Hidden Heritage – STUDIO DAHD
Since the summer semester of 2018 ADK has been involved in a pilot project called Studio DAHD (Danube Artistic Heritage Development) as part of INTERREG’s »Danube Culture Platform«, bringing together six countries along the River Danube (Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania) through the good auspices of the OÖ Kulturquartier (AT), the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts in Baden-Württemberg (D), the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture (BG), the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad (SRB) and the Romanian Ministry of Culture (RO).
The Danube Region boasts a diversity of cultures, but is also rich in unresolved history, intractable ethnic hostilities, political turmoil and conflict, and constant border shifts – but that accounts too for an abundance of cultural gems and for a history of ideas that has helped to mould Europe today. A space for living with difference – a utopia? The history of this space demonstrates that cultural differences like languages, customs and religions, while not necessarily uniting people, do generate a field of opportunity – so close and yet so far away.
At Studio DAHD, 21 students from the participating countries work together to explore and evaluate the hidden heritage along the Danube, and to interrogate and redefine it with a contemporary artistic gaze. An exploration of a hidden heritage, buried, prohibited, forgotten, suppressed and effaced for whatever reason. By tracing identities and otherness, our idea of Europe is revisited, rethought, experienced in new ways.
Partners here are the Academy of Performing Arts in Baden-Württemberg (D), the University of Art and Design in Linz (AT), the Universities of Sofia and Varna (BG) and the Art Academy of Novi Sad (SRB), along with students of architecture, performing arts, film directing and editing, music production, cinematography, visual art, sculpture and photography.
Studying the hidden heritage of the Danube can uncover echo chambers to trace and highlight difference, to learn from a history of dissonance and destruction, to reflect on a future that will enable us to live out this culture of difference.
Studio DAHD is an experimental studio that enables students to expand their spheres of work. The outcomes of the Studio DAHD pilot projects will be presented in Novi Sad this autumn and together the participants will design a presentation format that can be shown along the Danube in different cultural institutions. ADK will present this at the beginning of academic year 2019/20.
Mentors: Prof. Sabine Pollak (AT), Prof. Elisabeth Schweeger (DE), Prof. Dubravka Lazić (SRB) and Mag. Nadezhda Pavlova (BG).
Topographies of Paradise
By and with Madame Nielsen
Première: Ingmar Bergman Festival 25/08/2018.
A performance in Swedish, German, Serbian, Catalan and Spanish
»Topographies of Paradise«, opening in the framework of the Bergman International Theatre Festival »Topographies of Paradise« or »Idyllic Landscapes« is a mitos21 initiated project, a unique collaboration among five European theatres: the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten); the Royal Danish Theatre, Denmark; the Teatre Lliure, the Catalonian National Theatre in Barcelona, Catalonia/Spain; the Academy of Performing Arts in Ludwigsburg, Germany; and the National Theatre in Belgrade, Serbia.
We encounter five theatres with five short plays, woven together. Madame Nielsen writes the plays, drawing on travels in the five countries, on interviews with the actors as well as with political organisations in the various cities. The directors from each of the five participating theatres create their own performance using local actors, and Madame Nielsen stages the final work by integrating the five plays into one production.
What is a nation? What is a home district? What is a native language? What does it mean to be Swedish, German, Spanish/Catalonian, Danish, Serbian?
Madame Nielsen is an internationally acclaimed performance artist and writer, appearing over the years in various guises, including Claus Beck-Nielsen and the nameless human guinea pig in »Das Beckwerk« (»The Beck-work«). She defies fixed identities and categorisations, continuously asking the question: What is a human being?
In autumn 2015 she accompanied on foot the stream of migrants along the Balkan route up through Europe, from Greece to Denmark, a contemporary educational journey that she subsequently described in the novel »The Invasion«. Her novel »The Endless Summer« has been a major international success, translated into many languages, including Swedish (2016) and English (2018).
A European project initiated by mitos21 with the support of the Goethe Institute in Munich
