THEATRE AND FREEDOM: Paradigm Shift(s) in the Independent Theatre Culture in Europe after 1989
International conference
Prague, October 23-24, 2019
The year when we remember the 30th anniversary of political changes in Central and Eastern Europe calls upon looking back on 1990s ideas and hopes. It is independent theatre, which was a key platform for the attempts for their implementation not only at aesthetic and artistic, but also at social and political levels in various models and configurations of existence. It was largely inspired by the development of the international independent artistic scene, which was difficultly accessible for the majority of artists behind the Eastern side of the Iron Curtain until 1989. Is it possible to consider the development of independent theatre in Central and Eastern Europe in the 90s as a “success story”? Is independent theatre and artistic scene taken for granted nowadays? Are social status and social need for independent art in society today completely different from ideas of 1989? How does contemporary independent scene relate to the avant-garde and neo-avant-garde legacy? Based on their insight in the development of independent theatre in the past 30 years, ten professionals from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Ukraine, Belarus and some of the Baltic States will try to find the answers. The conference does not deal only with the confrontation of the historical development of this part of theatre culture in their papers, but also with discussion formats focused on visions of European independent theatre for the future.
The conference takes place as part of the Arts and Theatre Institute research project “Czech Independent Theatre after 1989”, accentuating the development of Czech theatre in new social and political conditions, especially in the context of transformation, decentralization of the theatre network and new tools of cultural policy. The main item of interest are the roots, professionalization and development of epicenters of independent theatre stages and companies after 1989 in the Czech Republic and sub-papers on the development in Slovakia.
How can culture and aesthetics be mobile when the whole world is liquid? What can be a response to the growing number of those who do not want to be mobile any more and who act strongly against those who try to cross the borders? And is it appropriate to discuss a fluidity of culture when peoples‘ mobility is increasingly involuntary and violently forced?
Conference “Mobility of Aesthetics” took place in Warsaw 12 -13 October 2018. The Polish Theatre Institute together with the other organizer have produced the reader, which is now available here.
The internation conference will continue in Prague 23 -24 October 2019 with the working title “Independent Theatre in Europe”. More information will follow.
Research project “Performing Arts within the Cultural Landscapes in Europe”
This research was initiated by the Flanders Arts Institute (Brussels) and the ITI Germany. A goal was to document the current status of the performing arts in European countries. They are formed like a bibliography and cover the following topics:
Artists searching for cooperation and work opportunities in other European counties,
Information centres and theatre institutes which research and compile information for artists,
Cultural-political networks using this material to develop arguments for the promotion of the performing arts,
Academic institutions searching for sources about the situation of the performing arts in Europe.
The documents and links have been split into five areas:
Information about national cultural politicians and the promotion of culture, presentation of the cultural landscape
The existing structures within the cultural landscape of the performing arts: institutions / festivals / projects / promotion
The social situation of artists (income, professional status, life circumstances)
Mobility (forms of and opportunities for mobility, promotion, barriers to mobility)
A large part was completed in workshops of the common European Secretary of German culture NGOs. Associations of independent performing artist from various European countries, the Federal Association of the Performing Arts (Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste), as well as members of Project Passage 23E.
Note that the Google Sheets are “read only” for now. Although, we would like to invite members of ENICPA to join in and contribute further information! Please contact the board of ENICPA to take part.
To Institutes and Organizations for Performing Arts
We would like to introduce you to the European Network of Information Centres for the Performing Arts, ENICPA. Since 1999, ENICPA has been working as a network of specialists in the field of performing arts information, documentation and collections in Europe. The aim of the network is to share information and experience and to build partnership on both formal and informal levels.
The members of ENICPA meet once a year in one of the member countries. Being a network of colleagues, ENICPA provides a platform for cooperation between the member organizations. At the annual meetings we exchange information about projects, developments, ideas and tools, not just in the field of documentation, digitization, and information databases but also in law, public relation, audience development, artistic mobility and more. As each meeting is hosted by one member organization, it is a unique possibility to learn details about how they run their organization. The advantages of being a member bring knowledge about similar organization in Europe, the ability to provide wider services to customers, new professional contacts and a possibility to find partners for international projects.
We hereby invite you to our next annual meeting which will be hosted by the Perfoming Arts Hub Norway in Oslo in collaboration with the National Library. The meeting will take place in September 15-17th 2020, and it will give you the opportunity to see what being a member of ENICPA is like. We are sure that taking part at a meeting will help you to decide to become an ENICPA member as most of us have become members this way.
Do not hesitate to contact us for more information.
Yours sincerely,
The Board:
Michael Freundt (ITI Germany)
Ondrej Svoboda (Art and Theatre Institute, Czech Republic)
Catalina Gonzalez (Centro de investigación y recursos de las artes escénicas de Andalucía, Spain)
The annual ENICPA Round Table Meeting took place in Berlin on the first days of November. Thank you for all the members who participated this year’s meeting and all the presentations we heard during these two days. We would also like to thank our host, the ITI Germany, for facilitating us. Before the official memo and the minutes, I would like to inform you some of the main point we discussed:
Next year’s meeting will take place at Bratislava in the beginning of November 2017 (the exact dates tbc)
The topic(s) for the next meeting will be decided during the spring. One potential suggestion was communications.
Although there are no official application deadlines for the staff exchangeor expert exchange programmes, the board will inform when they will hold the meetings beforehand, so those how are planning to apply know when the applications are expected to process.
The Round Table Meeting decided to increase the budget for the staff exchange programme. This will help to extend the period of the visit to another organization.
Personal note from our Communication Coordinator: We hope that the network communication will improve in the near future. This will mean more contacts from me, more frequent updating on the webpages, Facebook etc. I would like to push us all to inform throught the network about your great work that you all do and to share good practises and other information.
Should you have any question regarding our network communication, do not hesitate to contact me:
13th-14th of November 2014 ENICPA arranged their yearly round table meeting. The host this year was Contredanse in Brussels, Belgium. Follow the link to watch the video from the round table.