervention territories.
Since 2009, the organization initiates and carries European cooperation projects including 3 projects which received funding from the European Commission (Citizenship and Erasmus+ programs), involving France, Spain, Portugal, the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, Poland and Romania.
Joining IETM network and plenary meeting for the first time, I want to introduce the organization I represent to IETM members.
Firstly, we are eager to meet new partners, especially from the arts and cultural sector, in a process of sharing experiences and good practice, including on the development of artistic projects in a contributory, cooperative and multidisciplinary approach.
Secondly, in the current development of our cooperation project "The Encyclopedia of migrants", an experimental artistic project that aims to bring together in an encyclopedia 400 life stories of testimonies of migrants involving 8 European cities of the Atlantic coast of Europe, we wish to share this initiative and make accessible to a great audience this encyclopaedia to be published under Creative Commons license including digital and version available in 4 languages (French, English, Spanish and Portuguese).
Do not hesitate to get in touch to plan meetings in Amsterdam and for further information at coordination@agedelatortue.org / +33 661 757 603.
Céline Laflute, Coordinator
Newsroom: Where is Hamlet? (CREW,BE)
Digital technologies have inspired cutting-edge experimentation in performance, transforming our relationship with the text, body, time and space. Brussels-based CREW has been at the forefront of these transformations, designing wearable devices and applying them in performance. CREW uses immersive technologies to fully situate the participants in digital environments and project omnidirectional video through goggles with the motion-tracking device. We develop ground-breaking technologies for performance work, it contributes to the creation of a new medium that combines theatre, video art and computer gaming. Given the cultural significance and social impact of digital technologies, it is vital to explore both the creative possibilities of this medium and its implications for cultural production.
The artistic project Where is Hamlet? will revolve around Shakespeare and new media. It will confront us with unexpected perspectives. We want to step into the unknown and be faced with that which we don't know or understand, to open up for other perspectives. Hamlet is used as metaphorically figure in order to address difficult things. The immersion will serve to generate empathy in a visceral way. We never get to see the father himself (because we embody his look), but through the son, Hamlet, we will see the effect of his authority through a ‘mirror’. Experiencing other perspectives from inside generates empathy. And it is empathy we need to find in order to understand.
It will be a European Project working with an extensive network of individual and institutional partners. Where is Hamlet? will maximize cross-fertilization between researchers and artists from various disciplines and thus encourage the quest for social and technological innovation.
MAIN QUESTION OF THE PROJECT: HOW TO RESPOND ETHICALLY IN A CONFLICTED WORLD? How are we positioned by media? Is democracy inefficient?
CREW seeks European partners + dialogue.
In 2018, the city of Leeuwarden together with the province of Frieland, hosts the European Capital of Culture. Located in the northern part of the Netherlands, this is a region where both Dutch and Frisian is spoken. Being bilingual, it is a place where language has always been an important topic of debate.
One of the projects to be carried out in the framework of our cultural programme dealing with this subject is Lân fan Taal (Land of Language). In a completely new way, this project shows that being able to deal with several languages is more topical than ever and that societies consist of an increasing number of nationalities and bilingual families.
Lân fan Taal (Land of Language) wants to demonstrate the power and meaning of languages in a multilingual context, by using language as a metaphor for the rich diversity of our society. The programme is divided into three parts:
1.Public- and knowledge centre in Leeuwarden;
2. Lân fan Taal (Land of Language) caravan travelling through Friesland;
3. Wrâld fan Taal (World of Language) European network, virtual netwerk and knowledge centre.
Lân fan Taal (Land of Language) will be the first public centre for multilingualism in the world, in which the individual experience of language plays a key role. To achieve this, an appeal will be made to the visitor’s personal experience with, and history of, language. It will become a new stage where the Frisian and other (minority) languages can be expierenced in the broadest sense.
The aims of our presentation:
1.Find partners interested in developing and honouring their own language and culture, while at the same time using this language experience to make the connection to other languages and cultures;
2.See which cooperations through language projects are possible in Leeuwarden or through projects taking place elsewhere?
ABUSES. Social inequality and machismo.
We want to work and encourage the issue of abuse, inequality, gender and machismo through the Performing Arts and the circus-theater plasticity concerned.
We’re a contemporary Spanish circus and theatre company named Patricia Pardo. Our company premiered in 2010 COMISSURA, in 2014 THE MARX’S FANDANGO and in 2015 ASS KOMBAT.
