The August DanceFestival in Tallinn, Estonia, and the Festival Belluard Bollwerk International in Fribourg, Switzerland, have decided to join forces for a one year research project with 3 artists from Tallinn and 3 artists from Switzerland.
The field of performing arts in Europe functions more and more on the basis of permanent compositions and decompositions of ephemeral groups made of individuals who often come from very different backgrounds, practices and countries. For each new project, artists form new constellations, and cross the borders of disciplines, each time depending on the nature of their research and creation. More and more their work field has become the globalized community. These practices require dynamic structures and production modes that reach over the boundaries of the institutionalised theatres. They demand an individual approach for each individual artist. Contrary to the popular practice of networks or festivals that focus on a short-term import and export of productions, we should invest in a long-term research and development.
The August DanceFestival in Tallinn, Estonia, and the Festival Belluard Bollwerk International in Fribourg, Switzerland, have decided to join forces to implement such a project. Festivals function as temporary communities: in a condensed time frame several artists and artist groups present their work. Depending on the nature of their project and their schedule they however do not always have the time to see each other’s work, discuss and share their practices. And this is where the idea of THE STOP-OVER PROJECT comes in. Stop-over flights are travels between different places and not just return flights from one place to another. They are travels that last longer, and take in more impressions, where one stays at a certain place to then move on. From this starting point the Belluard Festival and August DanceFestival propose a one-year Stop-Over Project for 3 Estonian and 3 Swiss artists, and a Guide, who will follow the whole process and will be at the same time facilitator, coach and dramaturge, with 5 Stop-Overs in Tallinn and Fribourg between August 2012 and August 2013 with intense working sessions and production of new projects.
The first stop will be the August DanceFestival 2012, in Tallinn (August 21 – 31 2012).
A delegation of 3 Estonian artists, proposed by August DanceFestival, and 3 Swiss artists, proposed by the Belluard Festival, and the Guide, will meet for 6 days in Tallinn. They’ll have the privilege to spend time together, watch the performances at the festival, find out more about the context of the festival, eat together, discuss, and exchange their ideas and practices.
Artists: François Gremaud (Switzerland), Kadri Noormets (Estonia), Valentine Paley (Switzerland), Jaak Sapas (Estonia), Martin Schick (Switzerland), Veronica Vallimäe (Estonia)
Guide: Sophia New (Germany/ UK)
The Stop-Over Project is a production of the Festival Belluard Bollwerk International and August DanceFestival (www.saal.ee).
It is a cooperation project in the framework of the exchange programme with Central and Eastern Europe, initiated by the liaison office of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia in Warsaw: www.prohelvetia.pl