DasArts / Master of Theatre

Block 28
Renting the Shade of a Tree

Mentors to the Block 28 participants

Dirk Verstockt (B); Ricky Seabra (USA/BR) www.rickyseabra.com

Block 28 runs from 3 March 2008 – 9 May 2008
Semester 28 starts on 1 March 2008 and ends on 31 August 2008

The culture of fear that is rapidly getting the world in its grip stems from a vast array of developments in human societies and from the burden that our numbers are placing on the biosphere, our only and necessary ‘umbilical cord’ to what keeps us alive. This is becoming an impossible situation. As more and more awareness is being created, people are becoming more or less forced to actively think about and work on all different kinds of possible solutions to the vast waves of problems that will keep coming our way for the next century and counting.

Societies need to go through profound changes in order to keep the world viable for human beings. Since humans are ‘predators’ at the top of the ecological pyramid, they also form a cornerstone that can keep that pyramid intact for man and nature. If the ‘Nature Based Internet’ collapses, the consequences are incalculable.
Capitalism is not prepared to sustain its own greed over the long run, but it is the dominant economical system, give or take a few leftovers from the socialist experiments for New Societies in the 20th century (think Cuba, Burma, North Korea…). The push for total globalization is at one and the same time a disaster and possibly a part of the solutions. Or not?

In his book The Meaning of the 21st Century, James Martin, ( www.jamesmartin.com ) patron and founder of the Oxford Institute for the 21st Century, discusses a list of major topics that concern us all. Sooner or later we will be confronted with the concrete effects of Global Warming, Excessive Population Growth, Water Shortages, Growth of Shanty Cities, Unstoppable Global Migrations, Runaway computer Intelligence, etc. Consciously or unconsciously, we do not notice many of these developments. We can easily filter out what we do not notice from our customary ways of thinking and behaving. But isn’t it the privilege of the arts to illuminate the invisible and speak the unspeakable? Isn’t it the task of the arts to be fully aware of the artistic, political, social and ecological consequences of its poetics and its drive for expression?

Block 28 will start with the following questions:
How do artists envision the future of the arts?
What significance does that artistic future have within the framework of the 21st century and its pertinent issues?

Participants Block 28

Ivo Dimchev (BG); Camilla Milena Fehér (D); Petter Alexander Goldstine (N/USA); Steven de Jong (NL); Linda Molenaar (NL); Snejanka Mihaylova (BG); Stephanie Pan (USA); Christian Thompson (AUS); Nadia Tsulukidze (GE)

Guest teachers

Abattoir Fermé (B); Patrick Allegaert (B); Joris Bruyninckx (B); Jan De Pauw (B); Filip Deheeger (B); Geheimagentur (D); Irma Firma (B); Stefan Kochanek (B); Maya van Leemput (B); David van Reybrouck (B); Joop Rutgers (NL); Wouter Sinaeve (B); Raymond Six (B); Robert C. van Waning (NL); Adam Zaretsky (USA); Gijs van Zonneveld (NL)

Collaborations

- Victorian Circus, a four-day festival at De Brakke Grond that purposely does not focus on the current state of artistic affairs in multimedia, digital interdisciplinarity and technology but instead throws open a wide window to the future. Guest lectures by: Angelo Vermeulen and Douglas Repetto.

- Abattoir Fermé, a theatre collective founded in 1999 and based in Mechelen (Belgium) its earliest productions ‘cult guerilla theatre’ - blended influences ranging from dadaism to horror movies into a humorous-yet-disturbing personal style.
- Rits, Art education in Brussels.

Week by Week

Week 1: 2 - 10 March 2008

As is tradition within DasArts, the first week took place on location. We herefore left on Sunday 2 March for a 10 days trip by boat 'De Zwaan' over the Dutch and Belgian waters. The purpose was to make an exploration af the back yard of our industrial society. Several scientists and specialists accompaniedus during our expedition and gave their vision of the future. On 6 March we stopped at Gent, where the participants, mentors and staff members visited a performace by the Superamas in Theater Vooruit. We ended our tour in the Belgian town of Ieper, where one of the largest battles during the 1st word War was faught. This battle resulted in nearly half a million casualties to all sides, and only several miles of ground won by Allied forces.

Week 2: 10- 14 March 2007

Dirk and Ricky gave an exercise to the participants, entitled: 'Animal Assignment'. Each participant was allocated an animal, that has been of great importance to the development and progress of mankind. (For example: Dolly - the cloned sheep; the dog Lyca - first living creature in space; Herman the Bull - genetically manipulated with lactoferine). The aim was that the participants would transfer themselves into the perception of the animals. The assignment resulted in 9 internal presentations on 14 March.

Week 3: 17 - 21 March

- Workshop VivoArts with Adam Zaretsky, during which the participants isolated Hybrid DNA.

