protagon e.V. presents

   

meridians
the new European network for performing arts in non-conventional venues

  
 

Introduction

Six major European performing arts festivals are uniting to create the project MERIDIANS, for the exchange of artists, joint-productions and inter-cultural dialogue in the performing arts in non-conventional venues.

The network will promote the creation and co-production of works based on exchanges between artists and\or partners of various countries in the European Union. The goal is to spread inter-cultural and European creativity in the particular field of performing arts that inhabits and uses the city as a stage and an enclave for the creation of links between the citizens and the new physical languages that are being explored in street theatre and non-conventional theatre.

MERIDIANS aims promote the exchange and mobility of artists for the creation of a joint-production. The interculturality is important in both the theme that inspires the creation as well as in the origins and focuses of the artists. The new productions will be commissioned by the network with the support of the EU Culture Programme.

 
 

Partipants and Partners

The MERIDIANS projects will be seen by the maximum possible audiences in the six festivals of the co-organisers:

Partner festivals:

 
 

"Remember the Future" Laboratory

Revolution / Re-Evolution of performing arts in European public spaces

Co-producing festivals

  • Ana Desetnica – International Street Theatre Festival (Llubljana & Maribor, SI)
  • SOMMERWERFT – Theatre Festival on the Riverside (Frankfurt/Main, D)
  • Stockton International Riverside Festival (Stockton-on-Tees, GB)

Artistic direction

  • Bernhard Bub, antagon theaterAKTion

Participants

  • German company antagon theaterAKTion
  • British and Slovenian artists (Physical theatre actors, dancers, musicians, visual artists)

The creation process will be a complex of three laboratory periods - one in each country, conducting research about the project's title, theme and questions:
What happened in the past of the countries and this continent?
How can one stay in contact with the earth, the traditions and natural forms of living while facing the rapid changes in our lives' realities?

The artistic approach is based on physical theatre, interpretive and Butoh dance, contact improvisation, stilts, acrobatics, live music, voice and more.

We aim to create a large-scale outdoor show that starts a confrontation with merging and mutation of different European cultures. The three presentations of the work (though one work-in-progress show in June 2008) will be set in and around the three rivers of the festivals' cities.

  
 

Timetable for the "Remember the Future" Laboratory

  • April 14 - 25
    Workshop, antagon Halle, Frankfurt/Main (Germany)
  • June 24 - July 2
    Workshop and working demonstration, Maribor (Slovenia)
  • July 28 - August 3
     Workshop, Stockton (England)
  • August 2 / 3
    „H?O - Remember the Future“ Premiere at the Stockton International Riverside Festival (Stockton on Tees, England)
  • August 8 / 9
    „H?O - Remember the Future" performance at the Sommerwerft Theaterfestival on the Riverside, (Frankfurt / Main, Germany)

  
 

"H?O" Remember the Future Production

July 10, 2008
Created during the first three Workshop phases, a new outdoor theater show is nearly ready to take to the streets:

"All life comes from water. We are born in water and our daily lives depend on water. After years of humans experimenting on and abusing this element, we realise that we must become friends with water again, and we must learn how to pass it on."

A dance-theater production about water, with stilts, fire and live music, filled with living images and ritual energy.

 

  
 

For further information please contact:

Mireia Salvador i Branera
antagon theaterAKTion
Orberstraße 57
60386 Frankfurt
Germany
Tel. +49 (0)69.417041
Fax +49 (0)69.94147719
mireia@antagon.de
www.antagon.de

www.meridiansnet.org