Prievew ICAF Book Community Art Power

CommunityArtPowerESSAYS FROM ICAF 2011

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY ARTS FESTIVALROTTERDAM | 30.MARCH / 03.APRIL | 2011

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INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY ARTS FESTIVALICAF 30.MARCH / 03.APRIL MINI-ICAF 2.DECEMBER ROTTERDAM 2011

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ICAF Community, Art, Power

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Introduction / Eugene van Erven

IntroductionEugene van Erven

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particularly taken by the Murga, an anti-xenophobic activist per-formance practice in public space that originated many years ago in Argentina and before that, at the turn of the previous century, in Cádiz, Spain. He was equally impressed with the community dance work of Paloma Madrid, a Swedish choreographer who had come to Rotterdam to create a piece in someone’s apartment together with five novice dancers, including an 80-year-old woman. Thanks to Alexander Roberts promotion of this work, Paloma’s Dance in a Flat will now soon continue in Iceland.

Paloma’s project, which she had developed with Bottkyrka Community Theatre in Stockholm, was one of five artist-in-residencies, another new ICAF feature intended to introduce new community arts practices to the Netherlands. The other four included an exchange around musical theatre and video art between our company and Favela Força from Rio de Janeiro, a collaboration between Imbali Visual Literacy from Johannesburg and the ‘Women’s Studios’ in Rotterdam (which resulted in fabric design and a fashion show), a street-corner visual arts interven-tion by Soft Touch Arts from Leicester (England) in one of the rougher neighbourhoods of Rotterdam, and a two-week project with at-risk youth facilitated by Dance United Yorkshire. A docu-mentary focusing on this last residency’s work in the Moerwijk neighbourhood in The Hague, is included as a bonus track on the DVD that accompanies this book.

The second article explores key words like ‘power’ and ‘community’. Its author, Kevin Ryan, is one of the driving forces behind the East Midlands Participatory Arts Forum (EMPAF), a network organization in the UK that first visited us in 2008 and that re-appeared in 2011 with a twenty person delegation. Kevin, who directs Charnwood Arts in Loughborough, is also a seasoned visual artist. At ICAF, he offered a workshop in which festival visitors could serve as self-reporters and collectively create a book about the event. In his text, he argues in favour of the term ‘collaborator’, which he finds more fitting than ‘participant.’ He then turns to the many pitfalls and opportunities that community artists might experience when dealing with ‘the powers that be’.

The day before I sat down to write this intro-duction, we learned that the Netherlands Fund for Cultural Participation awarded the

International Community Arts Festival (ICAF) a new grant to cover the next two years; this, while in the midst of severe budget cuts in the arts that have affected many of our colleagues. Despite the European economic crisis – or maybe because of it – we have been given the opportunity to organize a sixth edition of our festival in the early spring of 2014. This brings with it a huge responsibility. We have to demonstrate that we are indeed the interface between Dutch community arts and the rest of the world; that we are capable of productively bringing together some of the most inspiring ideas and practices in our field and can open them up to a wider audience. This book and its companion video are a first step in that direction.

Those of you who are familiar with the reports of previous ICAFs will notice a marked change. Whereas the earlier books were largely descriptive and impressionistic, this one consists of thirteen essays that cover a wide variety of topics in personal-ized, culturally specific styles. This choice grew from an urgent need, felt by both our visitors and ourselves, to reflect more deeply on our practices. It is also the result of a new festival component, the ICAF seminars, which consisted of a series of discussions that took place on four mornings, and which were facilitated by Professor Jan Cohen-Cruz from Syracuse University in the U.S.A. Together with a number of invited guests she explored the ‘power’ of community arts from different angles.1 While transcribing the video tapes of this sometimes heated conversation, it struck me that all these ideas would make a lot more sense if they were accompanied by in-depth background pieces.

