DasArts / Master of Theatre

Block 25
Navigators

The thematic block started on 14 August 2006 and ended on 28 October 2006
The semester started on 31 August 2006 and will end on 28 February 2007

Mentors

Jan van den Berg (NL), Richard Murphet (GB)

About the block

Navigators weblog
Visit the Navigators weblog:
www.dasarts.nl/weblog

The Navigators weblog is a diary by artists from DasArts, Amsterdam and Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne. Coming from around the globe they have embarked on a voyage to Australia from 14 August to 28 October 2006. During Block 25 the weblog will be updated daily with texts, images and sound to keep track of their journey and to reveal the developments of their research.

Once every four years DasArts, Advanced Studies in the Performing Arts in Amsterdam, transfers its study programme to a foreign location (Giessen, Germany in 1994; Gent, Belgium in 1999; Toubab Dialaw, Senegal in 2003). In travelling to other countries, the main focus for DasArts is to experience a certain estrangement – by being deprived from ‘normal’ tools and surroundings, by collaborating with artists from different fields and systems – and to use these circumstances as a source of inspiration. Within the scope of the 400th anniversary celebration of trade relations between Australia and the Netherlands, the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne approached DasArts for possible collaboration. Simultaneously, DasArts was looking for a partnership abroad. After lengthy negotiations, the two institutions established an intensive relationship while also finding support from the Dutch Government and sponsors. The schools mutually agreed to invite Jan van den Berg (the Netherlands) and Richard Murphet (Australia) to design a themed study programme. Together they have been designated as mentors, who will realise the wonderfully exciting thematic Block 25, entitled: Navigators.

As dawn rose in early March 1606, the tiny Dutch ship the Duyfken (Little Dove) prepared to drop anchor off the coast of a land that the captain, Willem Jansz, was to describe later as ‘mainly waste and inhabited by wild, cruel, black and barbarous men’. Sent from the Dutch East Indies settlement in Java to find King Solomon’s gold in the territory known as Nova Guinea, their port in fact was the mouth of a river on Western Cape York, Australia.

400 years ago this year, over 150 years before the Endeavour, the Little Dove was the first European arrival on the shores of the Great South Land, the first encounter between white Europeans and the indigenous people of Australia. For the indigenous communities in the area, the stories of the encounter with the white sailors and the slaughters that followed are still a living part of their culture. The tiny vessel had navigated uncharted waters, sailed into the unknown with no maps, little protection from the elements and only basic navigational aids, arrived in a land unknown to anyone but its inhabitants who had been there for 40,000 years. The brief encounter that ensued has largely been forgotten in the official Story of Australia; but the history of colonisation and settlement that it heralded and its effect on the lives and culture both of the inhabitants of the southern continent and of the countries of Europe could hardly be imagined.

In late August 2006, another crew comes to rest where the Little Dove had landed. Their route has not been upon the unpredictable seas of Timor and Arafura but across the ancient landscape of Cape York. Twenty-four young artists from around the globe have embarked on a voyage of discovery of their own. Arriving from countries and cultures of 5 different continents, their trek to the most remote region of Australia cut them loose from any of their comfortable anchor points. At this stage their real journey begins. They travel back to Melbourne for 2 months to create an indelible work that expresses their perspective on this little remembered but iconic moment in the modern history of Australia. How do we arrive in a new land? When does a migrant become an inhabitant? How do we create our cultural memories? How could we re-dream our possible pasts? How might we navigate our possible futures? How do we decolonise our senses? If the great seamen were the navigators of earlier centuries, opening up new territories for exploration and control, perhaps it is to the young artists we should now look to be the navigators of the 21st century, to revisit our history and to re-map it via the synaptic landscape of the mind. Under the artistic inspiration and guidance of the Australian director Richard Murphet (VCA) and the Dutch director Jan van den Berg (Theater Adhoc) Navigators will be an act of creative imagining which rekindles the spirit of voyaging into the unknown. Both an interrogation and a celebration of 400 years of cultural interaction. An intense meditation on the voyages ahead of us all.

