StockholmRESIDENCY Subcase 13–16February2013
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Europeanresidencyprogrammeforculturaljournalists StOCKHOLmRESIDENCY S u B C A S E 16FEBRuARY2013–13 p.3DONALDHutERA unpackingtheCircusArts p.9ERICASmItS Lookatme/Kijknaarmij /p.15EvAPOmARES CaptivatingtheImpossible Lacaptivaciódel’impossible p.22IvANJOvANOvIC traditionalandmodern /?Circus:DifferencesandConnections tradicionalniisavremenicirkus:gdesurazlike ?agdeveze p.32mAttILINNAvuORI Girlsshakeoff constipation/tytötkaristavatummetuksen /p.36NAtHALIEALLARD OppositesAttract OppositesAttract p.43NELALAZAREvIC Specialeffectsof thebody–contemporarycircusfromtrying toimpresstotryingtoexpress /p.47NINAJääSKELäINEN talkingaboutcircus Puhutaansirkuksesta /p.53ORSOLYABáLINt DaretobeImperfect merjünktökéletleneklenni p.64SALLYStOtt ProphetswithRedNoses IT! EAT – Rose Ruby © Petter Hellmann Petter © Presentation Circus arts are an art form like theatre or dance, of twelve major festivals programming but have not yet a profound level of intellectual, contemporary circus. The goal of the project is cultural and institutional recognition it deserves, to facilitate the circulation of knowledge and in Europe as well as at national and local level. experience, to develop the critical discourses Thereby political and financial support to this of its participants, and to further the role of the sector is quite low and there are structural media within the circus arts and contemporary weaknesses. There are strong imbalances in society. comparison to other creative areas, even when comparing the realities between regions or 12Residencies–120Articles countries. Unpack the Arts consists of 12 residencies in 8 countries, spread over 2 years (August 2012 – Despite the growing success of circus by the February 2014). Each residency is set within the audience and programmers, circus arts are not framework of a festival and follows the same covered by abundant literature, academic format: over the course of 4 days, the participants research, in-depth articles, reviews,... and artists contribute to a series of moderated thematic themselves often experience difficulties in discussions, attend lectures by key circus experts, producing theoretical writing that communicates see 3-5 shows, and meet with and interview their practice, their creative processes and their programmed artists along with a representative productions. They rarely have the chance to of the host festival. After the residencies, each exchange with critics and experts from the participating journalist delivers one article. These performing arts on theoretical or conceptual texts are collected, translated and turned into an terms. online, multilingual publication. Also, many art writers are clueless about This fourth publication collects the texts of contemporary circus. Cultural journalists don’t 10 European journalists who attended the know the disciplines and techniques and overall residency at Subcase in Stockholm, Sweden, they lack the contextual understanding to tackle 13–16 February 2013. a piece’s dramaturgical choices, to reference other productions, or to interview artists creating We wish to thank all participants and all non text-based works. collaborators who made this residency a success. That’s why Circuscentrum and 9 important circus festivals all over Europe conceived Unpack KOEN ALLARY the Arts. Unpack the Arts is a European project Director, Circuscentrum (project leader) granted by Europe Culture – that provides YOHANN FLOCH – residencies for cultural journalists in the context Adviser 2 unpacking theCircusArts DONALD H u t ERA ‘It’s a kind of life’ performances and interviews with the (mainly Marcel Escolana of Los Galindos on circus Nordic) artists who made them, supplemented by lectures and discussions. It’s worth noting Introduction here that Subcase is organised and curated by partners of the New Nordic Circus Network; When the invitation arrived to steep myself in keeping with their remit, almost everything in ‘new circus’ in Sweden, well, how could I on view hailed from northern Europe. But to refuse? In truth, I’d applied for this opportunity discover this year’s exception, read on… offered by Unpack the Arts, a European ,initiative providing short, intensive residencies DayOne:Orientation,Context during which cultural journalists can bolster BodyImage their understanding of contemporary circus In which we learnt about each other and Subtopia performance and engage in critical discourse before seeing, in the revamped warehouse venue about it. My response upon receiving Hangaren, EAT IT! by Sweden’s Ruby Rose confirmation – and that I’d also bagged my Productions. destination of choice in wintry Stockholm – was a