Start: 2016
End: 2017
Parter: LES BANCS PUBLICS – LIEU D’EXPERIMENTATIONS CULTURELLES (France) Festival (non Audiovisual)
FREIHANDELSZONE – ENSEMBLENETZWERKKOELN EV (Germany) Non-governmental organisation/association/social enterprise
STICHTING DANCING ON THE EDGE (Oland) Festival (non Audiovisual)
STIFTELSEN STUDIO EMAD EDDIN (Sweden) Non-governmental organisation/association/social enterprise
SHUBBAK A WINDOW ON CONTEMPORARY ARAB CULTURE (UK) Festival (non Audiovisual)
PALAIS DES BEAUX ARTS (Belgium) Design/Art centre
Action: Creative Europe Cooperation projects
Summary
The project ‘Performance(s) Between Two Shores – Arab artists in Europe’ has been implemented from June 2016 until December 2017 with various activities in the field of performing arts and cultural cooperation between six partners in Europe and one associate partner in the Middle-East. The first aspect of the project was the production of innovative artistic performances from Arab artists recently settled in Europe, with a broader aim of audience development and access from traditionally excluded communities to the field of performing arts. After a call for proposals largely spread to the arts communities in Europe and abroad, two theatre directors-one Egyptian and one Syrian- and one Syrian choreographer were chosen to be accompanied in their creation, in all technical, artistic and production aspects. Therefore, within a period of one year and a half, they each had three weeks of artistic residency in one of the partners’ venue, and they presented their work in all the partners’ festivals and theatres, D-CAF festival in Cairo in March 2017, Shubbak festival in London in July 2017, Bozar theatre in Brussels in October 2017, Urbang festival in Cologne in October 2017, Dancing on the Edge festival in Amsterdam and Utrecht in November 2017, and Les Rencontres à l’échelle festival in Marseilles in November 2017. A second circle of activities took place between the partners with several staff exchanges between their teams in production, marketing, social media and technical fields, with various formats – from three days of exchanging curating practices to three weeks of experiencing technical or marketing activities in a partnered cultural institution. Promoting skills development and knowledge transfer, this cooperation between professional and international teams has been beneficial to the individuals, the partners and the cultural institutions at a broader scale. Finally, a constant action towards the development of various audiences was implemented throughout the project, with digital and print multilingual communication-integrating Arabic as a main communication vector-, along with the organisation of workshops and encounters between the artists and the audience, special discounted pricing and a mediation to attend the shows for targeted groups of young people, migrants or refugee communities.
Website: https://www.bozar.be/en/activities/130809-performances-between-two-shores