my first blog, and I guess it's a long one!

Hello to everyone from Italy. Erika writing here.

I hope you’re all doing well. In the last few days, I’ve been thinking quite a lot about the Open Campus. About our first encounter in June and about what might happen in August. I am, of course, looking forward to it.

I re-read the blogging entries as well as everyone’s motivation letter (though for some odd reason, I wasn’t able to open Rosalind’s and Tom’s files – if there’s a chance you might be able to resend a .doc or a .pdf to me, my email is filmikaet@gmail.com). I also researched previous campuses, to get a better sense of what happened there.

I’m going to try and share a few thoughts/reactions.

First of all, I do agree with Tom that it is important to define a point of departure for our experience in Stockholm. Whether we call it “frame”, or “question” or “protocol”, I personally feel the need of some sort of “anchor” in order to develop our collaboration. I don’t think it needs to be thematic or content-oriented. It might simply be – and I am just using these as examples which we touched upon in June -  the idea of exploring the relationship of the work to its audience, or variations on pirating practices, or interrogating ourselves on how a residence taking place in Sweden affects our individual/collective practice.

Whatever that might be, and of course it should be agreed upon together, I trust that this element would ‘ground’ our process without sacrificing our personal approaches. I don’t mean to sound facitious, but even if we decided to center our reflection around ‘an apple’, each one of us would inevitably ‘re-direct’ himself/herself towards something we’re interested in exploring. And the fact that we’re here to collaborate will also play an essential role in this process.

I also believe that it is impossible to leave behind conceptual and theorical questions: they will inevitably come up in the work itself and in our discussions, especially when we start creating together. But taking a more focused approach will, in my opinion, allow us to ‘incarnate’ such reflections in a tangible process.

I guess what I’m trying to verbalize is my own expectation about this campus, as a fluid space where we can actually operate simultaneously within theory and practice, so that they can both be examined, yet integrated. If there are important questions which we’re asking ourselves about theatre (and your considerations are right on the spot, Marco), music, and, by extension, any art practice and culture, can we find ways to answer those questions, or at least address them effectively, through our creative/dialectic exchange?

I don’t have the answer to this question and, more importantly, I am sure that there is no univocal conclusion, but that’s exactly why I’m bringing it to the table.

Tom reminded us of important words which emerged in our conversation: "network", "fragility", "the position of theatre", "truth of the body". I would also add the tension between the micro and the macro, the idea of (multiple) persectives and (political/aesthetic/artistic) power relationships. I’m wondering if other people, in the group, recorded more meaningful words, which they would like to share. It would definitely be stimulating to continue using this blog in order to further the discussion about them.

Funnily enough, as I was rereading the words we came up with in June, I realized how poignant and current they’ve become in my own experience of the past few weeks. I am part of a group of theatre practitioners, performance artists, filmmakers, writers who have occupied the TEATRO VALLE in the centre of Rome. It’s a stunning 19th century theatre which was closed down at the end of May, due to the ongoing devastating budget cuts approved by the Italian government. 

Here’s an article from last week’s NEW YORK TIMES:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/theater/teatro-valle-in-rome-is-occupied-by-protesters.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&ref=arts&adxnnlx=1309880114-IRHzlTKRHdvdMsJnsiWHnw

The occupants decided to manifest their dissent by living inside the theatre, now for almost 4 weeks. This experience has given us a chance not only to fight for the survival of the space, which we propose to turn into a prominent centre for dramaturgical development and production. We are also drafting an official document, in which we describe and demand vital legal changes. Our objective is to obtain a more favorable legislation, thus better conditions for anyone who works, very precariously, in art and culture.

This situation is emblematic of the concept of ‘fragility’ in so many ways. The theatre has become a fertile, yet difficult, laboratory of democracy, where the tension between collaboration and contrasting standpoints is constantly present. Fragility applies, on a private and public level, to the current support of culture which I’m sure everyone of you is in some way experiencing in your own countries. Fragility connotes the geographical as well as conceptual space which has been created inside the theatre, which is in persistent transition (actually in danger!), as the police might kick everyone out at any moment. Fragility, turned into strength, was the position of the precarious people who took it upon themselves, for once, to protest with a ‘physical’ action. The body, in its truth, in the entering and inhabiting of the space of the theatre, is the protagonist of this action, which undermines an institutional power structure.

What is most amazing about this experience is that the theatre has now been open and full of people every single night. Audiences have responded by attending all sorts of events, which I wouldn’t in any way characterize as ‘shows’. Rather, they are free experiments aimed at calling, challenging, pushing all participants to react to what is happening to our culture. The main goal is to make audiences aware that theatre and, by extension, all forms of art are indispensable. Though far from perfect, this is indeed a practical way to oppose an implosion of the theatre and its menacing fragility.

Given the limitations in time and resources, the conception of these events is fast, somewhat impulsive and rough. The events themselves are imperfect, often very raw and visceral, yet they do have a real impact on the audience. My  hope is that we will be able to say the same thing of whatever we will concoct together in August.

I wanted to share this with you, as I felt it was for me some sort of strangely coincidental, yet very appropriate continuation of the trajectory we started in June. Moreover, it made me even more painfully aware of seminal issues which we can’t overlook: what is the meaning of making art, at this very moment in time, under such dire limitations? How do these extreme working conditions impact our practices? How can we respond, with those very practices, to the horrible claims made by (certainly Italian, hopefully not your own) governments that “one can’t eat (with) culture”?

Forgive me for the long email and I look forward to many more questions!

