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 PROJECTS: 

PETER PAN IN JENIN: FREEDOM, HOPE AND FANTASY BRINGING NEVERLAND TO LIFE

April 2013, Cinema Jenin

 

Wendy is transformed into a young Palestinian girl from Jenin who is set on following her dream of becoming an actress. Facing severe restrictions on her freedom from her conservative parents, she meets the character of Peter Pan, who introduces her to a world of lost boys, crocodiles, and fairy dust. Wendy follows Pan from Jenin to the magical world of Neverland where they embark on what will become the adventure of their lives.

 

Weaving together fantasy and reality, through stage and screen, Peter Pan in Jenin provides a generous helping of escapism and fantasy to children and adults alike.

 

Produced by: Batoul Taleb, Rawand Arqawi & Aviva Zimmerman
Directed by: Paulina Almeida

“WINDOWS”

A mask and puppet extravaganza

June 2014

Jenin

 

WINDOWS is a mesmerizing puppet and mask performance, created by a group of young actors from Jenin over an intense 6-week long collaboration period.

 

The play incorporates tales collected from the local community, weaving together stories from the past, present and future.  WINDOWS reveals the power of art to transform the imagination through memories, dreams, and hopes for the future. 

 

Produced by: Rawand Arqawi

Directed by: Paulina Almeida

Coordinated by: Mariam Abu Khaled

Puppet Construction: Sara Hasenbrink 

Set Design: Maria De Los Dilemas

Actors: Awlad Albalad Theatre Group

Co-Produced by: Aviva Zimmerman

Lighting Design by: Mohammed Sadi

 

 

YOUTH FOR CHANGE 

Fragments Theatre  initiated the Youth for Change Project by training young
people for combined drama and circus workshop and  created a street theatre
performance from their own stories. The project targeted  neglected areas in
Palestine, the project will train 10 Palestinian participants, Fragments Theatre
traveled and  performed in Casablanca and give training in combined circus
and drama for women and children. The project created dialogue, createed
opportunity for story exchange, and built a creative partnership between
Fragments Theatre, Théâtre de l'Opprimé Casablanca in Morocco.

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Act for Change 

The project consists of four activities : 

- Drama Therapy and Drama Activities Workshops Fragments Theatre offers regular drama therapy workshops where children and youth explore internal conflicts and act out their emotions in a safe and stimulating space. Through improvisations, movement and stories, the participants learn to better understand themselves and their surroundings

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- Video Therapy

     The medium of film has proved very popular among youth in the   area and Fragments Theatre has          therefore decided to introduce video    therapy activities for youth as a complement to its more   professional       filmmaking workshops for older youth/young adults.

 

- Stand Up Comedy Club Fragments Theatre opened the first Comedy Club in Palestine with Adi Khalifa - one of the main names in stand up comedy to train participants in Jenin and other places.

- Cinema Club

    Fragments Theatre opened a small cinema club to screen Palestinian and international films to the            community in collaboration with cinema club Ramallah with supervision of film director Saleem Abu  Jabal.

Happy in Jenin 

Fragments Theatre collaborated with Kino pal project.

The project is giving training in short films, the participants learned producing and directing and presented  their work at Cinema Jenin.

Jenin's First Modern Art Exhibition 

Ten young artists from Jenin, supported by Fragments Theatre, participated in a capacity-building program in stand-up comedy, video arts, installations, photography, and painting. The project was in partnership with ZFD Forum. Each artist produced their own work, which was showcased in an exhibition titled "Rooms."

When asking each member of the core team why they wanted to pursue this project and aligning their responses with my own ambitions, I learned the following: At the heart of the project is the need for a space—a space to engage with media and modern art, to offer something beyond the monotony of daily life in Jenin, and to enrich its cultural landscape. Through this space, Fragments Theatre aims to provide a home for “neglected artists” and support them in communicating their messages by introducing them to new forms of art. As the Artistic Director of Fragments Theatre put it: “Through visual media, we can shift the narrative without moving the artist.” In this way, media and art can overcome limitations to freedom of movement, reaching diverse Palestinian and non-Palestinian audiences beyond the narrow borders of Jenin, and helping the voices of Jenin be heard.

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Space Project 

The Fragments Theatre's space project is both creative and impactful, focusing on upcycling and recycling while fostering community engagement. By training young people from Jenin and the surrounding area, the project is empowering them with practical skills while also promoting sustainability.

The two main activities—recycling workshops and the cultural cafe—work together to create a unique blend of artistic expression and environmental awareness. The workshops likely teach important skills in recycling wood, plastic, and other waste materials, while also encouraging participants to think creatively about how to repurpose materials into new, valuable items. The cultural cafe provides a space for people to gather, share ideas, and further explore the theme of sustainability, possibly through art, food, and conversation.

The project's resulting exhibition will not only showcase the items made from the recycled materials, but it  also served as a great opportunity to raise awareness and engage the public. The cultural cafe will act as an ongoing space for connection and creative exploration.

My Tale Project 

We have successfully implemented My Tale project and trained young people in Jenin and Gaza as storytellers, who then performed at Fragments Theatre. In this initiative, we collaborated with professional storytellers from the UK, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia (through Zoom), and Palestinian trainer Alla Shehadeh, who played a crucial role in shaping the final show.

Additionally, we worked closely with the Gaza participants through Zoom, ensuring their active participation and contribution to the project despite geographical challenges.

The group of young people we trained are now actively presenting storytelling performances in schools and to children within their communities. This initiative has empowered them to share their stories, engage with others, and become leaders in their own right, fostering creativity and expression among their peers.

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.

 

tangonomade.org

 

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”
 

www.yugahatta.com

 

 

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.

 

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