Over the weekend of 15-17 October, audiences around the world can
join online performances exploring the theme “mobilise/demobilise”,
and celebrate the launch of the completely rebuilt and mobilised
UpStage platform.
Time converters and live links to the stage will be available at www.mobilise-demobilise.eu.
Mobilise/Demobilise
began as an artistic response to a world of increasing conflict,
crisis and emergency, before Covid19 lockdowns and travel
restrictions forced us to live more and more of our lives online.
Now, issues of human mobility and the impact of mobile
technologies have become even more urgent. The unsustainability
and inequality of the old “normal” can no longer be ignored, and
we must imagine a new way forward. Mobilise/Demobilise brings
a critical and artistic perspective to the current crises.
Over the past year, artists
in Germany, Austria, Sweden and Aotearoa New Zealand have
researched the theme and learned to use the online platform
UpStage for presenting live online events. Different thematic
threads have emerged in each locations. In Austria, the artists’
platform Schaumbad Freies Atelierhaus Graz have asked the public
what kind of a city they want, and how might the city look without
cars. In Malmo, Sweden, Teater InterAkt is working with young
skaters to understand their perspective on issues of mobility and
the environment. And in Whakatū (Nelson, NZ) the historic shifting
of the tideway is used as a metaphor for the relationship between
human expansion and the natural environment.
Connecting and underscoring
the performances are the universal concepts of loss and grief
associated with climate change and societal upheaval that the
world is experiencing. Audiences in Europe and globally will be
invited to reflect on and discuss the theme and concepts at the
weekend’s opening and closing events.
The performances
launch the newly “mobilised” version
of UpStage, which now functions on mobile
devices as well as desktop and laptop computers and incorporates many new features. Audiences click
on a link and UpStage opens in a web
browser; they can
interact in real time via text chat and reaction emojis.
Mobilise/Demobilise is
a Creative Europe funded collaboration between Teater
Interakt (Sweden),
Schaumbad - Freies Atelierhaus Graz
(Austria) and UpStage@CCT (the Centre
for the Cultivation of Technology, Germany). Schaumbad's
participation is supported by the Bundesministerium für Kunst,
Kultur, öffentliche Dienst und Sport (Austria).
Participating
Artists:
Katharina Aschauer,
Manel Ruiz Blas, cym, Parnian Faizi, Alexandra Gschiel,
Eva-Maria Gugg, Doris Jauk-Hinz, Anita Hofer, Rebecca Hofer,
Helen Varley Jamieson, Sara Larsdotter Hallquist, Jesper
Miikman, Cecilia Nkolina, Keyvan Paydar, John-Paul Pochin, Lyn
Russell, Sally Shaw, Vicki Smith, Eva Ursprung, Faye Wulff and Karl Wulff.
Partners:
UpStage
is an online
platform for cyberformance (networked
performance) and an international community of artists. The
platform was first developed in Aotearoa
New Zealand in 2003 and since
then has hosted many
online festivals, performances and
events. www.upstage.org.nz
Teater Interakt is a community
theatre company based in Malmö, Sweden, that works intensively
together with people with experience of migration, mainly in the
asylum-process, creating performances communicating alternative
narratives of migration and Swedish identity. www.teaterinterakt.se
Schaumbad - Freies Atelierhaus Graz
is a multi-disciplinary
artists’ platform
in Graz, Austria that provides studios for about 30 artists, and
organises exhibitions, events and intercultural exchanges. www.schaumbad.mur.at
The Center
for the Cultivation of Technology
acts as a host organisation for international free software
projects, providing organisational infrastructure. www.techcultivation.org
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