WILD CARD workshop and residency for Mithkal Alzghair "Wedding - (Connection) Sites & Communities"

In the frame of the Life Long Burning Wild Cards, Uferstudios is offering a participation in the workshop "Wedding – (Connecting) Sites & Communities" in collaboration with the HZT BA "Dance, Context, Choreography" to its Wild Card partner CCN Montpellier (FR).

When: June 8 – 26, 2015, Mon/Tues, Thurs/Fri 13 – 17h

Where: Berlin, DE

More information: Wedding is the name of the area in Berlin where Uferstudios is placed. In this workshop (led by our partner HZT – Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin) the participants will consider the local environment and context as a site/space for artistic interactions, interventions, communication, and we will investigate what it means and needs to leave the studio and theatre space. What is becoming the stage, who is becoming the audience, who are the performers, what are the social, political, and aesthetic implications?

We will explore different forms of artistic interaction with places and people/communities. This will include observing and identifying places and people in Wedding (physical locations, movements, behaviours, structures, relations, stories), register what seems interesting or relevant, and why. Furthermore, we will look across the history of the field and delineate the terms site-specific, place, communities, action, (hi)story from an analytical perspective as well as in regard to their multifaceted performative qualities.

Since the 60s artists and artist collectives from different disciplines have engaged with this topic in diverse ways, and still do e.g. Eleonora Fabião, Gabriela Vaz Pinheiro, Folke Koebberling + Martin Kaltwasser, Dries Verhoeven, Ligna, Atlas, cobratheater.cobra (to name just a few more recent ones). We will have a closer look at some of these works as examples. Some artists (a.o. Martin Nachbar, Jo Parkes) will be invited to the seminar to talk about their work and share their experiences.

A significant amount of time will be dedicated to developing projects yourself. First testing ideas and sketches, then working on one or several projects alone or in small groups. Regular discussions and feedback-talks about the work-progress and evolving topics will take place.

Additionally to the participation in the workshop there is the possibility to get an insight in the project “Dirt. An Apparatus” of Stefanie Wenner - a seven week lasting process in Uferstudios with several artists in residence (e.g. Simone Aughterlony, Cobra Theatre, Quast & Knoblich) dealing with the spawning power of matter and connecting with regular openings to the public and neighbourhood.

This Wild Card covers:
-       Costs of international travel to Berlin
-       A maximum of 2000 euro per diems (100€ per day) to cover accommodation, meals, local travel during the stay in Berlin

Application requirements:
We are looking for artists who are interested to work not only in the theatre space and who have a strong interest in connecting their work with a given local context. There are no formal requirements. Selection of participating artist is made on the biography and motivation letter in English. Only France based artists are eligible to apply.