Event/Horizons explores the next prime number in the series -- thirteen. After the urban immersion of
J[us]t 5 in 2018, the global dance of Seven to the Seventh (2019) and the territory of exile of 1[-1] Materiality of Exile, the new project looks to the cosmos by taking its inspiration from the ‘lost’ thirteen constellation Ophiucus; the serpent bearer, the healer, and its accompanying month (November – December) which had to ‘disappear in order to accommodate the change from lunar to solar calendars.
In the project this fact serves as a creative metaphor to explore diverse modes of social constructions of the visible and invisible that define worldviews that in turn determine our engagement with ‘the world’.
The idea that the constellation is the constellation of the healer serves as an opportunity to question
the role of arts -artists and organizations- in the current challenges that we face.
How can we stand outside this implosive historical moment
in order to seek alternatives that remain life affirming in and through art?
How can art address sustainability, collaboration, cooperation and social
responsibility issues that although preexisting to our current conditions,
have become even more poignant given the fissures
(social, political, territorial and chronological)
that have once again emerged across the world?
Artists in sixteen global sites will be working in multiple
parallel cooperative and collaborative
creation processes in a two-stranded structure.
First - as an artist- led working group between October 2020 and November 2021. The main aim of this strand is to find alternative modes to nurture and exchange our practices given the challenges faced by the global-pandemic. Dialogues that used to take place by visiting performances, attending seminars, presenting work need a new platform, a platform that is multi-modal and allows for fluid hybrid presences and different time/space scales of encounters. The emphasis here is on sharing practices and an open platform to discuss issues arising from creative processes in particular contexts. The practices are not just ‘stage’ based but multiple and include pedagogical practices, social intervention practices, practices that exist remote from the ‘urban centre’, practices in contexts other than the ‘global North’.
The second strand is a public exposition to take place at the end of the thirteen month period: November-December 2021, the corresponding dates of the ‘13th month’, with a public exposition of the creative processes. This is not a festival, the word ‘exposition’ is used specifically as defined by Schwab and Borgdorff (2014) “exposition – the ways of making the [art] present”. Currently the mode is open and will be defined by the processes that will begin in October 2020.
VISION OF THE PROJECT
The project is a means to bring artists with similar and diverse concerns to work together, exploring a different kind of space to nurture our practices and build capacity for our work in the
current changing and challenging contexts.
An important aspect f the vision is to bridge distance across artists and their communities to re-establish ‘contact’ as we navigate together the shifting landscape of arts productions
within the context of the pandemic.
The project continues the commitment of the previous 'prime number' works: to seeks alternative modes to connect the local and the global, and will use remote and mobile technologies to invite communities to rethink the role of arts in the current challenges posed by an ongoing pandemic.
It is our belief that any action towards the ‘post’ needs to consider solid evidence from the artists’ experience of these months in varying scales and practices within dance. – some of us are company directors, some independent artists, large scale, medium scale, integrated companies.
Structures towards rebuilding the industry must be comprehensive and include diverse voices. The project aims to offer opportunities to build resilience for artists through collaborative enterprise nature of the project.
