Sisters of Hera – Inside Out
and Outside In
A proposal to Scompiglio
Dorothy Max Prior: dorothymax@gmail.com
November 2012
A short season of works
culminating in a performative journey through the Scompiglio site and a
Fabulously Foolish Feast, created by / curated by two women artists, Dorothy
Max Prior and Isobel Smith, in collaboration with other UK, Italian and
International artists
When: Proposed as a 10-day residency/programme, spanning two
weekends and the week in-between, but other models could be discussed.
Suggested ideally for early- or mid- September 2013, although Spring/Summer
2014 could be considered (although not May!)
What: The proposal in summary
Pristine white-linen-clothed
dining tables occupying the woods; farm tools that become musical instruments;
foods that take on new anthropomorphic forms; trees that grow human branches…
and a Grand and extremely Foolish Feast in which all are assembled indoors for
an interactive theatrical event celebrating the union of the domains of Hestia
and Demeter…
A series of artworks,
performances, compositions, and aural/visual installations celebrating
Scompiglio’s dualities: indoors and outdoors; art and nature; architecture and
agriculture. The works will each, in their different ways, reflect the desire
to bring the outdoors in and the indoors out.
The series of commissioned works
to be created by each individual invited artist, with a final collaborative
event of a Journey through the site (indoors and out) and a Performative Feast
(Indoors, probably in the theatre space), which will be created by Dorothy Max
Prior and Isobel Smith, with contributions from other invited artists.
The project is inspired by
reflections on the famous sisters of the Olympian goddess Hera – Hestia and
Demeter. Hestia (Latin name Vesta) is the goddess of home, hearth, fire, and
architecture. Demeter (Latin name Ceres) is goddess of harvest, forestry,
fertility, and agriculture. The two are often viewed in opposition – this project
will be an artistic reflection on how their territories can be explored and
usurped.
Works created would include visual
art works, performance, music composition/sound art, circus/tree climbing, and
a large-scale immersive theatre/live art event (the culminating Feast).
Who: The Artists
Key artists and co-curators
Dorothy Max Prior (Dorothy’s Shoes) and Isobel Smith (Grist to the Mill) have
worked together as creators/curators on numerous former projects, including
their recent commission for the Brighton Festival Fringe, Kissing the Gunner’s
Daughter, a peep-show about the sea, set inside a specially constructed
‘bathing hut’; for two years creating a
monthly interactive Live Art event at The Basement, Brighton; and on the Flying
Down to Rio show commissioned by Sacred at
Chelsea Theatre in London / Entre_Lugares at Sergio Porto in Rio, Brazil. All
of the above involved curation and collaboration with many other
artists/partners in addition to creating the artworks themselves. Further
details on both artists below.
Proposed artists’ works /
collaborations / roles and responsibilities:
In Summary
I am aware that this is an
extensive list of artists, and that budgets may well only stretch to include
some of the below – but thought it best to include a full list, to open the
discussion.
Key artists (the bare minimum
needed for the project):
Dorothy Max Prior – Curator / Lead
Artist / Project Director
Isobel Smith – Co-curator / Lead
Artist
James Foz Foster – Composer /
Musician
Other artists that we would
like to consider including:
Matthew Blacklock (UK) –
actor/dancer/performer
Scarabeus (Daniela Esart and Soren
Nielson, UK/Italy/Denmark) –
circus-theatre /outdoor performance / tree-rigging
Silvia Mercuriali and Simon
Wilkinson (individually or collectively as Il Pixel Rosso. UK/Italy) – live
performance and film
The Baron Gilvan (UK) – painter
and performance artist / singer
Yael Karavan + Bruno Umberto/
Karavan Ensemble (Israel/Portugal/UK) – performers/musician
Serena Gatti (Italy) –
dancer/performer
The Baron Gilvan (UK) – painter
and performance artist / singer
Alberto Bertolino (Organetto Di
Barberia) (Italy)
Alexander Roberts & Asgerdur
Gunnarsdottir (UK/Iceland)
Further details on all these
artists, and the role they might play, below.
A word here also for the farmers
and foresters of Scompiglio: Max meet Paulo (Scompiglio forrester) on the
Felsdenkrais workshop in October and would like to involve him in the aspects
of the project that use the trees, as well of course as working alongside the
farmers with due respect for the natural environment, as is the Scompiglio
model.
