CO2-existing
CO-organizer: Nomad Dance Academy Macedonia.
CO-creators: Elena Risteska, Aleksandar Georgiev and Viktorija Ilioska.
CO-participants: Mads Floor Andersen, Sara Lanner, Nina Gojic, Nils Rottgardt, Darío Barreto Damas, Filomena Krause, Milica Pisic, Gjorgji Despodov, Iskra Sukarova, Valentino Apostolovski, Viktorija Ilioska, Elena Risteska, Aleksandar Georgiev and Cicilia Ostholm.
CO-supporters: Kino Kultura-Space for contemporary performing arts and culture, Lokomotiva-Center for New Initiatives in Arts and Culture, EEPAP (East European Performing Arts Platform), EU culture program in the frame of Life Long Burning project (LLB) and City of Skopje.
CO-location: Kino Kultura-Space for contemporary performing arts and culture.
“about co-being, co-performing, co-rehearsing, co-existing, co-practicing, co-llaborating”
Lead by the slogan “Invite us to invite you”, which comes out of our work processes and methods, we would like to share the second edition of our program CO-, CO2-existing. We are inviting you to read this report and CO-witness new artistic practices and proposals. This year there are 14 participants from different places and contexts.
CO2-existing (01.09.2017-09.09.2017) program contains artistic residency, closed-door meetings for strategies of development of the local dance scene in Macedonia and the region, and CO2- Fest Happening.
About CO2-
CO2-existing is initiated and run by Nomad Dance Academy Macedonia. This project involves exchange on an artistic and discursive level. CO2-existing is a project/laboratory that invites teams of artists, engaged in works that are in progress or research platforms. The artists are from different fields so it could cover the necessities and perspectives that are needed for possible artistic collaborations. The artists are: choreographers, performers, dramaturgs, visual artists, contemporary theater actors/actresses, producers, photographers and sound artists. Even though participants are invited to collaborate, the format allows for each individual to have time, space and facilities for pursuing individual artistic interests. Every artist invited have the space and facilities to propose any desired format for strengthening and questioning their work. Specific collaborations within the structure are initiated and realized through each artist, by their own force and motivation.
CO2 Fest Happening is a festival which co-curatorial structure is rules by the participants of CO2-existing; they propose own works or works done by other artists that they would like to bring for the Macedonian local audience.
CO2-meetings are closed-door meetings for discussing and analyzing approaches and strategies regarding the alternative production modes on level of locality and its networking with already established connections.
The proposal of CO2- was to offer space for exploring collective thinking for alternative production modes and working with artists coming from different artistic contexts and backgrounds. The initial drive was the needs of each artist towards its own art, in relation to the emerging collectivity and exchanges happening in the realm of cultural production.
Throughout the process, we expanded our personal artistic intuitions but also pathways of doing things together and sharing knowledge in common discursive grounds. We established the daily morning practice of CO-dreaming in relation to our needs for our artistic work or exchange as a platform for giving space for different systems to exist parallel in symbiosis. Proximity to colleagues and shared spaces with other co-participants created opportunity to initiate further collaborations and being part of each other’s processes.
The project has been hosted at Kino Kultura – a stage located in the central part of Skopje, providing platforms for contemporary performing arts and gathering artists from different fields.
Throughout the project we had twenty-four/ seven accessibility to this rehearsal and office space, along with an on-demand technician. CO-existing was the first project to be hold in this space.
The use of theater space for the realization of our CO-DREAMS, allowed the proposals to have sufficient grounding to expand. During these two weeks we held open public presentation of the laboratory outcomes, workshops engaging the local scene, open discussion platforms and high quality artistic works presented in CO2-Fest Happening. All of these segments made significant contribution for the development of the local scene and artists as well as contribution to the exchange knowledge between the participants.