Erika

Motiv of Campus

hej everybody, hope you´re good! I would like to propose an approach to come along with the discussion during our absence in stockholm. I very much liked the conversation that Tom and Marco had in the beginning of the blog. 

I recently talked with Tom about campus and we were wondering if everybody would start his own project and follow his or her own ideas and interests, or if we would start to work with the whole group, or in small groups about an issue. For me I could say that I´m interested in all of you and I would like to know what you think about our first meeting, the ideas that popped up when we gathered and your expectations about Campus after the meeting. 

You wrote interesting motivation letters, I´ve read all of them, and I although re-read what I wrote. I wonder if it would be a good idea to once again write a motivation letter, it is a quiet open format as we can see, and to formulate what changed in comparison to our first intention about campus and the opportunity to gather with people from all europe from all kind of  contexts.

I think it is a quiet challenging idea for me to articulate my interests about campus and I really have to sit down myself to actually do that. But thats what I like to propose, so we would have a closer idea about each others interests. And I would maybe have a closer idea about what I would like to know about each of you.

thousand kisses, see you in august, Jan

Hey lovely people, hope you’ve all been well but guess everyone’s pretty busy since this place is getting so little action. On a flight to london right now so taking the opportunity to vent some thoughts that I’ve been mulling over since last…but first a quick rant, I had to pay 44 Euros for a forgotten check-in, fucking hate ryanair… and the smug airport lady for the 10th time:  ”you need to plan your travels better” me: ”well, i’m much more of a right-brain  person and we don’t plan, we’re much better at images and right now I keep picturing punching you in the face” well… I should have said that but I probably wouldn’t have made the plane.  Which actually reminds me of our conversations on interacting with stockholm, city-hacking etc -  I was saying about laughteryoga on the tube and whilst we were laughing at the idea I actually forgot my main point; in 2005 after the 7/7 bombings and especially the jean charles de menezes exectuion  by the police a month later on the tube, it became an impossible idea.. people became so hyperaware of eachother and there was suddenly an actual risk of the state physically punishing you for imagined offenses (my halfindian boyfriend was ’randomly’ stopped and searched three times in the space of a two months) so we cannot forget the implicit power between the structures and inhabitants, it would be interesting to examine the city as a negotiation between state/body/the individual vs the collective etc etc… I must run along now but speak  more soon.

Also, if anyone is in london this weekend, come for a celebration of midsummer in hyde park, it’s very swedish… let me know.

x Dorna

Motivation letter

And to follow up on Marcos post... I just want to remind you all to write me if it's ok for you to share your motivation letter.

/Malin

expectations

and in addition to you, dear tom, wouldn't it make sense to talk about our expectations first? why does everyone of us want to do this open campus?
i ask this because i recognize that the performance is not the most important thing for me to do. i really want to meet artists of all diversities and want to find out if this clash might be a new/better/for the audience more interesting way or impulse of doing performing arts.
this open campus could be something special, not just the obligatory to work on a performance - we all do that in our jobs and "every day lifes". open campus includes the chance to discuss how theatre might work in our time and than try a way to find it out concretly. i wrote more about that in my motivation lettre which you will get to read via malin.

all the best: marco

let's start

Dear all

On the airplane I was reading the booklet we received about the ENPARTS-campus 2010, Belgrade. It became clear very quickly that this previous edition was curated in a very political way, dealing with specific local and national politic problematics of Belgrade. In that sense I totally understand that Anna and Dansens Hus decided to throw the curatorial dimension out, in order to be able to deal with us directly - as artists - in order to create a platform that would deal with our own concerns, rather than with the concerns of the curator or initiators of campus 2011. Not having this burden of a common theme or topic is a luxury, but also the most tricky thing. During our two days together, I was truly amazed by the different approaches and aesthetic diversities coming up during the discussions. But I was also asking myself if it wouldn't make more sense to build up a frame around our concerns? What links them? What is the network that might keep our interests together?

Building up a frame does NOT mean that we agree on everything, that we all have to do the same things at the same time, but it would rather serve as a place where we all can go back to, at any time in the process. This frame could be a concrete starting point for different groups, all dealing with it in another way, depending on different methodologies, aesthetic preferences, philosophical backgrounds and so on. In that way all sorts of "products" (I know that we were talking about "production" and what it might mean during the campus and regarding the "open campus" at the end or our working period) that come out of it will be connected with each other and they will display this groups' heterogeneity.

So there are a few questions: Can we find a common frame that brings our different concerns together? In which frame can we function in order to translate it into a(n) artistic project(s)?

Things that were present during the conversations Sunday morning were for instance "network", "fragility", "the position of theatre", "truth of the body", etc. But we didn't really think them through in the afternoon when we were making the schedule. The idea of Anna, to open it up towards other artistic practices that are based in Stockholm is also a thing or concern that we can put in our frame. But the question is: what is the link between all those things? I'm just a bit afraid that it might become random if we just say "we'll see in those 10 days what will happen". That's why I firmly agree with Aneta when she was speaking about a very clear and semi-open structure/protocol.

However, I'm still very fond of the idea of spending a lot of time together in the first phase of the campus, engaging in communal practices in order to get us out of regular production routines. In that way we get to know each other, and we can make proper choices about with whom we'd like to work together on individual projects.

Let's start the discussion.

All yours,
Tom

First post in the blog

Here's the blog where I hope all of you can inspire each other and discuss your collaboration. If you have any questions regarding how to post a blog, please contact me.

And here's your first inspiration:

Yeeehaaaaaa!!!