The Artists – In Detail
Key Artists:
Dorothy Max Prior / Dorothy’s
Shoes (UK)
Dorothy Max Prior has over 30 years experience in the
performing arts – as a performer, curator, choreographer, dramaturg, teacher
and writer. She has a special interest in work that is placed outside of
regular theatre and arts spaces; in work that blurs the boundaries between
artist and audience; and in work that challenges restricted and outmoded
expectations of ‘community and participatory arts’. Her special area of
knowledge is of social and popular dance forms – and much of her work has been
in integrating these into contemporary dance, theatre and live art practice. Since 2005, she has worked with Ragroof Theatre, collaborating
in the creation and delivery of numerous street theatre and site-specific
shows.
She creates
her own projects under the name Dorothy’s Shoes, the most recent of which were Behind
the Moon, Beyond the Rain, a commission for Anglo-Brazilian festival LIFT/BR-116 (2011); and
Flying Down to Rio, co-commissioned by
Sacred Festival at Chelsea Theatre, London, and Entre_Lugares at Sergio Porto
in Rio (2012). See www.dorothysshoes1.blogspot.com
Max’s roles in Sisters of Hera would be as curator/ dramaturg linking all elements
together, and as lead artist of the Feast (working with Isobel and Foz and
other collaborators). She would also devise/choreograph movement pieces for
both indoors and outdoors, what exactly being dependent on who was invited to
participate! An idea she would
like to pursue is the creation of performative rituals within the landscape,
which then move indoors – and in particular explorations around the elements of
fire (Hestia) and earth (Demeter). She also wants to work outdoors and indoors
with the theme of Shrines, Altars and Sacrifice…
Her initial thoughts for the final
Foolish Feast include: beautifully dressed tables laden with the fruits of the
forest, with wild worlds hidden below; surreal interventions during the meal
that include household object animation and vegetable puppetry; a Concerto for
Musical Saw and other Farm Tools; deconstructed partner dances – perhaps even a
Lobster Quadrille (‘Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, won’t you join
the dance?’).
Isobel Smith / Grist to the
Mill (UK)
Grist to the Mill crosses forms of
sculpture, puppetry and object theatre to make powerful contemporary work.
Drawing on Isobel’s long standing
obsession with the 'domestic' – whether floating rubber gloves to freedom,
setting off herds of bump-go kettles or photographing floorcloths from a
dirt’s-eye-view – she is concerned with liberating the secret desires of
objects and feels a deep empathy for their plight.
By ritualizing and disseminating
mundane actions and chores she explores the extraordinary in the ordinary and
discovers the beauty in everyday things. See www.xgristtothemillx.com
She would co-curate the project,
co-create the Feast, and also proposes her own installation work:
The Call of the Wild (an installation with performative element):
In a little clearing in the woods
a herd of wild tables are grazing.
We are treated to a rare glimpse
of the natural free-range behaviours of these incredible creatures (static
installation).
Later on there is evidence of a
struggle – a table lies broken and pitiful, discarded tablecloth muddied and
torn to one side and smashed china and glass all around (static installation).
Approaching the Feast room we hear
animal noises and shouting and witness a struggle as a table-beast is attempting
to resist the waitress’s attempts to set it.
Finally we enter the Feast room
and enjoy the scene of beautifully laid tables…
The Call of the Wild draws on Isobel’s empathy for the plight of domestic
objects and a desire to release their secret desires.
It looks at ‘civilisation’ -
bringing things from outside in – what is lost, and what is gained.
James Foz Foster (UK)
Max and Isobel have collaborated
with Foz on numerous previous projects, and he is the obvious first-choice as
the project’s composer / musician/ sound artist.
He is a
composer/multi-instrumentalist and performance artist who has created numerous
site-responsive works. Creator of the Sawchestra – an orchestra of musical saws, toy instruments, and other
unusual instruments – his work has been seen/heard at the Barbican, Shoreditch
Festival, London Sci-Fi Festival, Brighton Festival & Fringe, White Night,
and Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
His compositions have featured on
numerous film soundtracks; as a guitarist and multi-instrumental musician he
has toured extensively across the UK and Europe; and as an experimental
composer he often creates/performs in cross-artform events.
Foz would be commissioned to
create/compose a sound piece sited outdoors; to create the Concerto for Musical
Saw and Other Tools for the Feast; and to collaborate with Max and Isobel on
creating other compositions/sound elements as needed.
