THE STORY OF WORK (June 2006 - May 2007) was a Culture 2000 funded project where the network researched the changing nature and experiences of work. In Europe working conditions are undergoing a rapid transition. A re-structuring process is underway, affecting the lives of almost every working citizen and informing Western social and cultural identity. Five independent groups of performing artists from five different countries united to explore working life in Europe . The groups in THE STORY OF WORK project were TeaterKUNST ( Denmark ), Reality Research Center ( Finland ), Teatermaskinen ( Sweden ), The Red Room ( UK ) and Berlin N@twork ( Germany ). All artists involved shared a passion for researching contemporary issues, transforming them through a range of artistic expressions (theatre, dance, performance, film, video art) and opening up a genuine dialogue with a new audience. The companies met to exchange research and artistic practise and each of them created their own national performance informed by a reference group (trade unions, workers, academics, students etc). During the project, three major labs took place, exploring the fields of work in ongoing interaction with workers, trade unions, researchers. Lab 1 took place in Riddarhyttan , Sweden 4.6.-11.6.2006. Lab 2 took place in Helsinki 4.12.-10.12.2006. The culmination of this collaboration was a platform of public performances, lectures and debates in Copenhagen (18th – 21st April 2007) which was attended by all companies, their reference groups and other participants. Through creative collaboration and research the project explored the potential of art to act as a mediator, raising cross-sector debate about the past, present and future of work.
The results of THE STORY OF WORK process were presented in the @workplatform. The @workplatform is a working platform in Europe combining artists, trade unions, workers, scholars, universities, researchers, cultural institutions from different countries. The @workplatform is open and communicative and a space where other fields of society participate in the development of art, content and ways of production. Through the creation of such a platform the network aims at addressing new perspectives for art and culture through the multifaceted area of competences gathered reaching new audiences and develop new arenas affect cultural policies by developing other alliances crossing national and structural borders find other ways of interacting and producing performance art. @work platform in Copenhagen 18.4. - 21.4.2007.
Berlin n@work: Berlin n@work was established in 2006 with the aim to research contemporary definitions of work and the evolutionary processes the meaning of work is undergoing today. Jörn J. Burmester, Janine Eisenächer, Florian Feigl, Joy Harder and Nicolas Galeazzi form the core of the Berlin n@work. They operate within a network of artists and scholars, most closely with the performance artist Otmar Wagner and the media artists Blackhole Company. Aiming to initiate open discourses including a broad variety of artistic strategies and aesthetic expression, the Berlin n@work developed new ways of live co-operation during a series of workshops. To be part of the international theatre and performance research network @work means an opportunity to experience and appropriate diverse artistic approaches and to extend the fields of research across Europe . The Berlin n@work established an archive on the topic of work collecting texts, images, video and sound samples. The archive contains also documentary footage of current artistic processes and serves as a pool of information for future approaches. http://www.liveartwork.com/stammtisch Arbeit (Definition 2.1) is also a search for a new position for artists to phrase analytical and critical thought from without returning to the traditional antagonism of art and society - a model surpassed by recent developments and now only a nostalgic attitude perpetuated by the art market. Because of the specific qualities of contemporary artistic strategies that transgress the simple market-logic of the globalised economy we expect to be able to contribute unique and original aspects to the ongoing discourses on the definition of work and a new conception of work that will enable societies to cope with the needs and demands of the people in the 21st century. A first version of Arbeit (Defintion 2.1) will be presented during the Copenhagen platform on April 20, 2007 . An extended German version will be shown at Sophiensaele in Berlin on June 23, 24, 29 and 30, 2007. Berlin n@work is funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds in 2006 and 2007. Berlin n@work is supported by Theaterhaus Mitte. TeaterKUNST Our aim is to create research based productions that expose contemporary issues in innovative ways of theatre communication. TeaterKUNST joined the @ WORK network in 2005. And the group now consists of: Vahid Evazzadeh (dramaturg), Layla Mollerup (actress), Fadime Turan (actress), Bronwen Loshak(actress), Sheila Trillingsgaard (set designer) and Nina Larissa Bassett (director), Maja Gambill (assistant) and Dorte Wium (producer). TeaterKUNST is an independent production company founded in 2004 by three female directors: Vivian Nielsen, Solveig Weinkouff and Nina Larissa