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SEAS Gathering: Odessa, Ukraine 25-29 april 2007 29 May 2007
A major SEAS Gathering was held in Odessa in close collaboration with The Ukrainian Drama Theatre, The British Council/Odessa, Association New Music and other local organisations. Nearly 100 artists, partners, prospective hosts, sponsors and observers took part to round off the DATES phase of the project and change focus towards the co-production and touring phases throughout the target regions in 2008 and 2009.
Good meals, excellent performances (by the hosting Ukrainian Drama Theatre, by the famous comic group Maski and a special guest performance of SEAS co-production DELETED MESSAGES by Croatian BADco) and the international seminar Arts & Science filled the days and nights in Odessa.
SEAS DATES!!
Impressions and documentation from the DATES, as well as emerging concepts for co-productions, were presented at the Gathering in Odessa. Inspiring proposals for works to be commissioned by SEAS were discussed during intense sessions, with films, slides and personal stories.
The first SEAS DATE took place above the Arctic Circle in the North Sea city of Tromsö, Norway. SEAS artists Karena Johnson (UK) and Melih Gorgun (Turkey) met in Tromsö for a few days to explore the ice, beauty and darkness of our most northern SEAS Host city. Nine more DATES were realized February-April 2007 in Odessa, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Istanbul and Sinop, Skegness, Varna, Bucharest/Constanta and Marseille.
Other artists who participated in a DATES experience were: Eugenio Barba/Julia Varley (Denmark), Dimytro Bogomazov (Ukraine) & Siri Hermansen (Norway), Dritero Kasapi (Sweden) & Venelin Shurelov (Bulgaria), Cosmin Manolescu (Romania) & Anne-Lise Stenseth (Norway), Peter Johansson/Barbro Westling (Sweden) & Javor Gardev (Bulgaria), Wunderbaum (The Netherlands) & Metro-Boulot-Dodo (UK), Lotte van der Berg (Belgium) & Nedyalko Delchev (Bulgaria), Theatre du Centaure (France) & Mahir Gunsiray (Turkey), SIGNA (Denmark) & Lola Lafon (France) and Karmella Tzepkolenko (Ukraine) & Kirsten Dehlholm (Denmark).
During the late summer, two more DATES will take place with among others Gianina Cärbunariu (Romania) and Selda Asal (Turkey).
Europe Now|Europe Next
Encounter #4: Arts and Science
The initiative Europe Now|Next, which emerged from the online project Culturebase.net, has launched its website www.europe.culturebase.net. Europe Now|Next examines the process and effects of EU enlargement in the cultural field in the form of live and online encounters. The website hosts two Encounters closely connected to the Black/North SEAS Gatherings in Constanta, Romania (September 2006) and Odessa, Ukraine (25-29 April 2007).
An international Live Encounter took place during the SEAS Gathering in Odessa on the theme ”Arts and Science”, including presentations by Eugenio Barba & Julia Varley from Denmark’s Odin Teatret, environmental researchers Ronny Aanes (Norway), Viktor Karamushka (Ukraine) and Ralf Steeg (Germany) and architects Jacek Dominiczak & Monika Zawadzka (Poland). SEAS Advisor Adrienne Goehler moderated the Encounter.
25++ film presented for the first time!
The developing platform 25++, initiated by CulturesFrance, has been an essential support throughout the DATES phase of SEAS. A film, created and directed by Gilles Coudert, has now been completed documenting some of the activities around Black/North SEAS but also work led by Theatre Sfumato (Bulgaria) and the Institute Adam Mickiewicsz (Poland). The film was shown for the first time at the Gathering in Odessa and will be officially launched in Paris at a reception held for artists, cultural attachés and the mass media on 29 may. It will be distributed by 25++ Partners throughout Europe.
Istanbul, Turkey: an emerging SEAS Host
Meetings with SEAS Partners SantralIstanbul and potential hosts Istanbul International Theatre Festival and the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and the Arts were held in Turkey at the end of march. An emerging center for contemporary arts, connected to the Bilgi University in Istanbul, is an exciting development. Built along the Golden Horn, with facilities for students, arts residencies and training for the performing and visula arts, SantralIstanbul offers an inspiring meeting between the old Istanbul and the new. The oldest electrical plant in the city is being transformed into a Museum of Energy and next to it a hyper-modern building designed as a Center for Contemporary Art. The plan is to host Black/North SEAS there in september 2008, as part of the EU Year of Intercultural Dialogue. As a home base for conferences, some artworks and a center of the event, SantralIstanbul would become a platform for interventions into various parts of Istanbul over a 10 day period.
