weaving Voices 01.04.2025 issuu - Flipbook - Page 75
“[…] tends to transcend the initial cultural condition, so therefore it is
leading to a real, authentic experience, and to question codified identities,
whether individual or collective, and to aspire to some kind of pre- and
post-cultural objectivity, to ‘something third’, which is neither universal nor
cultural”. 109
Ric Knowles, Canadian scholar, dramaturg and author of Theatre
and Interculturalism (2010), describes his preference for the term
‘Interculturalism’ instead of all variations and subcategories of the
theme (like cross-cultural, intracultural, transcultural, etc.), because it
“evokes the possibility of interaction across a multiplicity of cultural
positionings, avoiding binary coding”.110 As we see the development
of the concept over a few decades, it reaches a level where we can
analyse the intercultural aspect of any kind of theatre event because
necessary differences in cultural positioning stands not only in
national differences, but also in any artistic encounter between
individuals. One of Weaving Voices project’s priorities is the focus
on geographically disadvantaged rural localities. In these contexts,
observation of intercultural characteristics helps us to understand
the challenges of social interaction using a wider perspective, and
especially helps to leave behind any stereotypes about rural life.
Artistic residency – Weaving
Rosa Smits arrived in Szalatnak from the Netherlands to lead a weeklong community weaving laboratory with local inhabitants from 7th
May 2024. One of the main aims of the workshop was to teach the
basic methods of weaving on a large loom, (one meter high by two
meters wide). The work took place in two venues: inside the cultural
house during the mornings and on the green outside the Szalatnak
Catholic church, in the afternoons. This workshop proved essential to
lay the foundations for the community work. There was a clear idea of
what to do, why to do it, for whom, and how, etc. At the same time,
the activity was completely environmentally specific, in the sense that
it was meant to be accessible and understandable to people who live
in this village.
109 De Marinis, M. (2012) Il teatro dell’altro: Interculturalismo e transculturalismo nella scena contemporanea.
Firenze: La casa Usher, p. 9. (Translated by G. Pintér-Németh.)
110 Knowles, R. (2010) Theatre & Interculturalism. London: Bloomsbury, p. 4.
148
Artistic residency – Botanical Dyeing
Nina van Hartskamp, also from the Netherlands (Amsterdam), arrived
at the village on the 22nd of May 2024. This was another week-long
workshop, using a more complex approach, which included research
on dyeing plants in the environment; garden preparation; creating
a library of colours by mixing the surrounding plants with different
mineral mordants; and finally, the observation of shapes and colours
from nature for further creative inspiration. I would like to emphasise
the connection that was made to the natural environment, as
this feels no longer so common. Observing plants and flowers in
company brings a forgotten joy.
The Weaving Voices week in Szalatnak and the preparation of
the Walking Act by the threads of destiny
The ‘art of remembering’ or as Cicero calls it the Ars memoriae is
an individual and collective practice existing for centuries in human
civilization.111 Now this ancient practice also appears as a curious
justification in our complex research in Szalatnak from 7th May to 8 th
June. In the beginning of June, another one week-long event started
with the active participation of each partner organisation, when
all the threads from the project were supposed to come together.
During that week, each partner brought their individual artistic
practices together in Szalatnak, as well as their collective materials,
which included several songs and vocal techniques that the company
had been rehearsing together for two years. During this final week
the partnership had two main objectives: A) researching acts of
weaving as complementary to vocal practice and B) preparing an
outdoor performance for the village which summarised the local
stories and narratives of the place in one performative act.
From 11th May a side project supporting the artistic research in
Szalatnak, aimed to produce a documentary film about our working
process with a special focus on interviewing a representative sample
of local community members. The interviewees were asked about
their memories connected to the village or their own histories about
111 Assmann, J. (2016) Cultural Memory and Early Civilization: Writing, Remembrance, and Political Imagination. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 15.
149
75
