weaving Voices 01.04.2025 issuu - Flipbook - Page 8
of shapes and forms. Our broad question then, is how can we use the
practices of voice and weaving to engage with cultural heritage and be
inspired by the threads of different traditions in the present context of
space and time?
Thus, the scope of our attention on this project is both on building crossborder networks of artists and facilitators and engagement with local
participants. The joint events which have been organised in the frame of
Weaving Voices can be divided into two phases. During these periods
each of the seven partner organisations from Europe hosted a week-long
workshop activity which was visited by the others. The focus of the first
phase was the active research and training of staff members, through
which we searched for ways to link our different practices. During these
workshops in Malérargues (France, October–November 2022), Reichenow
(Germany, January 2023), Amsterdam (the Netherlands, April 2023) and
Unnaryd (Sweden, June 2023), a strong cross-border community of
colleagues and friends was formed. Sharing our fields of interest and
expertise as well as our inevitable differences, due to specific social,
political and geographical characteristics, we refreshed our motivation,
found new inspiration, and broadened the set of questions and horizons
regarding our professions.
The second phase of the project was centred around the invitation of
local groups to participate in the activities, which were a composite of
the different practices. During this part, the workshop weeks were held in
Leeds (UK, August 2023), Budapest–Komló (Hungary, October 2023), and
Szalatnak (Hungary, June 2024). Alongside these events, two one-week
craft residencies were hosted by Sinum Theatre (May 2024) as preparations
for the workshop week in Szalatnak, a geographically isolated village. The
purposes of both residencies were community building, learning about the
village and meeting its inhabitants:7 a communal weaving activity was led
by Rosa Smits, and a botanical dyeing workshop was guided by Nina van
Hartskamp (both artists are representatives from ToYo Foundation).
The biggest challenge of this latter stage of the project was/is to open up
the intimate circle which the partnership had developed during the first
7 Sinum Theatre Laboratory Association has replaced its seat from the city of Pécs to the village of Szalatnak in
2023. In the meantime, two founders of the association and the initiators of the current project also started the
reconstruction of an old house and barn in the village. Their plan, as new residents, is to become active members of the small local community, and to host cultural events in the renovated barn.
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stage. The aim was/is to maintain the trustful character of the gatherings
when the focus shifts from participation towards facilitation and to include
people in the activities for whom free improvisation, the engagement with
unfixed forms of movement, sound and image might feel unfamiliar and
sometimes even scary. Creative craftwork which explores our relationship
with materials brought visible and tangible feedback – and proved to be
a crucial element in this shift. Many questions were raised by the partners
following the organising and hosting of these community events. For
instance:
1. How can we share our enthusiasm and build the trust needed for
the magic of liberated co-creation in a limited period of time, with
groups of people whose daily lives are often dominated by existential
difficulties or health problems?
2. How can we address vulnerabilities and differences when the cultural
facilitators work outside of their familiar surroundings and social milieu?
3. How can we plan and schedule programmes with sufficient flexibility to
be able to follow the unforeseen needs of a community?
4. As artists, practitioners, and facilitators, how can we open up spaces for
mutual learning situations?
5. Although the activities we offer are not primarily based on languages,
how can we overcome language barriers to make sure that no one feels
excluded because of not understanding ongoing conversations?
We can learn this most of all by acknowledging the open-hearted people
who give us their trust and take part in our sessions without knowing
exactly what will happen: the communities in transition; the group of male
inhabitants of the Leo Amici Rehabilitation Institute in Komló; people
seeking sanctuary in Leeds; some of the inhabitants of Geuzenveld, a
suburb of Amsterdam, who are currently threatened by eviction, and the
culturally mixed population of Szalatnak.
One of our main questions in this project, given our belief in the
importance of communal learning as outlined above, is how to find seeds/
ways to reestablish shared creative spaces in a globalised 21st century,
intercultural environment, characterised by the threat of loneliness;
burnout; impatience; political division; exclusion; and loss of motivation.
On a more philosophical level, Weaving Voices was conceived by the
metaphor of the thread – tangible and audible – through its ability to
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