DasArts / Master of Theatre

The thematic block commenced on 15 September 2003 and ended on 21 November 2003 and the semester commenced on 1 September 2003 and ended on 28 February 2004

Mentor

Guenther Heeg (D)

Locations

• Ten Cate Hall, Toubab II, Studio East, Wet Cell, Garden Houses in and around the DasArts premises Mauritskade 56 te Amsterdam
• Psychiatrisch Ziekenhuis Duin en Bosch in Castricum

Visits to

• Psychiatrisch Ziekenhuis ‘Duin en Bosch’ in Castricum
• performance ‘Compre una pala en Ikea para cavar mi tumba’ by Rodrigo Garcia, De (Internationale) Keuze van de Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Rotterdam
• exhibition ‘body.city – neue Perspektiven aus Indien’, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
• performance ‘insideout’ by Sasha Waltz, Schaubuehne am Lehniner Platz, Berlin panel discussion ‘The Translation of Culture(s), DasArts Dialogues, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin;
• performance ‘Gemeenschap’ by Roy Peters, Het Veemtheater, Amsterdam.

Activities

• lectures and discussions, workshops and research, video-viewings, rethoric- and communication-trainings, choir trainings, collective lunches
• soccer match psychiatric clients-DasArts participants, group presentations in ‘Duin en Bosch’
• collective actions in Oosterpark
• group presentation Open Lab 108 ‘The Metamorphosis of Community’ in DasArts with collective and individual presentations, installations, performances, video, texts, sketches, speeches, processions, diners and dancing

Guest teachers

Franko B. (GB), Homi K. Bhabha (GB) Herbert Cybulska (D) Kattrin Deufert (D), Henny Eleonora (NLA), Al Goergen (I), Jean Jourdheuil (F), Ying Pang (USA), Thomas Plischke (D), Mikhail Ryklin (RU), Sergej Romashko (RU), Richard Schechner (USA), Nora Somaini (CH), Stephan Strick (D), Erik Temmerman (B), Dagmar Ulrichs (D)

Participants

Guy Amitai (IL), Pètra Ardai (NL/H), Oumar Mbengue Atakosso (SN), Ali Cherri (LB), Hassan Choubassi (LB), Galia Eibenschutz (MX), Roberta Marques (BR), Nicola Nord (D), Marta Pisco (P), Rebeca Sanchez Aguilar (MX), Alessandro Nico Savino (I), Bram de Sutter (B)

Content of Block 19

Community is what we desire. But community as we have known it until now is based upon exclusion, annihilation and sacrifice in the name of a higher purpose, of higher values and principles. Actually, the concept of community as the pure, immanent order is not – as some would argue – the counterpart to a ‘cold’ society, but the ideological complement to the struggle to survive amidst increasing social, ethnic and religious differences and conflicts in the age of globalization. Being mediated and not authentic in a world of medias is what we fear. But the experience of mediality, based on the concept of medias as 'pure means without purpose' (Walter Benjamin) is the only way to experience another, prospective community: feeling alive by being exposed at one’s outermost limits, sensing the others without losing one’s self to a collective metaphysical idea or force, appearing together, exposed, in shared community.

During the block we’ll try to develop the connections between community, media and
mediality in a very concrete way. We will start by experiencing the paranoid type of community, living together with the therapists and clients of a psychiatrical clinic, and then we will explore the phantasma of political communities by undertaking an experiment of ‘collective actions’. Under the direction of artists working on intermedial projects, we’ll discover artistic ways of dealing with a specific medium in order to experience the mediality of community/ mediality as community. An intercultural perspective on the problem of community, especially the concept of hybrid cultures and the medias through which hybrid cultures make their appearance, may help in taking a distance from the ideas of identity, purity and immanence usually linked with community. Trying out, discovering, exposing and performing our own form of community life should be the final highlight of the block. We’ll prepare it through the medium of rhetorical self-presentation and communication and through the medium of a choir. And we’ll celebrate it through the medium of a great feast.

Overview of Block 19

Week 1: 15 - 21 September

The psychologic approach
Staying in Duin en Bosch (Castricum), a psychiatric clinic, living and working together with clients and therapists, exploring the borders and connections between madness/psychosis and community.

Week 2: 22 - 26 September

Dealing with politics
Lecture Al Goergen (I) (the italian translator of Walter Benjamin and philosopher of politics) about politics in the age of globalization. Lecture and workshop with Sergej Romashko (RU), member of the performance group ‘Collective actions’ (site-specific projects since 1976), dealing with ‘event’ (‘Ereignis’) in the community.

Week 3: 29 September - 3 October

Mediality and community in the artistic process
Workshop with Kattrin Deuffert (D) and Thomas Plischke (D) from the performance group ‘Frankfurter Kueche (FK)’ (intermedia productions combining dance, video installation, performance) about ‘training-thinking-thinking-training’ and ‘solo (re)working’. Workshop Erik Temmerman (B) about budgets.

Week 4: 6 - 9 October

First summary: (Inter)mediality and community
3 examples of (Inter)mediality explaining the concepts of medium, mediality and community:
• Video theatre performance ‘Societas Raffaello Sanzio’ ‘Voyage au bout de la nuit’
• The photographer Jeff Wall
• The painter Mark Rothko

Week 5: 10 - 19 October

The intercultural aspects
Lectures, videos and workshop with Richard Schechner (USA), one of the founding fathers of intercultual avantgarde theatre and theorist of ritual and performance about:
• From Ritual to theatre and back
• Art/Life blurred
• Performer training interculturally
Excursion to Berlin, DasArts Dialogues ‘The Translation of Culture(s)’:
Panel discussion and closed sessions at the ‘House of the Cultures of the World’ with Homi K. Bhabha (USA), currently the most famous thinker of hybrid cultures, Mikhail Ryklin (RU), professor of philosophy and reporter of the Chetchenian war, and Richard Schechner (USA), visting performance Sasha Waltz: insideout at the Shaubuehne am Lehniner Platz

Week 6: 22 - 24 October

The body of the artist as a medium
Lecture and workshop with the performer Franko B. (GB), renowned of making his body a bleeding work of art.

Week 7: 27 - 31 October

The role of text and description in the artistic process
Lecture and workshop with the stage director, translator of Heiner Mueller and professor of Theater studies Jean Jourdheuil (F): ‘Heiner Mueller: Explosion of a Memory.’

Week 8: 3 - 7 November

Living together I. Practical training/experiments
Rhetoric and communication workshop with Dagmar Ulrichs (D), communication trainer:
• How to present ourselves in groups
• How to articulate our emotions and feelings
• How to deal with and solve conflicts

Week 9: 10 - 14 November

Living together II. Practical Training/experiments
Choir-working with Nora Somaini (CH), stage director and former member of the group of german stagedirector Einar Schleef, the renewer of the choir in theatre.
• feeling the tension between the collective and the single body
• feeling the fear of and desire for collective speaking and acting
• feeling the rhythm of community

Week 10: 17 - 21 November

Living together III. The end event Open Lab 108 ‘The Metamorphosis of Community’
Instead of individual presentations at the end of the block we’ll prepare and celebrate a great feast, an end event, transponing and translating the ‘Fêtes’ of King Louis XIV. from the 17th century into our times.

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