grateful hurrah. According to the promotional blurb the cast of the ‘transmedia’ entertainment EAT IT! “will spin your I landed in handsome-as-ever Stockholm in chilly, world until you want to puke”. The show didn’t slushy, overcast mid-February, but, as it turned make me sick; far from it, in fact. It was friendly, out, spent most of the next three and half days free-wheeling, occasionally unabashedly rude or about a 30 minute coach ride away at Subtopia outrageously funny and, basically, full-on. Sure, – a ‘Spacious Suburban Paradise’, according to its director Rebecca Westholm and her four fellow Facebook page. Founded in 2002 in the female performers occasionally opted for the municipality of Botkyrka, and spread across obvious, and maybe the piece is a little baggily 14,000 square metres in what is said to be one of misshapen. Still, I was consistently engaged with the nation’s most international but impoverished this smartly populist, sharply humorous take on areas, Subtopia is a complex of buildings housing body image. various companies or organisations (about 50 total) that serve as a creative locus for the EAT IT! is both a celebration and send-up of facilitation (rather than production per se) of modern women’s slavish obsession with her own circus, film, radio and more. and other’s looks and size, and a thought- provoking, broadly comic stab at the culture that The specific reason for my being at Subtopia was engenders this imbalanced condition. Although the 5th edition of Subcase, a showcase of circus- the theme of the show is sober its delivery is based performances (seven full-length), works-in- anything but. “There is no better way to prove progress (nine of these) and appetite-whetting the absurdity of a social problem than laughing in ‘pitches’ of upcoming projects (seven again). All of its face,” Westholm has declared. By implication this was aimed at an audience of industry Ruby Rose is encouraging women to flout ‘insiders’: presenters, producers or programmers mainstream commercial culture’s brainwashing and – in the case of the group to which I belonged conventions and instead embrace with gusto – ten writers and/or broadcasters on the arts. For their human imperfections. This stance is perhaps us the schedule was a daily carousel of most tellingly embodied by Westholm herself Donald Hutera 3 Cirkus Cirkör – Knitting Peace © Mats Bäcker running in circles, bare breasts bouncing in especially after learning that she created this the breeze, but it’s also present elsewhere: in show post-motherhood). Ruby Rose’s self- the equation of make-up with clowning, say, mocking, liberating efforts to tickle our collective or a frantic catwalk strut in which the jerkily funnybone just about earn the built-in, audience determined models don the frowziest wigs. participation standing ovation. I leftEAT IT! feeling fattened by laughter, my consciousness Could this cabaret-style performance exist if raised into a state of warm merriment. stripped of its circus content? Not as well, I think. The ensemble, including guitar-strumming Eliisa Daytwo:Lectures,Juggling,Knitting Erävalo, plays to individual strengths. This In which amid lectures on contemporary circus includes Chloé Derrouaz’s hoop routine in which history, current genre labels and education, plus titular comparisons are made between her a few revealing artist interviews, we consumed splayed poses and food (e.g. a spread crotch a brace of shows. described as ‘fondue au fromage’), or Anna Lagerkvist’s darkly dreamy stint on a swinging Overlooking its somewhat cumbersomely clever pole. The latter ties in neatly with the generally title, Between Someonesons by the dynamic ballsy, extremely Midleresque (as in Bette) Angela young duo Patrik (Elmnert) & Wes (Peden) was Wand’s recitations of fragments of totally non-PC a mesmerisingly inventive treat of what could be jokes – the ‘unsayable’ uttered in nightmarishly deemed acro-juggling – a full-bodied, highly terror-stricken tones. Later she and Westholm choreographed form of object manipulation that hijack events as glossily vulgar, ‘thinspirational’ a colleague happily judged as ‘juggling for people fitness queens (with, most amusingly, Wand using who don’t like juggling’. bits of tape in lieu of Botox, and much wider swathes of it for a brute DIY tummy tuck; I also With its emphasis on structure, not to mention enjoyed Westholm’s sage advice – ‘You can learn the precise, entirely transparent yet abstract from babies – they throw up all the time’ – complexity of the juggling patterns adopted by its Donald Hutera 4 creators, this performance is a fine example of cantilever off of each other while juggling or, what our shepherd-like circus expert Yohann backing away from each