Tromsø, Norway: a committed SEAS Partner
After visits by SEAS Artistic Director Chris Torch and Advisor Marith Hope in January 2007, followed by the DATE with Melih Görgün and Karena Johnson, The City of Tromsø and the County of Trom have committed to presenting a major SEAS event in 2009. The project will be coordinated by the Tromsø Kunstforening from their beautiful building in the center of town, a short walk from the Polar Research Center, strengthening the connection between environmental research and the arts. Locally based visual artist Siri Hermansen is already engaged in SEAS.
Varna, Bulgaria: a committed SEAS Partner
SEAS staff will visit the Varna Summer Theatre Festival, together with Advisor Trevor Davies and 25++ Partner Carole Scipion. A presentation of SEAS will be made as part of the international conference “Theatre: Re-Inventing the City” which is built into the intense program of performances, events and seminars presented by the annual festival. The Varna Summer Theatre Festival will host a SEAS event in june 2008, including works by Bulgarian and international SEAS artists.
SEAS Partners Meeting: Stockholm, 15-16 Feb 2007
A number of cultural organisers, all engaged in Black/North SEAS as partners and hosts, gathered for a two-day session, hosted by Intercult in Stockholm, to discuss and plan the future stages of the project. The focus of the work was preparing a multi-annual application to the EU for Black/North SEAS. Partners Arts Council East Midlands (UK), KIT (Denmark), Sfumato (Bulgaria), BADco (Croatia), Hotel Pro Forma (Denmark) and Tromsø Kunstforening (Norway) were all represented. The application covers a 31/2 year period, 2007-2010.
A decision by the EU Commission for Culture is expected at the end of june 2007.
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Le 29 May 2007 Le 28 May 2007 Le 20 October 2006 Le 20 August 2006 Le 20 July 2006 SEAS Gathering: Odessa, Ukraine 25-29 april 2007 Le 29 May 2007 haut - top
A major SEAS Gathering was held in Odessa in close collaboration with The Ukrainian Drama Theatre, The British Council/Odessa, Association New Music and other local organisations. Nearly 100 artists, partners, prospective hosts, sponsors and observers took part to round off the DATES phase of the project and change focus towards the co-production and touring phases throughout the target regions in 2008 and 2009.
Good meals, excellent performances (by the hosting Ukrainian Drama Theatre, by the famous comic group Maski and a special guest performance of SEAS co-production DELETED MESSAGES by Croatian BADco) and the international seminar Arts & Science filled the days and nights in Odessa.
SEAS DATES!!
Impressions and documentation from the DATES, as well as emerging concepts for co-productions, were presented at the Gathering in Odessa. Inspiring proposals for works to be commissioned by SEAS were discussed during intense sessions, with films, slides and personal stories.
The first SEAS DATE took place above the Arctic Circle in the North Sea city of Tromsö, Norway. SEAS artists Karena Johnson (UK) and Melih Gorgun (Turkey) met in Tromsö for a few days to explore the ice, beauty and darkness of our most northern SEAS Host city. Nine more DATES were realized February-April 2007 in Odessa, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Istanbul and Sinop, Skegness, Varna, Bucharest/Constanta and Marseille.
Other artists who participated in a DATES experience were: Eugenio Barba/Julia Varley (Denmark), Dimytro Bogomazov (Ukraine) & Siri Hermansen (Norway), Dritero Kasapi (Sweden) & Venelin Shurelov (Bulgaria), Cosmin Manolescu (Romania) & Anne-Lise Stenseth (Norway), Peter Johansson/Barbro Westling (Sweden) & Javor Gardev (Bulgaria), Wunderbaum (The Netherlands) & Metro-Boulot-Dodo (UK), Lotte van der Berg (Belgium) & Nedyalko Delchev (Bulgaria), Theatre du Centaure (France) & Mahir Gunsiray (Turkey), SIGNA (Denmark) & Lola Lafon (France) and Karmella Tzepkolenko (Ukraine) & Kirsten Dehlholm (Denmark).