The first piece is an upbeat account of our festival by a young artist, curator and journalist from England, Alexander Roberts. He completed a traineeship with us at ICAF, creating podcasts for our website and writing an article for the British Totaltheatre magazine, which we reprint here. As you will notice, Alexander was

1. Earlier editions of the festival traditionally ended with a ‘final debate’ on Sundays. To my mind, these remained rather superficial because everyone wanted to have a say, which prevented deeper conversations. By inviting designated speakers into an inner circle I hoped to generate more profound discussions, at the risk of excluding an outer circle of largely muted spectators seated in the semi-dark. In his essay, Ron Berti criticizes this choice for which I, and not Jan Cohen-Cruz, am responsible.

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other people’s suffering, this initiative is valuable precisely because it does not neatly cover up tensions that continue to exist in Northern Ireland. The power of Theatre of Witness was made very clear to us in Rotterdam when, on the second day of ICAF, one of the original performers stepped out of the We Carried Your Secrets documentary we were screening, to act live on stage. It was one of the most memorable moments of our festival.

Another example of art for reconciliation is the work of Dutch composer Merlijn Twaalfhoven. He has created musical pieces for novices, amateurs, and professionals on the wall that separates Israel and Palestine in Bethlehem and in the demilitarized zone of Nicosia, Cyprus. At our festival, we screened a documentary about the Cyprus project, called Echoes Across the Divide. On Saturday night we programmed Merlijn’s experimental attempt to bridge the abyss between professional singers on stage and people in the auditorium of Zuidplein theatre. In his contribution to this book, Merlijn looks back on his work in the Middle East and Cyprus, regarding it more as a matter of generating respect than of making peace, which to him has become an empty word.

One of the oldest partners of ICAF is acta community theatre from Bristol. In his essay, its artistic director, Neil Beddow, reviews this special relationship with Rotterdam, and reveals how it has helped him clarify what he is trying to accomplish in his work in England. While it has opened his organisation to the world, it has also prompted acta to take the initiative in an international cooperation project that received funding from the European Union. Under the name COAST (Community Oriented Art for Social Transformation) this project explores the theme of migration together with us in Rotterdam and two other partners from Germany and Poland. Neil’s essay testifies to the vital need to look beyond one’s own front door in community arts.

The German COAST partner is Expedition Metropolis from Berlin. In his contribution, Ulrich Hardt, the director of this organization, analyzes the cross-cultural arts exchanges he has been involved in with youth groups. His text focuses on a journey that a mixed group of Polish and German youngsters undertook in

Like Kevin Ryan, Michael Romanyshyn is a veteran community artist. He is a musician and theatre maker who worked for many years with the legendary Bread & Puppet theatre in the U.S.A. This company, which was founded in 1964 by German sculptor and dancer Peter Schumann, has been an important influence on community arts worldwide, but particularly in the Americas and Europe. Romanyshyn’s highly personal tale tells the story of his coincidental connection with Archa Theatre in the Czech Republic and the amazing intercultural musical trip that resulted from it. The Allstar Refudzji Band, which he directs, brought down the house on the opening night of our festival and later inspired a Dutch spin-off: Orchestre Partout. This band of asylum seekers, led by Ted van Leeuwen of 5eKwartier in Haarlem, won this year’s ‘Golden C’ award for best innovative community arts project in the Netherlands.

Next in line is Edith Scher. At our festival, she and her partner, guitarist Daniel Mir, had conducted an inspiring inter- active workshop in which she demonstrated the way she creates large scale scenes with choirs in her own neighbourhood, Villa Crespo in Buenos Aires. In Rotterdam, Edith’s participants included members from the Stut community choir in Utrecht, the cast of our own Senior Citizens Revue as well as performers from the Community Company of the Glasgow Citizens Theatre. I knew that Edith Scher was completing a book for the Argentinian National Theatre Institute, covering the rocky history of community theatre activities in her country, dating back to the days of the Videla dictatorship. The essay she wrote for this book, passionately and poetically captures the spirit and the unique qualities of this move- ment in which her company, Matemurga, played an important part.