Bassett. TeaterKUNST believes that art and love are the most direct means of forming understanding between people. TeaterKUNST: No Title Our performance is called No Title and investigates the lives, dreams and realities of migrant workers in Denmark . No Title is devised by Vahid Evazzadeh (dramaturg), Layla Mollerup (actress), Fadime Turan (actress), Bronwen Loshak(actress), Sheila Trillingsgaard (set designer) and Nina Larissa Bassett (director), Maja Gambill (assistant) and Dorte Wium (producer). To be a fully accepted member of the Danish society – you must have a job. One of the current government's highest objectives is to strategically combat unemployment and reach the ultimate goal of: Full employment! No Title examines the consequences of this battle for people entering the country from the outside. No Title is what you have when you enter the country in search of work or merely an existence. Once inside the experiences and qualifications you bring from your homeland are rarely valid and bare very little significance. No Title will become a game that socialises immigrants into becoming good Danish workers but at the same time reveals the lives, dreams and realities of people. No Title will be a finished production in September 2007 Teatermaskinen Teatermaskinen is modern, idea based, revolutionary theatre..It was founded in 1997, by a group of Swedish artists with the ambition to explore the boundaries of stage, mind and present. We work in the former mining village of Riddarhyttan , some 200 kilometers northwest of Stockholm . In the outskirts of this village we are creating an international workshop and residency for stage art in the realms of The Machine Project. In order to trying to develop another kind of stage art and in search of another kind of actor we run a research project from which all our plays emerge. Our latest performance A staged essay on work, is produced within the @work context and is based on two and a half years of research and collaboration with unions, workers, scholars. The performance is currently touring Sweden and will be presented at the platform in Copenhagen . We plan to translate the performance for further European touring in 2008 and onwards. In our earlier performances we have explored the bio political body, the consumption society, the domestication of nature, love, sexuality, language, globalisation, death and the power of stories. Our next research - The language of the forest people - started in March 2007. www.teatermaskinen.com Teatermaskinen : A theatrical essay on work We've called the performance “an essay on work”. That might not sound all that sexy, but we do have our deligful ensemble and our popular moderator to take us through the night. Essay is a borrowed word from French and means something like ”attempt”, “to attempt”. And that's what we're going to do, attempt to find our way. The evening will be concenrated on different kinds of representations, actors' bodies in motion, music and film, private reactions, texts from real life, speech and dance, where all components – a little bit like the idea of democracy – are equally valued and interdependent. We won't just see the labour of cultural workers. We've brought a real live worker, straight from the night shift: Stig-Otto Nilsson from Västerås. But this won't just be some social mishmash. The artistic level is controlled and dictated by Jörn J Burmester, founder of the German perfomance network prodesse et delectare from Berlin . Efficiency. So, all this will interconnect, we hope, in our little essayistic theatremachine on work. By putting all this in a dialectic relation to one another we hope that something else will emerge. Something that we still don't understand. The incomprehensibility of our work. Possibly a class war. Definitely a crisis. A starting point for a conversation during four days on work, identity and value in a Europe without borders. Length of performance: 2h 20min The performance is carried out with support from Skinnskattebergs kommun, Landstinget Västmanland, Statens Kulturråd/Kultur i Arbetslivet, Brunnsviks folkhögskola, LO Reality Research Center (RRC) Reality Research Center (RRC) is a new kind of 'performing arts garage' from Finland . It was founded in 2001 by young theatre/performing arts professionals devoted to question the prevailing concept of reality. What is reality? How can we observe, describe, define, reflect, discuss, present or represent it? Foremost we search for new innovative ways of creating performances. As a result to this we often work in the grey area between contemporary theatre, dance, performance, community theatre, visual arts and what ever is needed. We don't have a stage of our own and tend to make a lot of collaboration with other theatre groups and institutions. Therefore we can be described as 'parasites'. To widen our horizon we are determined to increase cooperation with performing artists abroad, with people from different fields of art and with research workers who explore reality from a different point of view. In 2006 RRC has 20 members and runs eight productions (5 – 10 per year). Besides this we take part in seminars and discussions and contribute regularly to the Finnish Theatre magazine by writing reviews. In 2002 we received the National Arts Award from the Art Council of Finland for persistent and substantial research of ”new” and testing the limits of contemporary theatre. Participants from RRC in @work are Essi Aittamaa, Niina Hosiasluoma, Jussi Johnsson, Pilvi Porkola, Janne Saarakkala, Antti Nikkinen, Maria Nuutinen and Janne Pellinen. Reality Research Center LURE – Exhibition of Infinite Possibilities Performative exhibition. Performances : 1. work-in-progress performance in Copenhagen @work Platform 15. – 22.4.2007. 