During the late summer, two more DATES will take place with among others Gianina Cärbunariu (Romania) and Selda Asal (Turkey).
Europe Now|Europe Next
Encounter #4: Arts and Science
The initiative Europe Now|Next, which emerged from the online project Culturebase.net, has launched its website www.europe.culturebase.net. Europe Now|Next examines the process and effects of EU enlargement in the cultural field in the form of live and online encounters. The website hosts two Encounters closely connected to the Black/North SEAS Gatherings in Constanta, Romania (September 2006) and Odessa, Ukraine (25-29 April 2007).
An international Live Encounter took place during the SEAS Gathering in Odessa on the theme ”Arts and Science”, including presentations by Eugenio Barba & Julia Varley from Denmark’s Odin Teatret, environmental researchers Ronny Aanes (Norway), Viktor Karamushka (Ukraine) and Ralf Steeg (Germany) and architects Jacek Dominiczak & Monika Zawadzka (Poland). SEAS Advisor Adrienne Goehler moderated the Encounter.
25++ film presented for the first time!
The developing platform 25++, initiated by CulturesFrance, has been an essential support throughout the DATES phase of SEAS. A film, created and directed by Gilles Coudert, has now been completed documenting some of the activities around Black/North SEAS but also work led by Theatre Sfumato (Bulgaria) and the Institute Adam Mickiewicsz (Poland). The film was shown for the first time at the Gathering in Odessa and will be officially launched in Paris at a reception held for artists, cultural attachés and the mass media on 29 may. It will be distributed by 25++ Partners throughout Europe.
Istanbul, Turkey: an emerging SEAS Host
Meetings with SEAS Partners SantralIstanbul and potential hosts Istanbul International Theatre Festival and the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and the Arts were held in Turkey at the end of march. An emerging center for contemporary arts, connected to the Bilgi University in Istanbul, is an exciting development. Built along the Golden Horn, with facilities for students, arts residencies and training for the performing and visula arts, SantralIstanbul offers an inspiring meeting between the old Istanbul and the new. The oldest electrical plant in the city is being transformed into a Museum of Energy and next to it a hyper-modern building designed as a Center for Contemporary Art. The plan is to host Black/North SEAS there in september 2008, as part of the EU Year of Intercultural Dialogue. As a home base for conferences, some artworks and a center of the event, SantralIstanbul would become a platform for interventions into various parts of Istanbul over a 10 day period.
Tromsø, Norway: a committed SEAS Partner
After visits by SEAS Artistic Director Chris Torch and Advisor Marith Hope in January 2007, followed by the DATE with Melih Görgün and Karena Johnson, The City of Tromsø and the County of Trom have committed to presenting a major SEAS event in 2009. The project will be coordinated by the Tromsø Kunstforening from their beautiful building in the center of town, a short walk from the Polar Research Center, strengthening the connection between environmental research and the arts. Locally based visual artist Siri Hermansen is already engaged in SEAS.
Varna, Bulgaria: a committed SEAS Partner
SEAS staff will visit the Varna Summer Theatre Festival, together with Advisor Trevor Davies and 25++ Partner Carole Scipion. A presentation of SEAS will be made as part of the international conference “Theatre: Re-Inventing the City” which is built into the intense program of performances, events and seminars presented by the annual festival. The Varna Summer Theatre Festival will host a SEAS event in june 2008, including works by Bulgarian and international SEAS artists.
SEAS Partners Meeting: Stockholm, 15-16 Feb 2007
A number of cultural organisers, all engaged in Black/North SEAS as partners and hosts, gathered for a two-day session, hosted by Intercult in Stockholm, to discuss and plan the future stages of the project. The focus of the work was preparing a multi-annual application to the EU for Black/North SEAS. Partners Arts Council East Midlands (UK), KIT (Denmark), Sfumato (Bulgaria), BADco (Croatia), Hotel Pro Forma (Denmark) and Tromsø Kunstforening (Norway) were all represented. The application covers a 31/2 year period, 2007-2010.
A decision by the EU Commission for Culture is expected at the end of june 2007.
ARTISTIC GATHERING IN ODESSA Le 28 May 2007 haut - top
As a crossroad between the independent cultural organisations of the broader Europe, the program " 25++ " programme dedicates an important place to the artistic mobility in the areas of the Black Sea and the North Sea.