Week 4: 24 - 30 March

Adam Zaretsky (USA) is a Vivoartist working in Biology and Art Wet Lab Practice. This involves biological lab immersion as a process towards inspired artistic projects. His personal research interests revolve around life, living systems, exploration into the mysteries of life and interrogating varied cultural definitions that stratify life's popular categorizations. He also focuses on legal, ethical and social implications of some of the newer biotechnological materials and methods: Molecular Biology, ART [Assisted Reproductive Technology] and Transgenic Protocols. Zaretsky also teaches Vivoarts: Ecology, Biotechnology, Non-human Relations, Live Art and Gastronomy. A major focus is on artistic uses and the social implications of molecular biology, tissue culture, genomics and developmental biology.
www.emutagen.com

Open Lab 150
Wednesday 26 March 2008 at 20.00 hrs
DasArts presents the participants first public performative answers to the VivoArts workshop by Adam Zaretsky, within the context of Block 28 ‘Renting the Shade of a Tree’.

- 27 March: Lecture by Robert C. van Waning (NL) on 'Contrails'. Mr van Waning explained how jet contrails alter our atmosphere and temperature. The participants were give an assignment to come up with an performative response on Monday 31 March.

Week 5: 31 March - 4 April

- Sessions by Ricky Seabra and Dirk Verstockt: Analyzing the book The Meaning of the 21st Century by James Martin.
- 3 April: lecture by guest teacher Jan De Pauw

Week 6: 7 - 12 April

Victorian Circus at De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam.
In Victorian times British gentlemen met in select clubs to discuss the new world. Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond welcomes you from Wednesday 9 April to Saturday 12 April into its very own English Club, offering you the most striking developments in the world of the new media. In this fourth edition THE FUTURE will be explored. For a complete overview of the programme: www.brakkegrond.nl/victorianCircusIV.htm

Participation of DasArts participants:

9 April:
19.00 hrs - Opening by Block 28 participants
20.00 hrs – Film Dutch Cocaine Factory by graduate Jeanette Groenendaal.

Through footage derived from a 16 cam self-surveillance videodiary we are swept into the pro-paranoia world view of Dutch Cocaine Factory. Champions league cocaine consumer Arend, a lawyer and a drugs scientist unveil a well-kept secret of the past, the Dutch Cocaine Factory.

12 April:
Closure of the Circus by Douglas Repetto, Angelo Vermeulen and DasArts participants Block 28
Performances by:
Steven de Jong - The Tail of a Comet
Linda Molenaar - Horse II
Ivo Dimchev - The Mother of the Nations
Nadia Tsulukidze - Golden Light
Christian Thompson

Week 7: 14 - 18 April

Collaboration and workshop with the Belgian theatre collective Abattoir Fermé and art education Rits in Brussels.

18 April:
Presentation of the results of the workshop with Abattoir Fermé
De Bottelarij (RITS)
Delaunoystr. 58
1080 Sint-Jans-Molenbeek
Brussels

Week 8: 21 - 25 April

21 & 22 April: Workshop by Geheimagentur

The participants were asked two questions for the workshop with Geheimagentur:
- When being not to sure what to do or how to come to a decision, do you resort to any 'technical' means? - like tossing a coin for 'yes/no'; or counting the petals of a flower for 'she loves me/she loves me not' - like 'if these traffic lights change to green before i reach the crossroads, then I'll do it.'
- Do you think that performance artists can give forecasts on future developments?
Relevant materials and or proposals by the participants we brought to the workshop.
www.geheimagentur.net
The website www.prognosen-ueber-bewegungen.de/en provides information about the project ‘prognoses on movements’.

23 - 25 April: Workshop by Irma Firma

In ‘How To Survive In The City’ we combed out the territory of the city centre (the so-called pentagram), in search of anything edible. The particpants dicussed on how one can survive on tasty and nutritious ingredients offered by the city itself. What can be found in Amsterdams’ ‘nature’? Is the pavement edible? We moved through the city as hunters and gatherers.
After the walk we prepared a menu with the gathered ingredients and finish off the happening with a delicious meal.

We investigated the relationship between human being and animal, the instinctive sense of direction and how this is established very concretely in both humans and animals. How can you motivate these animals; how stubborn, or sweet, can they be? How can you give them directions to the sea? Or do they already know instinctively? Can the participants and animals develop a bond of friendship?
www.irmafirma.be

Week 9: 28 April - 1 May

Shantycities with Ricky Seabra. contact through Skype with Faries El Dahdah.

week 10: 4-9 May

Open Lab 151
An evening with presentations by DasArts Block 28 ‘Renting the Shade of a Tree’ participants on 9 May 2008
In response to the 10 weeks programme of the thematic Block 28, performative reactions by DasArts participants were presented.

http://www.emutagen.com

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