2. Exhibition opens in Helsinki , Finland in October - November 2007 There are few empty pedestals in the space and some empty frames on the walls. Video projector is screening blank white. The guide is introducing invisible, make-believe works of art to the audience. The pieces portray work; the great transition in the concept of work. Now there's a man dressed in pink suit on a pedestal, holding a marble shovel. He's singing. Is this the ideal work in the 21th century? Is it drifting from our grip and turning into a glossy picture? The concept work avoids definition; it seems larger than life; personal, social, political, essential, voluntary – full of assumptions. At best one could say “work” is disintegrated or fragmented. LURE – Exhibition of Infinite Possibilities is a performative exhibition that aims to crystallize some fragments out of the great phantom… Most of the work we do now-a-days is immaterial; it's thinking, fantasising, imaginary arranging and rearranging. Still, the more visible you can make your work, the better. Work is a performance. The more attention and publicity your performance draws, the more work and security is guaranteed in the future. To get attention you need documentation and media. Work is a documented performance. How do the media picture work and the workers? And what is it for real? A state of insecurity; how will I succeed today? And what does work do to a person? Man as a piece of work. Man as a piece of art. Reality Research Center Niina@WORK "The stupid works, the wise have it easier" A dance solo about part time jobs: 30 professions in 30 minutes. Based on real life……a concentrated life story from birth to the present moment, from job to job, to fulfilment. Dance : Niina Hosiasluoma Choreography : Jukka Korpi Music : Markus Krunegård Length : 30 minutes
The Red Room The Red Room creates theatre and film that frees the imagination to challenge the status quo. The Red Room is a small company with big ideas with over 10 years experience in producing award-winning theatre and film that is radical both in form and content. The Red Room creates groundbreaking new projects involving collaborations between artists and communities. The work always seeks to influence the relationship between theatre practice and broader society, and to give a voice to disempowered people, working in a way that enables people to gain new and enriching experiences, and opening up a genuine dialogue with a new audience. The most recent show, "Hoxton Story", involved nearly 100 people from the local community as interviewees, performance participants, production assistants and stewards. In addition to its high quality, innovative productions, the Red Room has historically involved itself in debates and activism around culture and politics. Our RRPlatforms are a series of bi-monthly talks and presentations by leading artists, activists and cultural critics, bringing people together to encourage activism, forge alliances and create debate. Previous events include Going Public , (2003) a free and publicly performed debate about theatre as a public form involving companies such as RSC, Cardboard Citizens and Outside Edge; Artists Against the War (2001) was a network of artists against the war in Iraq creating work for demonstrations; Palestine Verbatim in Trafalgar Square and Shock and Awe cabaret (2002). In 2004 the Red Room was involved in the European Social Forum Cultural working group. Founded in 1995 as a voluntary organisation, it achieved core funding from the Arts Council in 2002, was incorporated in 2003, gained charitable status in 2005. The Red Room: The Show The Red Room is exploring the issue of immigration and the right to work within the UK . This will take the form of a devised multi-media performance based on the testimonials of recent migrants and interviews with people working in this area. The exciting creative team includes Topher Campbell (Director), Nirjay Mahindru (Writer) and Derek Richards (Digital Artists). A work-in-progress will be presenting at the Platform in Copenhagen in April 2007 leading to a full production in the UK during late autumn 07 or spring 08. The final performance will take place on 3 platforms : Multi-media live performance Documentary film combining all the footage Online performance: allowing people to view and mix the work themselves and for those participants unable to attend the live performance to share in the experience. Partners on the project include: TUC, WEA, Ruskin College , Refugee Council, Migrants Rights Network, Marx Memorial Library, Caroline Morehead, Magdalene Centre and Ice and Fire Theatre. This is a very exciting project that we believe offers a voice and opportunity to some of the most vulnerable members of society, and will provoke debate and change on the future of work. |