Immediately after the chapter on Argentina, Matt Jennings and David Grant guide us into the equally troubled history of Northern Ireland. Their chapter effectively demon-strates the value of accessible humanities research for the advance of community arts. They usefully explain terms like ‘kinaesthetic’ and ‘affect’ to explain the extraordinary power of the Theatre of Witness project by the Derry Playhouse, which they have followed closely. Matt and David argue that rather than exploitation of

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on the Community Company of the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, which had performed on Thursday night. Day 3, finally, began with an extended (and heated) debate about evaluation. Joe Osawabine, from the Canadian Aboriginal company Debajehmujig, found himself dragged into this to his great discomfort. His and Ron Berti’s reactions were a useful reminder that we need to be more aware of the western dominance in our discourse and the impor-tance of incorporating other, older ways of thinking and knowing.

In the chapter that immediately follows the seminar transcription, Ron Berti and Joe Osawabine explain at greater length the special position that Debajehmujig has within Canadian society. Or rather, on the edge of it, because the company has increasingly turned its back on the mainstream art world in their country in order to focus on working with Aboriginal communities of which they, as artists, are an integral part. Through ICAF, they write, Debajehmujig has discovered a new world of like-minded spirits outside Canada. Since April 2011 they have established working relations with Sering in Belgium, with Arena y Esteras in Peru, and with the Community Company of the Glasgow Citizens Theatre. And in June 2012, they returned to the Netherlands to perform their work Global Savages at the Oerol Festival on the island of Terschelling.

The complex relationship between westerners and Aboriginals is also the main theme of Kerrie Schaefer’s contribution to this book. An Australian herself, she first provides a detailed

2010 to the arts organisation Arena y Esteras in Villa El Salvador on the edge of Lima. This Peruvian company had participated in two of our earlier festivals, well before we heard of Ulrich Hardt’s work. His critical and honest text provides fresh insights into the work of our Peruvian colleagues and into the delicate nature of international arts collaborations.

Many such surprising connections lie behind the per-formances, film screenings, workshops and presentations that constitute ICAF. In May 2009, a week after Augusto Boal passed away in Rio, Ulrich Hardt hosted an encounter between Latin American and European community artists in Hellerau, just outside Dresden. Ana Sofia Pinedo of Arena y Esteras was there, as was Edith Scher from Argentina and Maria Schejbal from Poland. A few months later, in the freezing cold of January 2010, Neil Beddow and I stood on her doorstep in Bielsko-Biała to find out what her work with Teatr Grodzki was all about. In her text, Maria looks at some of the accidental encounters that have influenced her work, particularly her experiences with Peter Schumann of the Bread & Puppet theatre.

The longest – and possibly most unreadable – text in this collection is an edited and abbreviated transcription of the seminars dealing with the power of community art. It makes most sense when read after first watching the video documentary that accompanies this book. The ICAF seminars took place every morning of the festival. I transcribed and selected the material, deleting only remarks that were repetitive or less relevant, while still keeping sufficient verbatim quotations for the benefit of future researchers. I then sent the text to Jan Cohen-Cruz, who had facilitated the seminars, asking her to add comments. Together we decided to maintain the chronological order of the conver-sations, which each day contained a critical reflection on the ICAF programme of the previous day. Day 1 thus deals with the Australian Aboriginal Ngapartji Ngapartji project and the notion of functionality, which we would return to frequently in the following days. Day 2 addresses engaged art in politically charged contexts such as Egypt during the Tahrir Square uprising and Northern Ireland after the ‘Troubles’. It also includes a critical reflection

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these in our own work. Thus the cross-fertilization that began at ICAF continues here and elsewhere.

Debajehmujig-Storytellers has joined the World-Wide Virtual Theatre Carrousel, an international collaboration that was born when Mia Grijp of Sering (Antwerp, Belgium) Rosalba Rolón of Pregones (The Bronx, New York) and Oupa Malatjie (Tembisa Township, South Africa), met at ICAF and expressed the desire to work together. They now create new work in collabo-ration with partners in South Africa, Peru, Iraq, and Canada, using online tools and virtual workshop spaces.

