FRAGMENTS THEATRE
CARGOTOPIA - Mobile Arts Festival
November 27 - December 10, 2014
Jenin, Palestine
The 7th edition of Cargotopia takes place in Jenin Palestine 2014. It will be carried by artistic exchanges with local residents through tango dance, contemporary art, performance, discussion, etc. in collaboration with both local and foreign people. The project carries both hope for future end of occupation and consequential freedom and also hope to become part of recent cultural rise of Jenin after Freedom Theatre and Cinema Jenin. The project also serves as important artistic research of psycogeography, how the geographical elements and a city affect the psychology of its resident whose reaction and activities add another layered to the city.
CARGOTOPIA is a multi-cultural mobile art initiative. It was founded in 2006 by several individuals from different nationalities and professional backgrounds. The collective arose from the passion, conviction, dedication and vision of these individuals to encourage the mobility of art in public space.
CARGOTOPIA’s main goal is the democratization of the arts. Our projects support the development of a civil society in which all citizens are actively and jointly working towards a socio-political environment that is based on participation, freedom of artistic expression and freedom of speech which we consider human rights.
Background:
Picking up the spirit that unified many people from very diverse backgrounds, CARGOTOPIA wants to encourage them to keep contributing to shaping a new world. The collective wishes to tie up the awareness of being a citizen and having an impact on the evolution of a country. Inspired by this we decided to create a mobile art project that turns public spaces that belong to all citizens into artistic places. In the beginning we moved through Germany, Portugal, Finland, Africa, this year we will go through Mexico and arrive to the Middle East in 2014, crossing borders to connect all kinds of people.
Cargotopia will be hosted by Fragments Theatre in Jenin.
CARGOTOPIA - Projects
Tango Nomade
Tango Nomade is a dance group comprised of permanent and guest members who travel in the pursuit of artistic projects. In each location, the group’s members join forces with local artists in order to favor artistic exchange in the name of Argentinian Tango. The Jenin Project : Situations of conflict and crisis can engender valuable opportunities for exchange and creation. Through contact with organisations in Jenin, Tango Nomade has been given the opportunity to travel to Palestine and recreate our Tango de salon(s) performance overseas. Palestine is a territory rich with a unique culture and history, providing significant opportunities for the exchange of ideas and experiences. Tango dancers of various origins will have the opportunity to collaborate with Palestinians of all ages, to learn from the Palestinian experience by showing an interest in their reality.
Station without Rail
Station without rail is social/pedagogical/artistic project that will take place at city of Jenin in the West Bank of the state of Palestine by three artist (Miguelangelo Veiga, Manuel Santos and Yuga Hatta),based in Portugal. The project’s final goal is to build a platform for the railway station for the city of Jenin, Palestine that wait for its rail to come and create virtual railway company for the future with local population that represents their hope and dream for right of mobility that is granted for everybody in most part of the world. In the state of Palestine, mobility of people is highly limited by walls and checkpoint that it is impossible to see their family or friend lives in the other district. The taxi-bus is the only mean of the transportation between the cities and most people are forced to stay where they are. One of the artists Yuga Hatta has discovered demolished railway station in the site of refugee camp of the city during his visit there, working with the local young artist from the city, last year. The site holds very symbolical value as the limited basic right of the local population. This year, two weeks from the end of the November, three of us will go there for the first step of the project, with the invitation from a local producer and school in the city. We will be making field research for the further development of the project while giving artistic workshops to the student school there and collaborating with local residents. In the workshop, Yuga Hatta will explore function of creative activity in daily social situation that is focused on the theme of the project. The participating students will create virtual railway and travel agency company of Jenin, making tame table for trains, plan for railway line, posters for the company, etc. Project holds both social and artistic significance as it directly intervene into socio-political situation of the local neighborhood from the view point of fundamental life activity and explore the function of the creative activity within. Importantly, the local residents and the school are also looking forward the project. A local boy would like to make a local radio station at the railway station we will eventually build and many other proposal of the project around the project of the “station without rail”
Drawing in Space
Wire and cardboard sculpture workshops for children from 9 to 14 years old to explore the artistic potential through the making of objects/sculptures using materials that are easy to find. like pencil, paper, wire, pliers, cardboard, utility knifes, tables, chairs or stools. “Drawing in space” workshops are based on some of the most readily available materials: wire and cardboard. The potential these two materials have is almost unlimited, as limitless as the line and the plane. Worlds can be made just with lines and planes. The wire will be used here as “sculpture’s drawing pencil” and cardboard as a surface to build with. Taking inspirations from African toys and great artists (such as Alexander Calder, Antony Gormley, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg and Jorge Oteiza) alike, these workshops aim to empower children with the knowledge to make their own toys/sculptures and representations of their inner world. Hopefully this will allow them to express their emotions and aspirations and by giving these a physical presence.
http://furtadosantos.wordpress.com/
Visiting Artists:
Nancy Lavoie
Yannick Allen-Vuillet
Tango For Peace www.avenuetango.com
Yuga Hatta yugahatta.com
Manuel Furtado Dos Santos http://furtadosantos.wordpress.com/
Miguelangelo Veiga
Nella Turkki,
The Strings,
Barbara Malgorzata.