Performing Arts

16.05.2012

Be a gathering! The Natural Circus trainings, Spring 2012

‘I am movement and stillness at the same time’

The Natural Circus trainings are a body and movement practice (and maybe a bit more), embedded in an understanding that ‘nothing lasts, nothing is finished, nothing is perfect’.

Situated in a powerful natural environment, they are playful gatherings beyond the human(-centered) perspective that may help realize the complete interdependence and interconnectedness of the human being with the natural world – until what remains is dance only. The trainings integrate elements of Contact Improvisation, Physical Theater, Tango, Bodywork, Meditation, Deep Ecology and Nature Awareness Work, Taoist/Advaita/Zen philosophy.

 This 4-days gathering will take place in Barnave/Diois, France; from May 24th to the 28th, and will feature Diethild Meier (Dancer, improviser, visual artist), Lars Schmidt (Wandering Monk, Natural Thinker, Improviser) and Romain Petit (Freeclimber and climbing teacher).

 The cost of the gathering is 240€, housing on site (Le Serre) included, in two rustic apartments, food will be extra, shared and prepared together. The number of participants is limited to 12 persons

 For more information, go to Natural Circus´ website.

Registration: contact [at] passiveactivism [dot] net

By Sacha Kagan

01.03.2012

Sustainability in Theater: People, Planet, Profit, Purpose

Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA), April 30 – May 1, 2012

This event will address the question “How can we tangibly change the way we run our theaters to ensure we survive and have a significant positive impact on our environment and community?”

Presenting organizations include:

  • Broadway Green Alliance (New York): helped convert 97% of Broadway’s marquees to LED technology
  • Center for Sustainable Practices in the Arts (Los Angeles): working on SHOPLAB, a materials reuse and sharing facility
  • York University (Toronto): developing the Theatre Artisans Green Skills forum
  • Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company (San Diego): published the Green Theater Choices Toolkit
  • Childsplay (Arizona): host of the Sustainability in Stagecraft conference, 2009
  • Earth Matters on Stage: presenter of ecodrama playwrights festival and symposium
  • Center for Energy and the Environment: providing practical, innovative, energy solutions for homeowners, businesses, nonprofits, and government

To find out more: Click here

By Sacha Kagan

28.02.2012

2012 iLAND Symposium

New-York, USA, March 23-24, 2012

Wollman Hall at The New School | 65 West 11th Street, 5th Floor
Tickets: $5 – $25 (Sliding Scale)

The 2012 iLAND Symposium will be entitled: Moving Into the Out There: Indeterminacy and Improvisation in Performance and Environmental Practice. This event is an open forum for exploring new methods of understanding urban ecosystems through innovative collaborations between practitioners of movement, dance, science, and environmental management. iLAND cultivates a deeper engagement with urban environmental issues through its cross-disciplinary approach, and the annual symposium invites the general public to experience and explore recent works emerging from the iLAND community. Read more »

By Sacha Kagan

31.10.2011

Khoj International Residencies and Projects

Khoj International Artists’ Association is an artist led, alternative forum for experimentation and international exchange based in India. It sees its role as an incubator for art and ideas, artistic exchange and dialogue in the visual arts. In the last few years it has developed an active network of artists in South Asia.
Applications are invited for an international residency ‘In Context:public.art.ecology Part III’ @ Khoj, for art projects exploring ecological thematics preferably in public spaces around Delhi. The residency will be for 4- 6 weeks starting in the first week of March to mid April 2012. The deadline for submitting the application to applications [at] khojworkshop [dot] org is the 30th of November.
Invited are proposals from individual artists and artists’ collectives, with projects fokussing urgent ecological issues affecting the urban city. This year’s special focus is laid on the notion of food. Food can be seen as an artistic medium incorporating performance, art installations or interactive events that re-examine the significance and relevance of food in the social context, simply in its connection with the body or as a primary ritual that fosters engagement, interaction and collaboration.

For application details see this page.

Furthermore applications are invited for the Negotiating Routes – Ecologies of the Byways project- Part III, from  artists, artists groups or professionals of Indian origin, to propose projects which are site-specific preferably in smaller cities in India. They must have an inter-disciplinary approach that combines research and art creation by artists and local communities, addressing the visible and invisible transformations currently taking place in their immediate environments.
The project must be completed within a maximum of 3 months from the date of commencement within the stipulated time frame of February- June 2012.

For more details take a look at this page.