About thirty European artists, from all kind of artistic fields, associated in pairs during residencies in the port areas of ten countries : Odessa (Ukraine), Tromseu, (Norway), Marseille (France), Copenhagen (Denmark), Antwerpen (Belgium), Sinop and Istanbul (Turkey), Bucharest and Constanta (Romania), Skekgness (United Kingdom), Rotterdam (Netherlands) and Varna (Bulgaria).
The couples of artists presented their project at the end of the mobility programme that held in Odessa from April 25 to April 29. This meeting, thought as one privileged moment of debate, allowed to have a look on a whole year of European exchanges, notably at the time of the screening of the 25++ video, a real testimony about cooperations organised within the 25++ Programme.
ARTISTIC GATHERINGS IN CONSTANTA... Le 20 October 2006 haut - top
From September 13 to 17, 2006, the city of Constanta (Romania) hosted the first 25++ Artistic Mobility Programme .
Intercult (Sweden), invited a hundred or so participants, including nine “mentors” (architects, urban designers, anthropologists…) and twenty-four artists from twelve European countries to initiate collaborations between young artists in port zones on the Black and North Seas.
Two hundred and sixty kilometers from Bucharest, Constanta, a city of 350,000 inhabitants, has one of the most important ports in Europe and on the Black Sea and dozens of cranes stand tall against its skyline. Early 20th-century façades offer an architecture that is at once superb and dilapidated… Constanta seems to be at a standstill, waiting, it is a city with potential…
On the shores of the Black Sea, an old Casino from 1910 stands on the promenade. Superb, it remains intact with its large mirrors and copper lamps and beads of frosted glass. That is where Chris Torch, artistic director of Intercult, chose to bring together artists, “mentors” and partners in the artistic mobility program for their first meeting.
Participants were invited to speak in meetings in which the artistic mobility programme and its methodology were presented. Considerations on themes such as “Examine the city” and “Art and Society” were intended to allow artists from countries on the perimeter of the Black Sea and the North Sea to think about a common artistic project.
Dragan Klaic, a European cultural policy specialist, explains the challenges of a European collaboration with countries on the Black and North Seas:
“In Bulgaria, Romania and the Ukraine cultural constellations are extremely fragile. There are few experiences in real international cooperation. Existing organisations are often anachronistic, immobile structures and unable to fit into a logic of multilateral cooperation. However, we may find emerging initiatives with ambitions and needs, but few skills and resources…For artists from these fragile regions it is very important to find partners who will bring them visibility.”
The artistic mobility programme allows emerging artists to experience an international multilateral and European cooperations and to initiate a process of research and artistic development, with no obligations for results, which makes it a pioneering project.
During the meeting in Constanta, artists were also invited to a first blind date, in order to test the relationship with their future partner:
“We associate artists in pairs, and send them to a site in the city, to a gypsy neighborhood, to the park, an old building that threatens collapse… and we ask them to look at the city and converse. They are not there to talk about their origins, their family, but to observe the place where they are and communicate through the city. That is the test dates,” explains Chris Torch.
Gabriel Brojboju is a Romanian visual artist who was chosen to participate in the artistic mobility programme. He is also President of the Mentor foundation in Romania. Invited to talk about the meeting, he exclaims:
“This project is an opportunity for Constanta, because it allows artists to gather and confront local problems. I think that it is the artist’s role to initiate a dialogue with local authorities and propose actions to them. One of the major challenges of this European project is to make us to work with these authorities in order to propose something to the community and city. It is very important because in Romania we have no assistance for artists and we have never had this type of proposition from Romanian public authorities.” Thus, this project for multilateral European cooperation also has a significant impact on a local level.
Kirsten Delholm, artistic director of the independent Danish structure Hotel Pro Forma, believes that the key to the meeting and the structure of the artistic mobility program lies in the dialogue between artists from all over Europe:
“I am interested in this project because I love to interact and collaborate with artists I do not know! I have always been attracted to this part of Europe… in the East. It is almost natural for me to participate in this type of project! In my youth I often traveled to these regions, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary… I don’t know where I get it from, but when I go to these countries I have the impression that my artwork is better understood than in Western Europe! As artists, the fact that we have been raised in countries that are completely different makes us look at artistic creation and expression in a very different manner. Because of this it is very interesting to do this experiment and see if our languages and artistic languages are able to enter into dialogue!”