Other artists we’d like to
include:
Matthew Blacklock (UK)
Long-time collaborator /
performance partner of Dorothy Max Prior (on numerous shows including recent
Dorothy’s Shoes commissions Flying Down to Rio, and Behind the Moon, Beyond the Rain). Max and Matthew are also both members of Ragroof Theatre
and work together regularly on numerous street theatre and site-specific shows.
Matthew would ideally be invited for the last few days of the residency, to be
used as a performer in the Feast and perhaps in other performance elements of
the work created by Max. www.ragrooftheatre.co.uk
Scarabeus (UK/Italy/Denmark)
Based in UK. Led by Daniela Essart
(Italy) and Soren Nielsen (Denmark)
A circus-theatre company with a
great track record of site-specific and outdoor /environmental work, see for
example Arboreal, inspired by Italo
Calvino’s The Baron in the Trees.
Highly experienced in working with tree climbing / rigging trees.
Propose that they work with the
existing tree-climbing youth group at Scompiglio, so that this youth group is
integrated into the season/event.
Their work could be seen as
potentially contributing to the culminating Journey and Feast, or alternately
their contribution, created in collaboration with the young people, could be
seen in the preceding weekend.
Silvia Mercuriali & Simon
Wilkinson (Italy/UK)
Silvia (Italy) creates work under
many different banners. Experienced dancer/performer working regularly with
Clod Ensemble. She would be invited to work either with Simon Wilkinson or as
an independent artist. She is also a friend and associate of Yael Karavan (see
below) so that could be an interesting collaboration…
For more on her work, see:
+With film-maker Simon Wilkinson
(UK) as Il Pixel Rosso – interactive film/performance cross-overs that place
the audience member as a the protagonist of a surreal story
For Simon’s film work see also: http://www.circa69.co.uk/
Max would be interested in
collaborating with Simon on the creation of work that merges live and filmed
elements. Simon has also collaborated previously with Foz / Foster &
Gilvan, so they have a good potential working relationship.
Yael Karavan + Bruno Umberto/
Karavan Ensemble (Israel/Portugal/UK)
Already have an established
relationship with Scompiglio. Would be invited to potentially create a new work
in the vineyards building on the work initiated for Portals…
Yael and Silvia/Serena have
previously worked together.
NB Bruno and Foz know each other
and have great respect for each other’s work and could potentially work very
well together on the creation of sound elements.
Serena Gatti (Italy) – Dancer/
Performer
Serena Gatt / Azul Teatro is a
long-term collaborator on Scompiglio projects – Max would enjoy the opportunity
to have her on the team as a dancer/performer. Apart from other talents, she
has experience in Tango and partner dancing which it would be good to work with
for the Feast. She has also previously worked with Yael and Bruno. http://serenagatti.com
The Baron Gilvan (UK) – Painter
and Performance Artist / singer
It would be interesting to invite
renowned contemporary British landscape artist Baron Gilvan (Chris
Cartwright-Gilvan) to work in real time painting in the landscape. http://thebarongilvan.com/ He is also a
performance artist who has previously collaborated with Isobel on Grist to the
Mill projects, and with Foz as Foster and Gilvan, so would contribute greatly
to the devising of entertainments for the Feast: http://uk.myspace.com/fostergilvan
Alberto Bertolino (Organetto Di
Barberia) (Italy)
Max met Alberto at the Scompiglio
SPE opening, and they struck up a friendship! He is a street theatre performer,
puppeteer and Hurdy Gurdy player and it would be interesting to see how his
work might sit with that of the key artists, and to integrate him into the
Feast (so he would perhaps be invited for the last few days only). http://www.organettodibarberia.it/
Alexander Roberts &
Asgerdur Gunnarsdottir (UK/Iceland)
Alex is a young
artist/theatre-maker, critic (working for Total Theatre Magazine) and curator.
He spends part of the year in the UK and part in Iceland. He is the c0-curator
and co-producer of the ArtFart festival in Reykjavik in Iceland, and has also
created an ongoing mobile performance event called the Public Space Programme.
He created RageWalkLondon for BR-116/LIFT, and will be co-curating Reykjavik’s
Dance Festival 2013 (with Asgerdur).
They are an interesting couple of
young artists who would respond well to being invited to make a piece of work
on-site, and could also be used in the devising of the Feast performance
elements.
[Ends]
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