Those 3 works deal with the issue of abuse and inequality from two perspectives:
- THE MARX’S FANDANGO from the class identity. Reclaiming the awareness and the worker’s internationalism, appealing to the utopia of balance and equality.
- COMISSURA and ASS KOMBAT treat the abuse from the perspective of the imposed gender identities and from the sexification, seeds of machismo. Vindicating the elimination of gender but without forgetting the imposed identities to identify precisely those abuses. ASS KOMBAT is co-produced with Amnesty International in its campaign "My body, my rights," where it clearly questions the meddling in bodies, in identities, in the imposition of the categories.
In all projects we expose content from the physical theatre, clown but also from the textual delirium or live music. From the transgressor mood but also from the fragility of personal exposure. We also propose workshops focused to sensitize the public to the theme of gender or creativity as a way to escape from the social determinism.
We present our project with the idea to get in touch with companies, spaces, festivals which are sensitive to these issues and want to collaborate with different organizations to give more visibility to the creative that are speaking about inequality and abuse.
Stéphanie Cadel
International management & Communication
int@patriciapardo.es
www.patriciapardo.es
(+30 694 099 10 35 / +34 663 129 358)
Light Field is an off-grid, kinetically powered participatory installation by artists Bill Thompson and Saffy Setohy; Made of, and activated by light, people and the sound of light. Suitable for outdoor festivals and public space events after dark, or indoor, dark environments such as community spaces, basement studios and unusual spaces.
A multi-part sound score is made by capturing and curating the sound of our natural and built environment- from the night skies and magnetic north, to a street lamp or emergency exit. These are then amplified through kinetically powered lanterns, which in-turn emit diffused lights. Audience-participants are invited by installation facilitators to interact with these sound and light devices, as well as each other. They are given gentle, simple instructions which facilitate movement and play and have an effect on the sound score and light. The installation unfolds and changes over time as people come and go, creating an extraordinary and unique experience for those that choose to activate the installation, but also for those that choose to watch or listen to it close up or from a distance.
Visually captivating, with a subtle sound score made of the sound of light and VLF/Natural Radio, the work playfully considers philosophical and practical ideas of contrasting needs for natural and technological light and darkness around the world, our relationship to energy generation and consumption, and our individual and collective agency.
aims of the presentation:
- explore whether there are partners who would like to collaborate on the project's development and presentation in public
- generate discussion about themes of art in public space, democracy and co-authorship through art, digital technology and liveness, which Light Field brings up
The organization of an event (in Blackburn, United Kingdom), surrounding sports with the inclusion of arts as a means to raise awareness of what the event is in aid of, this will allow for people to be faced with the charity cause and encourage funds to be raised. The possible countries to participate include UK, Germany, Poland, Tunisia, Bosnia, France, Belgium, Holland with 5-6 participants from each. This will commence from Summer 2017.
There is a need for young people to keep active and stay fit. The ideal way in which to do this is to make it fun, exciting and a fresh challenge all the while, doing it for a cause which will enable young people to be motivated throughout. By integrating arts surrounding a potential sports project, it caters to the diverse young people with varying interests. Organizing a sports day, from start to finish will be productive way for young people to learn from each other and build their team working abilities. It is an excellent means for bringing together different cultures and backgrounds. The way in which art will be combined, is by allowing small groups of participants to be responsible for various aspects of the event. This could involve, designing their own kits/ equipment for the sports day, using graffiti or street art as a way of advertising their event, and the cause for which they are raising money for eg Banners. It would be exceptionally beneficial if during the event, various countries set up their own stalls in which they provide typical beverages and food from their country in order to showcase where they come from and allow others to appreciate the diversity (and raise money). All the money made, through selling food and drink, entry fees etc. will be donated to a chosen charity. Arts is an excellent way of expressing oneself, and sports is a way to bring people together, strengthen one’s own skills such as resilience and tactics. Hence this is a perfect way to explore cultures, challenge themselves individually and enjoy a project while keeping in mind those who are less privileged and the end result being the aid of those individuals. Non formal education will be put in place in order to raise awareness and educate participants on the issue, this be decided according to the views of the participants, ideas include refugees, human trafficking, domestic abuse, child abuse etc.
