| Landscape X: Euralien 1998 |
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Project
LANDSCAPE X took in the framework of the "Stockholm – Cultural Capital
of Europe 3 parts of the project:
In the project LANDSCAPE X: euralien participated 13 performances from 13 countries, each director staged a small performance, creating a common performance – a maze which lasted for 4 hours. First night performance – June 23, 1998 at National Archive building in Stockholm. Latvian
Performance: "Consulate" in a style of an opera. The word "euralien" is a formation from the words "alien" – a stranger, not implicated foreign citizen and "EU" – European Union and also the first letters of the word "Europe". Euralien in one word contains the essence of the project – from one side the visitors entering this performance receive passports of the countries, which are not members of the European Union, with the idea to experience other forms of "non-participation, otherness". On the other hand also the creators of the performance are "strangers" – 12 theatre directors from Baltic, Balcan countries and Sweden. (From the project description by "Intercult") " (…) Euralien is the promised country and the fortress in Europe. Euralien is fiction, right in the middle of us, where no-one is allowed to get in without the right papers, the right identity. Euralien is a piece of total art, about the alienation in Europe, about millions of people, who, with violence, are kept out. (Ingamaj Beck "Euralien, a promised land in the center of Stockholm". Aftonbladet 980629) |
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About landscapes and territories. Latvian artists in Stockholm The artuistic director of the project Criss Torch ("Intercult") has chosen the most unconvenient way for the realisation of the international project – instead of a "convinient" guest performances he invited 14 directors together with 50 artists selected in a long and time – consuming prosess (watching the performances and meeting the potential partners of coorporationto in a period of a year and a half ) to Stocholm to stage a joint performance. Besides, the artists – as regarded from the Sweedish spectator`s and producer`s point of view come from the "unconvenient" regions – the Baltic States and the Balcans. The Macedonian script writer Goran Stefanovsky emphasies that the authors of this project are trying not "to nibble peanuts in front of the TV set" but to make an effect on the reality: " 99 per cent of the world culture is mass consuming production. But there is only one per cent that are trying to guestion themselves – who am I, where do I come from and where do I go."(…) "Euralian" is composed of a range of small performances, instalations and happenings. "The Fortress of Europe" (Peter Jallak and ervin Onappu, Tallin), "Constelation" (Ivan Pantelejev, Sofia), "The Buss" (Gintars Varnass,Vilnius), "The Consulate" (Petris Krilovs and Regnars Vaivars, Riga), "The Wedding" and "The Funeral" (Alexander Morfov, Sofia), "The Rape of the Europe" (Pjotr Ceplak, Varsau) and others. The spectator receives one of the six colour passports after he has carried out guiet a complicated procedure that is played as a game leaving the finger prints and drawing the self- portraits for obtaining the visa and the passport.The colour of the passport predicts the order following which he is going to roam around the reanimated and now inhabited the abondoned house. Conseguently every spectator makes his own line of experiences or "a workshop for restauring the feelings not existing before". "The Consulate" in the direction of Peteris Krilovs and Regnars Vaivars depict the ones who influence the interruption of the state of transmittion – handing out the visas. Both directors have created the setting of the consulate as the kingdom of the distorting mirrors – weird, deformed parallel world with its own rules.(…) Fighting the hopeless suspect about their role of a little screw within the Big Mechanism again and again, the clercs burst in front of the audience the ailienating superscription THE VISA. Feeling unhappy because they differ from the rest of the world the clercs shout to the audience: "Get out!"(…) (Baiba Tjarve. Latvia. magazine "Maksla +" Nr. 3. '98) |