By Janna Gehrke

29.10.2011

2012 Residency Application

The Guapamacátaro Interdisciplinary Residency in Art and Ecology is a site-based and community-oriented program for artists from different disciplines, scientists, educators and activists, aimed at fostering socially and ecologically-conscious cultural development. The hacienda is set on rural farmland and located in the state of Michocán, Mexico.
The topic of ecology plays an important role for the program and is not confined to the common association with the preservation of the natural environment. The facilities include several studios, large common areas and ample outdoor space.
Each year the residency takes place in Spring (March through June) and lasts 3 weeks.
During their stay, participants use the hacienda grounds as a laboratory for the creative process and engaging with the local community in art, ecology and development practices. They are free to work whenever desired in the provided studios and anywhere in the property. Experimentation is encouraged as is discourse and collaboration. Daily group activities such as morning stretch and meditation, and occasional guided walks and fieldtrips to nearby towns and natural areas are often organized, depending on people’s interests.
Up to 10 people are selected from a mix of the following disciplines: Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Sculpture and Installation, Design and Architecture, Humanities and Social Sciences, Natural Sciences.
Application is open to professionals (or students who demonstrate maturity) from all countries, cultural backgrounds and aesthetics. The next residency dates are from the 7th until the 24th of June 2012, you are able to send your application until the 1st of November 2011 to http://www.guapamacataro.org/apply

More information can be found here http://www.guapamacataro.org

By Janna Gehrke

29.10.2011

Ecodrama Playwrights Festival & Symposium on Performance & Ecology

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
May 31-June 3, 2012

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PROPOSALS

From the 31st of May until the 3rd of June 2012 the Ecodrama Playwrights Festival and Symposium on Performance and Ecology takes place in Pittsburgh. Artists, scholars and activists are invited to share their work, ideas and passions with the attenders of the Festival. Until the 1st of November creative and innovative proposals for workshops, round-tables, panels, working sessions, installations, or participatory community gatherings are awaited which explore, examine, challenge, articulate, or nourish the possibilities of theatrical and performative responses to the environmental crisis in particular, and our ecological relationships in general.

Ecology has an important role with regard to burgeoning creativity and interdisciplinary scholarship across the arts and humanities. Proposals that go beyond a recitation of ideas or positions, and instead bring presenters and participants together as they engage the driving question of how theatre might function as part of our reciprocal relationship with ecological communities are encouraged.

Possible topics for exploration include: land and body in performance; representations of bioregionalism; eco-literacy; representation of/and environmental justice; green theatre production; old cultural narratives/new stories; indigenous performance; community-based performance/ecological communities; sensing place/staging place; the ecologies of theatrical form and/or space; animal representation; and application of ecocriticism to plays, performance and culture.

For further informations and application details see http://pages.uoregon.edu/ecodrama/

 

By Janna Gehrke

29.05.2011

Kumasi Biennial Symposium: Community Arts in Focus

July 16th until August 6th 2011 in Ghana

The Curio Kiosks project of the first Kumasi Symposium was a successful attempt to bring international contemporary art to the general public in Sub-Sahara Africa, who might not normally come to art galleries and museums. How can the scope of this project be broadened? How can the rural sub-Saharan population be engaged in the contemporary artistic process? In light of these questions and social concerns, the 3-week event will focus on community arts practice.

Kumasi City’s rural sites (such as market places, local schools, village centers, and others as laboratories) will be used for workshops, artistic interventions, site-specific installations, lectures and other community-based approaches from around the world.

For more information read: www.sustainablepractice.org .

By Ronja Röckemann

23.05.2011

Reading of the play “Sila”

Reposted from: www.sustainablepractice.org

“Sila” is the name of a play written by Chantal Bilodeau. The titel comes from an Inuit word for the breath of life, the primary component of everything that exists. The play is about an ice scientist, an Inuit activist, an officer for the Marine Communications and Traffic Services and a polar bear who see their values challenged as their lives become intricately intertwined.

A reading of the play takes place on Tuesday, May 24, 2011 starting at 5:15 pm, 10th Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101. Reservations: Space is limited (call 619-342-7395). For more information visit: www.sustainablepractice.org or www.moolelo.net.

By Ronja Röckemann

22.05.2011

‘Pool – Creative City Projects

What does “pool” in “Liverpool” stand for? It is the goal of ‘Pool to explore, reveal and celebrate the origins of the city of Liverpool and in so doing to contemplate and influence the city’s future. Through walks, picnics, celebrations, conferrings and positive documentation, ‘Pool works with communities in Liverpool to raise awareness about the ecology and social dynamics of their spaces.

Current projects:

1) Earth: Seed: Nurture: Grow reveals unused land in a series of monthly events which challenge the understanding of neglected urban spaces.

2) Growing Granby is a collaboration with Granby Adult Learning Centre to provide a course exploring sustainability past, present and future in the Granby triangle of Liverpool.

3) Construction Site is an exhibition which looks at the changes of the city and invites citicens to have their say.

For more information visit: www.poolproject.co.uk.

By Ronja Röckemann

15.03.2011

4X4 Dance Body And The Environment

18th – 29th April 2010

With Guest Artists: Jennifer Monson, Simon Whitehead and Angus Balbernie

4×4 is an eleven-day event on the theme of dance, body and the environment for dance or movement artists, choreographers and artists working in related art-forms.