The cultural market is suffering a big crisis due to the changing market conditions but also caused by the drastic reduction of local and national funds dedicated to cultural products and spaces in the show and art market.
Seeking for alternative funds becomes one of the primary needs and thus motivations for the shows business actors.
CROWDARTS supports “artistic sustainability and divulgation of culture” at European and International level to allow the Performing Arts sector to evolve, regenerate and innovate.
CROWDARTS is the first crowdfunding reward-based platform dedicated to Performing Arts that allows to raise money financing not only ideas (Production Campaigns) but also more developed projects (Marketplace) with the objective to reduce the enormous gap between artists, partners, supporters and funding.
CROWDARTS focus its initial attention on the European artists scene, and in particular to Performing Arts artists’ network and projects that are a big part of the European cultural offer but not so well supported and sustained with concrete and focused tools.
We are developing a specific area (Marketplace) dedicated to the matchmaking between produced projects and spaces all around Europe to facilitate the distribution and scouting of projects.
Through this space we want to facilitate the networking, the knowledge exchange and enhanced services that will help artists, residencies, training centers and supporters in the elaboration, partnership formation, positioning and production of creative projects, thus creating an incubator of “creative acts” for Europe.
Firstly, we are eager to meet new partners, spaces and projects especially from the arts and cultural sector that want to agree and develop this network with us on Crowdarts.
Secondly, we are looking for partners, organizations and companies that want to work at European level on the themes of “audience development” and “crowdfunding” .
How to use the crowdfunding instrument to generate a new relationship with the audience?
La Conquesta del Pol Sud is a company formed by Carles Fernández Giua and Eugenio Szwarcer, in 2008. They have been developing different projects for more than 8 years, and have established a strong level of impact in the Catalan performing arts scene as well as in the international one.
The company has always had a dual focus: On the one hand, the social aspect, the interest in current issues and the focus on the reality of the moment; on the other hand, the formal research and the investigation of the dramatic language.
One of the core interests of their work is the relationship between the collective history and individual experiences. The connection and the influence between these two 'stories' has lead them to a field close to the field of documentary theatre. Through their work with real testimonies, they explore the poetry that emerges from reality and start their own journey through documentation and journalistic investigation. In addition, in order to find the right dramaturgy and some audio-visual support for the performance, they start a journey themselves to explore the context in which the protagonists experiences have appeared and have been forged.
Nowadays they are developing a trilogy around the idea of global history and personal identity through the experience and life stories of three female figures. The aim is to use the individual experience without intermediaries and transmit it to the public by the protagonist herself as a raw material to be modelled. In 2015 they composed "Nadia", a documentary theatre project that seeks to develop a dialogue between cultures, Arab and Western, from the perspective of a real testimony of survival and integration.
'Claudia' is the second play of the trilogy about Identity and History and this time it goes about the story of Claudia Victoria Poblete who discovered his true identity when she was 22 years old: she was kidnaped from her real family during the military dictatorship in Argentina a few weeks after her birth.
Although their theatre is strongly experimental, they are proud to have awaked the interest of audiences from all ages and backgrounds.
The aim of the Performing Arts Research Centre (C.IN.E.) in Sineu is to fill a gap in the actual scenic creation scenario in the Balearic Islands through internationalisation, network creation and investigation. The C.IN.E’s managers are Biel Jordà and Marta Barceló, who are responsible for its artistic direction. They are the co-directors of the circus-theatre production company Res de Res i En Blanc, which is also the owner of the building. The place, the project’s headquarters, is an old cinema built during the Spanish Second Republic.The objectives of the Performing Arts Research Centre, as its name suggests, are to host, provoke and promote artistic processes, acting as a network with other centres or artists, as well as creating connections between creators and audience. The centre aims to enhace projects related to new scenic languages and multidisciplinary productions.
The C.IN.E. is a private management project that aspires to become a place of exchage, development, human enrichment and ongoing reflection. A bridge between local creators, foreign creators, local population and cultural agents, aiming to transcend the insularity and to project a meeting, experimentation, critical exchange and action context.
Some of the proposals for this singular place (an old cinema which still remains in the collective memory of the Sineu population) are creation residences, laboratories, workshops, reflection conferences or seminars.
The official opening was on february 26 2016.
Irregular Arts is a performing arts and participatory company based in Bradford a city in the North of England.