There are many more dimensions – and stories – related to ICAF that we do not have space to address here in detail. Some of these we have tried to capture in the companion video. Others we can only respectfully acknowledge with a heartfelt “Thank You” to: Favela Força, Imbali Visual Literacy, Soft Touch Arts, Bottkyrka Community Theatre, Lamourgaga, Archa Theatre, Ambrosia’s Table, Villa Zebra, the Community Company of the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, Parrabbola, Voices of the City, Junaid Jemal Sendi, the Mama Story Choir, the Stut Choir, CAL-XL, Démos, and Neighbourhood Art in Delft. The same goes for the countless individuals who made ICAF-5 the warm and inspiring event that it was. They include my wonderful colleagues at the Rotterdams Wijktheater among whom I must single out Anamaria Cruz. She embodies the spirit of ICAF.

A final note on language. I have consciously opted to respect the spelling variations that exist in Canada, the United States, Australia, and Britain. Also, in the texts translated from German, Polish, Dutch and Argentinian Spanish, I have tried to capture the linguistic peculiarities of these cultures or the authors. I am also responsible for writing or editing the author notes at the end of each chapter, and for any other inaccuracies that somehow managed to slip through the final checks made by my good friend Phillip Mann from New Zealand. ICAF-5 was the first festival we programmed and produced without the guidance of the founders of the Rotterdams Wijktheater, Annelies Spliethof and Peter van den Hurk. I dedicate this book to them.

background on Big hART and their Ngapartji Ngapartji project. She also offers an annotated description of the show, and provides useful background information for non-Australians. Having seen earlier versions of the show in Australia, Kerrie then addresses the question whether it can also work in a non-Australian context such as Rotterdam. Judging from people’s responses – which she thoroughly analyzes – she believes it can. The result is a sophisticated piece of community arts criticism of which there is still far too little in our field.

The final essay is written by François Matarasso, one of the world’s most influential thinkers about community arts. Although he wasn’t present at the main ICAF, he spoke at a Mini-ICAF we held on 2 December 2011. Somewhat provocatively, I had asked him to talk about the relation between community arts and the riots that had rocked several English cities earlier last year. Instead, he produced a fascinating comparison between British community arts in the ‘80s and today. This was later expanded for inclusion in this book. Containing many notes and references, this present work may, as François suggests, become the basis for a book offering a fuller treatment of the topic.

Like Matarasso’s essay, this ICAF collection contains the embryo of another book, one that tells the story of forty years community arts in the Netherlands and the role of the Rotterdam Wijktheater within it. What is already obvious, however, is that the foreign visitors to our festival have enormously influenced our work in Rotterdam. From text-based realistic theatre we have evolved to multidisciplinary productions that include music, dance, and video. We have become a little less wary of collaborating with local authorities and corporations and a little more street-wise. We have begun to think less like a conventional theatre company and much more like a flexible multifunctional community arts organization with a long-term vision. Our on-site visits to the partners in the COAST project, (which would never have come about without ICAF,) are also beginning to pay dividends. We are discovering differences in approach – such as the much stronger emphasis placed on ownership and community collaboration in British community arts – and we are now considering incorporating

IntroductionEugene van Erven

Come Together: A Report From the In-BetweenAlexander Roberts

Power and Community ArtsKevin Ryan

Random Combinations, Deliberate MusicMichael Romanyshyn

For Joy, Against Death: Community Theatre in ArgentinaEdith Scher

Peace Industry Propaganda or ‘Troubles Porn’?Matt Jennings and David Grant

Why I Stopped Making PeaceMerlijn Twaalfhoven

Same Difference: Learning Through International PartnershipsNeil Beddow

Memoria Cross-Over Arts: a German, Polish, Peruvian CollaborationUlrich Hardt

Theatre For EveryoneMaria Schejbal

A Field Ready to Leave Home: Notes From the ICAF seminarJan Cohen-Cruz and Eugene van Erven

DebajehmujigRon Berti with Joe Osawabine

Something Is happening Here! Big hART’s Ngapartji Ngapartji in RotterdamKerrie Schaefer

All In This Together: Art, Community and History’s LessonsFrançois Matarasso

CONTENTS


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Prievew ICAF Book Community Art Power