The outcome of this artistic voyage of discovery will be presented from 19-25 October 2006 in a multi-disciplinary event at the Melbourne International Arts Festival, with public performances at the VCA’s Studio 45 and in the multidisciplinary program of Dutch contemporary arts in Australia: Dutch Dare.

Participants of DasArts

Andreas Bachmair (Germany), Tammuz Binshtock (Israel/Netherlands), Luc van Esch (Netherlands), Andrew Fremont-Smith (United States), Zhana Ivanova (Bulgaria/Great Britain), Sarah van Lamsweerde (Netherlands), Bojana Mladenovic (Serbia), Esther Mugambi (Australia), Janneke Raaphorst (Netherlands), Katarina Schröter (Germany), Voin Voynov (Bulgaria)

Participants of Victorian College of the Arts

Paula van Beek (New Zealand), Karen Berger (Great Britain), Fernando Gallardo (Chile), Declan Kelly (Australia), Margie MacKay (Australia), Jadah Milroy (Australia), Anastasia Russell Head (Australia), Shahin Shafaei (Iran), Kenneth Shimizu (Australia), Georgie Smith (Australia), Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal (Australia), Elizabeth Van Herwaarden (Australia)

Navigators Team Australia

Lieve Baert (DasArts business director), Juul Beeren (DasArts student relations and development), Michelle Evans (Head of the Indiginous and Cultural Development VCA), Harco Haagsma (DasArts dramaturgy new media), Andrea Hull (director VCA), Sara Koller (project manager), Mark Jansen (DasArts production), Leisa Shelton (choreographer VCA), Moniek Toebosch (DasArts director), Georg Weinand (DasArts dramaturgy and artistic policy)

Navigators Team Amsterdam

Cecile Brugmans (DasArts personal assistant), Rein Hartog (DasArts facility manager), Wouter van Loon (DasArts communication and organisation), John Meijerink (DasArts office manager)

About the Victorian College of the Arts

The Victorian College of the Arts is Australia’s premier visual and performing arts training institution. Located on a nine acre site in the heart of Melbourne’s vibrant arts precinct, the College is unique in Australia as it offers training across all artistic disciplines. The VCA comprises the Schools of Dance, Film and Television, Music, Drama, Art and Production. The VCA has a dedicated Indigenous Centre and a common curriculum is offered to all undergraduate students through the Centre for Ideas.

The teaching philosophy of the College reflects a long held belief that learning comes from doing. As the tuition is practical, intensive and studio-based, class sizes are small, places are limited and admission is competitive. VCA degrees are conferred by the University of Melbourne.

Subsidies, sponsors and donors

Navigators is supported by the Australian and Dutch Governments as part of the Netherlands-Australian 1606-2006 Commemorative Year of activities.

DasArts is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
Navigators is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
ABN AMRO Australia
Qantas Airways
Wilderness Challenge
Comalco, Weipa Town Council

We also acknowledge the generous support received from the Indigenous communities of Western Cape York – Mapoon, Aurukun and Napranum Councils – and Than Coupie.

Dutch Dare

A daring contemporary arts program from the Netherlands to celebrate 400 years of relations between The Netherlands and Australia.

Dutch Dare is a multidisciplinary program of Dutch contemporary arts in Australia, taking place in and around existing festivals and institutes in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Wangaratta. The program includes dance, music (contemporary and jazz), theatre, architecture, literature, visual arts (including photography) and design. The selection of the participants has primarily been made by the respective festival directors in consultation with the Dutch funding and cultural institutes.

At the request of the Dutch Embassy in Canberra, the Dutch Dare program has been organised by the Service Centre for International Cultural Activities (SICA), the Mondriaan Foundation and the Fund for Amateur Art and Performing Arts on behalf of the Dutch Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education, Culture and Science. Other cultural institutes and foundations have also provided programming advice. SICA is coordinating the events and is responsible for overall publicity.

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