We have a saying, in English - 'Don't make a song and dance about it'. It means don't make a fuss, don't get so upset. Irregular Arts are starting a programme of work that will invite people to, literally, make a song and dance about the things that matter most to them. We will be starting this with women's groups, and then wider groups in different communities across the Bradford district, bringing them together to show what they've made at local festivals and events.
Bradford is a city with a lot of poverty and deprivation, social exlusion, a long history of migration to the city from all over the world, the largest recent intake of refugees of any UK city, situated in a district with beautiful countryside including Ilkley Moor, a UNESCO City of Film and a UNESCO World Heritage Site (the model village of Saltaire), and a rich cultural history (including having been home to the Brontes, J B Priestley, David Hockney, and Delius - to name just a few).
'Diversity' - so often used in policy/strategy as a euphemism for 'Black and Minority Ethnic' has a much broader meaning in a place like Bradford - the many and multiple ethnicities and heritages of our citizens intersect with their identities as young, old, male, female, transgender, educated, engaged, socially excluded, physically disabled, learning disabled, non-disabled, rich, poor, gay, bisexual, questionning and more... Bradford's communities and citizens are wonderful and get on well with eachother, but sometimes things get tricky and there is polarisation and misunderstanding - and so many voices go unheard.
Whilst I have the privileges of a University education, class and status, white skin, I sometimes feel unheard. In our so-called democracy, led by a government less than a third of the population voted for, a government that is making vile and unequal cuts in the name of 'austerity' I sometimes feel unheard. As a woman, I sometimes feel unheard.
Protest is an option - people are getting angry, turning on eachother, or fighting for change. But it isn't getting us very far and sometimes it's just more noise - and noone is really heard. The patriarchy continues, systematically, as we all collude in playing by the rules of protest, to resist and fight for change.
So we're experimenting with a new approach. What if we could make change by making a song and dance? What if this was a way of raising unheard voices to say something new in a really different way?
We will start our work with women and grow it from there. We will use popular song, and work with people to change the words to mean something to them. We will work with gesture, movement and language so that people can express their ideas physically. We will work with specific communities of interest and bring them together to listen and dance to eachother's songs.
This project is at it's earliest stages of research and development and we are interested to talk and listen with other artists and companies working locally, regionally, nationally, internationally to find creative forms of alternative protest, and to understand if and how we can affect change. We are interested to learn about other artists and companies that use popular culture and forms to express and explore complex ideas.
Thank you
Jenny Wilson
Director - Irregular Arts
jenny@irregulararts.com
The video is another Irregular Arts project - 75 Dorothys, which engaged with women and girls across Bradford in 2015 - it gives a flavour of our approaches.
We propose four projects for possible EU-applications. One is:
STREETS (of Europe) in the focus of an interdisciplinary project
We know about Twin Cities in Europe. But we want to focus on special streets in cities of our partners to become Twin-Streets.
The streets should have a similar character in structure and dimension. It should be streets composed of residential houses, small shops and galleries, tradespeople, bakeries and butchers, pubs or cafés, creatives. The citizenry should consist of young and old natives, migrants and citizens. It should not be longer than two kilometers, an alley or a quite narrow street, maybe there is also some green or a playground, not being in the focus of tourists – even a little bit disregarded or unattended.
A group of artists, in co-operation with locals, will make researches about the history of that place, collect stories from the place, listen to the neighbours and ask questions about buildings, people and events, even if they might look very banal or every-day-like.
We are looking for the “the big in the small”.
The stories, events and locations of interest will be the basis of the project. The artists and locals will create a tour through the street, to its places, people and “secret boxes”.
Street ambassadors: At all streets where actions take place, a former shop or other property will be used as “embassies” for the “Street ambassadors”. They inform about the partner-street in the other country, have hand-outs like flyers for the visitors. There can be little performances, music and/or readings as well as medial information about the “twin-streets”. One person is announced as the “Ambassador”. He is accompanied by artist of different kinds. They present their street, invite people to come and see the place, exchange experiences and ideas.
We want to briefly present our performance project "Privacy". We are looking for colleagues dealing with similar topics to engage in a knowledge exchange and create possible collaborations.