The meeting in Constanta, the first stage in an exchange between artists from the Black Sea and artists from the North Sea, enabled them to familiarize themselves with Intercult’s very specific methodology. Test dates constituted an initial artistic dialogue… It will be continued within the framework of artists’ residencies, which will make it possible to elaborate a project that will be presented at Odessa (Ukraine), during the 25++ artistic mobility programme for from March 26 to April 1, 2007. THE ARTISTIC CREATION WORKSHOP 25++... Le 20 August 2006 haut - top
…AT THE CORE OF INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE
Teatro Sfumato, Sofia, June 25 – July 5, 2006
The artistic creation workshop “from outward to inward” led by Margarita Mladenova and Ivan Dobchev was held in Sofia, at the Teatro Sfumato, from June 25 to July 5, 2006. It was the opening event for activities organized for the first pilot year of 25++.
The creation workshop made it possible for twenty young artists practicing different disciplines from eight countries from the broader Europe:
- Belgium : Mathilde Lefèvre and Francesco Italiano (Belgium),
- Bulgaria : Diana Dobreva, Hristo Petkov, Snejina Petrova, Tzvetan Alexiev, Ivan Yusourov,
- France : Amélie Clément, Gregory Robardet and Julien Lacroix,
- Georgia : Amiran Shalikashvili, Guram Tsibakhashvili,
- Lithuania : Edita Uzaite, Gylis Ivanauskas,
- Romania : Gabriela-Cladia Crisu, Iona Calota and Maria Obretin,
- Ukraine : Olena Golub,
- Russia : Konstantin Chepurin, Vera Voronkova,
In keeping with the original idea of 25++, which was to open up to different European cultural identities, Margarita Mladenova and Ivan Dobchev generated an exchange between the original artistic visions of young European artists.
The workshop was developed as a collective activity, to make artists communicate using first sound, the actor’s game, performance, music, outward elements. Throughout the workshop, the artists developed a very personal dialogue, in which they exchanged their inward selves.
Margarita Maladenova and Ivan Dobchev then had artists confront their sensibility with the text of Beckett’s “Not I”. The dialogue between the cultures was evident in the most concrete aspects of the workshop, since the latter was in Bulgarian and was simultaneously translated into English and Russian.
The atelier concluded on July 5, 2006 with a public performance as part of the festival “The Little Season”, organized by the Teatro Sfumato. Free admission to this event made it accessible to a large public.
25++, THE START! Le 20 July 2006 haut - top
Meeting of the co-organizers of 25++ in Paris
After a first meeting with members of the Teatro Sfumato on May 23, 2006, co-organizers of 25++ met in Paris on June 13, 2006.
Under the leadership of Marie-Paule Serre, the project’s coordinator at CULTURESFRANCE, Adam Jeanes (INTERCULT), Monika Znyk- Resterska, Justyna Flacha , Katarzyna Wielga (INSTITUT ADAM MICKIEWICZ) and Silvia Cazacu (BANLIEUES D’EUROP’EST, associate partner), drew up a summary of the preparatory work done by each of the 25++ partners.
The selection of independent structures to receive 25++ membership approval from CULTURESFRANCE took place in a joint effort with French cultural diplomatic posts that presented applications of operators known for the quality of their work.
The co-organizers and associated partners also participated in the selection of independent structures by providing information about their own partners and by finding reference structures for 25++ in the countries where they work. This selection will continue until the end of the program in order to allow a large number of independent structures to benefit from the advantages of the 25++ network.
The organization/implementation of artistic creation workshops and meetings of independent professionals was also discussed, as was the artistic mobility program.
Adam Jeanes presented the results of many research missions carried out by INTERCULT in Romania, Bulgaria, the Ukraine and in Turkey since January 2006.
Culturesfrance has also made it possible for Adam Jeanes to meet many artists in Paris and presented a pre-selection of artists who could participate in the artistic mobility program.
This initial organizational meeting also made it possible for co-organizers to discuss all the themes of 25++ again and look at those questions that are inherent to the implementation and the programming of activities.
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