Imagine you start a participatory project in the Austrian countryside, interacting with different communities, that are far away from your way of thinking and your bubble. How to build a good base for this project? How to tune into this field of work? How to work sustainable (artistically and for your own well-being)?
In this workshop the topic of building bridges and finding home will be central. Especially in site specific, participatory or immersive projects we are often interacting with places, venues, communities or people outside of our personal context or bubble. We might face the challenge of understanding and feeling the field we are working in. As every bridge needs a good fundament we will share ways of how to prepare a good base for our „building bridges“ projects. This workshop aims to share tools and experiences (performance practices, physical exercises/experiences, writing, dialogue) in order to reflect and practice building bridges in a safe and sustainable way – first to myself, then to the other and within the collective/project. Like this we discover how to interact and co-create by building a bridge between our well-being and our artistic practice, respecting ones own boundaries and the boundaries of others.
In order to have a clear example I will introduce my project „Volxfest“ which recently was presented in the context of the European Cultural Capital Bad Ischl/Salzkammergut. A project that is focused on the art and power of celebration, tradition and queerness, the embodiment/body expression of „home“, identity&diversity and the interaction with local communities (f.e. folk-dance groups and queer communities) by creating a celebration together. I will share my experiences of creating a participatory/immersive and site specific project within very conservative and traditional places and how the project found its ways to co-create with those narrow structures. And from there we will create our own projects of interaction.
Simon Mayer s work body is defined by creating places of interaction between worlds, people, contexts and perspectives that hardly meet. In other words building bridges. Simon will introduce his work as a hybrid artist (musician/composer, choreographer/dancer, curator, facilitator), jumping back and forth between projects for classical black box theaters (mainly in cities) and site specific, participatory, interactive art and community projects (mainly in the countryside). He will share his research and artistic works around the topic of „building bridges“ – with focus on site specific projects – through videos, discussions and by concrete physical practices. From the bridge between stability and instability – the „states of being moved“ (flow and trance states) until his work around home, stability and tradition. The bridges between tradition (traditional dance, music, customs), queerness and contemporary/experimental approaches (creating new traditions). The bridges of interaction between performer and audience and the bridge between different communities within a community project. In other words this workshop is about the art of interaction. Interaction between instability and stability.
He will share exercises to build a strong base for site specific and participatory projects by movement, voice and breathing practices, selfcare and selfempowerment exercises and by finding physical answers to the questions: „Dear body, what would you like to teach me right not? What do you need?“
These questions will lead into the interaction with our understanding and feeling of „home and tradition“. „What does home mean to me? What does tradition mean to me? What is a body expression or embodiment of home?“ … and how does this translate into my artistic practice.
How can I invent new/my own tradition or feeling of home? And how can this build a base for my artistic practice and for understanding traditional communities and bubbles outside of mine, which I might work with or be confronted with? And all of this by accessing the art and power of celebration and community and the resource of joy.
more info at Base Angewandte