For "Privacy" we're currently in the process of researching the possibilities of what can be done with our voluntarily published private digital data.
satellit productions team members are making themselves subjects of research. Artistic director Ana Zirner is making her life transparent by collecting and publishing all of her personal data on a public website, while dramaturg Martina Missel is trying to digitally disappear. By changing our digital lifestyle, we explore the actual risks for regular internet-users and the digital responsibility we hold as a society. This research will become the base for an interactive dance-theatre-performance.
In the performance we will tell the story of a couple that has met and gotten to know each other online and is struggling with the reality of a live-relationship in times of digital self-quantification.
It is no secret that our digital personal data is being collected, stored and processed. Through our daily user behavior we contribute to this more or less knowingly. We’re even likely to pose our most intimate health questions to Google before consulting a doctor. As a whole, the advantages and the comfort of our digital lifestyle outweigh our awareness of possible risks. But when the online content is tailored to our thoughts and behavior, the boundary with manipulation becomes blurred. We don’t take the appropriate measures to protect our privacy, because its threat still seems vague. What do we actually know about the power that can be exercised merely by using our data against us?
The project will premiere in Oct. 16 in Munich, Germany.
Oh Europa! is a long-form, slow tour of Europe in a motorhome. In 2018, Gemma Paintin & James Stenhouse (British performance duo Action Hero) will take to the road for 5 months to make a continuous drive through every country in Europe to discover the character of a continent. Action Hero will create a performance in as they go using the motor home as a site, presenting the piece they are creating at various stops along the way, in addition to a daily blog and online tracker tracing their route. Their journey will take in all 28 EU member states, and the most northerly, southerly, easterly and westerly points of Europe in an attempt to understand the edges and borders of Europe. Their journey also call into mind the other, parallel journeys that are being taken by others whose destination is Europe itself. At a time when Europe is in crisis, Action Hero undertaking this journey to understand both their own role in it (who knows whether Britain will remain in Europe after this years referendum) and how it citizens are connected.
We are seeking enthusiastic partners who are interested in Europe, process-based practices and who would be excited to support and host a project that will be created on the road, and who keen to be engaged in a project that is currently in its developmental stages. We are working with UK organisation Farnham Maltings, and are planning an Creative Europe bid next year.
UP TO YOU ! is a french association. Created in 2010 by Lise BOUCON with a dual focus. On the one hand, support her own Artistic work ; on the other hand, host some other artists from France and abroad, from multidisciplinary Artistic’s field.
With this second focus, the main idea is an idea of sharing. Administrative structure, network and connections, ideas, reflexions and experiences. In a more and more loneliness system, UP TO YOU ! wants to propose and other way of working : together and involved in a largest reflexion in Performing arts.
The first focus is to support the artistic work of Lise Boucon, performer, actress, dancer, director.
After having created two performances, a back to university and an one year experiences as artists manager, she works now of different artistic projects.
A solo : JUST-MARRIED (the most beautiful day of my life)
A performance : No/BODY, with the musician Pau de NUT
A research project : InWAITING
There is a change in the way she works now.
In a wish to broke frontal form and to create a more direct relation with the audience, her work finds its place out of the stage, in non dedicated-spaces. Bar, private apartment, office, garden, outside, public space.... By this way, she wants requestionning place and role of the performers, as the audience.
That’s what of the main topic of the project InWAITING.
Researchs project around « waiting, emptiness and silence ». What’s happen for the audience and performer(s) when « nothing » seems to happen in Space and Time of the performance? Making a focus on the essential of being and presence, InWAITING wants to be a work on the poetic of silence, poetic of nothing. It’s an invitation for a physical and almost a meditative performing experience.
« For this research, I would like to work in different steps. After a loneliness performance, I would like to work on a Research’s protocol and on writing scores. The idea is to open my research to other artists, questioning the topic of the presence. And in a last time, I would like to share these experiences with non-professionals persons. »
Experts In Short Trousers is an original immersive dance theatre work landing in venues to celebrate the knowledge and skills young primary school children already have. Available for performance in any setting, the young audience arrive to a disaster; the cast, extra costume and set strewn everywhere you can imagine. Having never ventured to earth before the cast need to be taught how to move, what to wear and how to build their escape vehicle; using all of this information to build impressive routines and tell their own unique story.
Experts in Short Trousers will tour as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival's first year round programme in June 2016 and then throughout October 2016 as part of the main festival. Development will begin in April with a Nalleslavski Method Clowning Workshop, hosted in partnership with Conflux, delivered by the celebrated Prof. Nalle Laanela.