“Somewhere in the midst of ‘sustainability’ lies an inspiring vision of transformation. As movement artists we will take our dance and choreographic practice into this territory, developing and deepening our sense of the self within the body, to inspire and engender a vital reconnection between humanity and the planet”.

More information on the website of bodysurf scotland

By Sacha Kagan

12.03.2011

Slow Networks – iLAND’s Third Annual Symposium

March 25-26, 2011, hosted by the Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts

Slow Networks: Discovering the urban Environment Through Collaborations in Dance and Ecology

Slow Networks is an open forum exploring new methods of understanding urban ecosystems through innovative collaborations between practitioners of movement, science, and environmental management. iLAND cultivates a deeper engagement with urban environmental issues through its cross-disciplinary approach, and the annual symposium invites the general public to experience and explore recent works emerging from the iLAND community.

For reservations and more information please call 212-375-8283 (in the USA) or e-mail info [at] ilandart [dot] org

iLAND Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance investigates the power of dance, in collaboration with other fields, to illuminate our kinetic understanding of the world. iLAND, a dance research organization with a fundamental commitment to environmental sustainability as it relates to art and the urban context, cultivates cross-disciplinary research among artists, environmentalists, scientists, urban designers and other fields.

More information on the symposium at: http://ilandsymposium.wordpress.com/symposium/

By Sacha Kagan

10.03.2011

iLAB Residencies Call for Proposals

iLAND is now accepting applications for the 2011 round of iLAB Residencies. The deadline to apply is March 18, 2011.

iLAB is a collaborative residency program between movement based artists and scientists, environmentalists, urban designers/landscape architects, architects and others that integrate creative practice within the different fields/disciplines through an engagement with the ecology of New York City.

iLAND Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance investigates the power of dance, in collaboration with other fields, to illuminate our kinetic understanding of the world. iLAND, a dance research organization with a fundamental commitment to environmental sustainability as it relates to art and the urban context, cultivates cross-disciplinary research among artists, environmentalists, scientists, urban designers and other fields.

Check out the blogs, videos and other documentation of this year’s residents on the iLAND website. Iki Nakagawa  and Robin Vachal created short video documentation of each project.

Download the application guidelines here

By Sacha Kagan

08.03.2011

‘Marbh Chrios – DeadZones’: Softday’s Lovely Weather climate art project in Ireland

Margaret Mc Laughlin, fine artist, has attended and written about an innovative sound work that was performed in Mooney’s boatyard, Killybegs, Co. Donegal, Ireland, on the 16th of October 2010. The work was part of the Donegal County Council’s Lovely Weather Art and Climate Change Public Art Programme (2009-10) . The project was co-curated by the Regional Culture Centre’s John Cunningham and Leonardo’s Annick Bureaud.  The sound performance pieces were based around the topic of ‘dead zones’, which are areas in the ocean in which aquatic life has been dramatically reduced. Artists Sean Taylor and Micheal Fernstrom, the Softday partnership, have extensively researched this subject.  As part of Leonardo/OLATS and Donegal Co. Council Lovely Weather Artist’s Residency, ‘Softday’ interpreted the sound of ‘dead zones’ into a tangible form for local audiences in a variety of sound forms.  Disturbingly there are 20 contested deadzones around Ireland, two of which are in Donegal bay and Killybegs harbour. The number of dead zones are increasing worldwide.

Read more at http://ecoartnotebook.com/?p=1624

By Sacha Kagan

14.01.2011

Symposium on Music – Conflict – Transformation

9th and 10th May 2011, SocArts, University of Exeter, UK

Call for contributions

In the past decade there has been a growing interest in music and social conflict both inside and outside academia. Interdisciplinary research from music sociologists, ethnomusicologists, music psychologists and musicologists has focused on music’s dual use, both as a resource for conflict transformation and as a medium that can be used to incite conflict and channel violence. This research has also dovetailed with practical initiatives by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), local communities, academics and individuals attempting to utilise music to avoid or transform conflicts. Read more »

By Sacha Kagan

14.01.2011

Violentine’s Day (what is the price of Love?)

Exhibition, public interventions, graffiti, interactive performances, documentary film screening, and public discussions

Visit the project’s website: click here

Objective

The goal of “Violentine’s Day” is to raise awareness about how our everyday lifestyles are tied into the global economy. Using the means of art to investigate the reality behind Valentine’s Day, this project will make clear how consumption habits in the Global North can have destructive impacts on people and ecologies in other parts of the world. Following the roses sold in Europe back to Kenya, where they are grown, helps us to see how even small consumer decisions can strongly impact the lives of others.
The project will take place in Geneva, Switzerland, Cheminée Nord: Association d’artistes /ex-usine kugler, on 14 February, Valentine’s Day, in collaboration with artists and others from various fields. Read more »

By Sacha Kagan