The talks Werner Schrempf, La Strada (Graz, Austria) festival director Artists all over Europe are developing new forms of representation and relations to their audience, reaching beyond the usual “art spaces” – pursuing a new kind of public space. Amongst other things, the programme of the IN SITU platform includes 6 weeks of work over a period of three years under the title “Emerging Spaces”. Within this period, 18 European institutions and festivals will, together with invited artists, dedicate themselves to various different thematic groups of performing arts in the public space, to creative processes and to the relationship with cities and population. A particular focus is placed here on interaction with the processes of urban development. Werner Schrempf will reflect on the results of the international seminar held in Graz in April 2015 on emerging arts in emerging spaces and urban planning to broaden the context of this Sense of Place seminar. Also Werner will present The Vigil, a project of Joanne Leighton / CCN de Franche-Comté à Belfort made for festival Les Tombees de la nuit, which he will bring to Graz in the upcoming year. The Vigil, Joanne Leighton - les Tombees de la Nuit Steve Elbers, Program manager Culture and Cohesion, Stichting DOEN DOEN believes that a sustainable, social and creative society is possible. In this world there are a lot of enterprising people with innovative, cultural and social initiatives. People who dare to take a risk in presenting their often ground break ideas to the rest of the world. Ideas which often inspire other people. DOEN offers these people a financial support in making their initiatives a real concept and get these innovators in contact with each other for an exchange of concepts. Prof. Mike Pearson Mike Pearson studied archaeology in University College, Cardiff (1968–71). He was artistic director of Cardiff Laboratory Theatre (1973–80) and Brith Gof (1981–97). He collaborates with artist/designer Mike Brookes as Pearson/Brookes (1997–present). They are ‘ … constantly pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved in site-specific theatre.. And have gained a reputation as two of the most adventurous theatre makers in Britain, bringing to life ideas that are part performance, part theatre, part land art, part multimedia event and part uncategorisable.’ Guardian 2012 In 2010, he directed a site-specific production of Aeschylus’s The Persians for National Theatre Wales (NTW) on the military training ranges in mid-Wales;; and Coriolan/us with Brookes in 2012 for NTW, in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company for the World Shakespeare Festival/London 2012. In September 2015 he will co-direct a version of Homer’s Iliad with Brookes for National Theatre Wales. He is also author of In Comes I: Performance, Memory and Landscape (2006), Site-Specific Performance (2010), Marking Time: Performance, Archaeology and the City (2013). Between 1999 and 2014 he was Professor of Performance Studies in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, Aberystwyth University, Wales. Sarah Cameron Sunde > 36.5 Sarah Cameron Sunde is a New York based director who collaboratively creates interdisciplinary performances for the stage and beyond. She started directing while living in England in 1997 and was influenced by European traditions of expressionism and devising theatre. Sarah Cameron Sunde will present her 36.5 project in which she stands in the middle of a tidal bay as the water engulfs her and then recedes. Inspired by the 10.5 foot tidal shift on the coast of Maine, contemporary daily routines, and the work of Knut Hamsun, Marina Abramović, and leading climate adaptation experts, this time-based project considers our relationship to water as it shifts due to rising sea levels and the challenge to survive as an individual and as a civilization. > At our ‘Round table' moments we will present and have a conversation about the innovative projects selected from the ‘Open Call’. The Workshops/ excursions Theun Mosk > Soundings Theun Mosk (IJlst 1980) works as scenographer, light designer, set designer and theatre maker. Mosks work is characterized by his strong conceptual ideas, which you can see in his lighting designs and spacious set designs. Often his work is site specific. At this moment he has permanent collaborations with Schweigman& (at Oerol 2015), De Veenfabriek (Paul Koek), Toneelgroep Oostpool (Marcus Azzini) and Ro Theater (Jetse Batelaan). Theun worked with Robert Wilson on the project Walking, a meditative performance-walk past iconic structures in the landscape that was presented at Oerol and Norfolk Norwich Festival in close collaboration with conservationists. Theun will take us on a small excursion on site and reveal us his first ideas for Soundings, a new project under mentorship of Robert Wilson and in collaboration with German sound artist Andreas Hirsch. Soundings deals with the sounds of the Wadden Sea area. In this project a close collaboration with science (from deep earth to high up) and It Fryske Gea is under research. It Fryske Gea is the provincial association for conservation of nature in Friesland. This organization has as purpose to protect, conserve and develop nature, landscape and cultural heritage in Friesland. Soundings is a project to be developed for LWD 2018 in the framework of Sense of Place. Waterlanders & Vogelbescherming Nederland/Kees de Pater > Polderpracht Vogelbescherming Nederland defends all the wild birds and their habitats in the Netherlands and worldwide. In 2013 they contacted Oerol concerning a concept called Polderpracht (polderglory). In Polderpacht the islands polder as a habitat for special meadow birds but also as a place of agricultural business is under debate. 2015 is the first year of a collaboration in which three artists are asked to reflect on the Polderpracht dilemmas and create works in or around this vulnerable but valuable area. Waterlanders is a Dutch artist collective, specialized in creating site-specific art and theatre and have developed shows for many internationally renowned festivals and have performed at places as diverse as empty factories, forests, beaches, churches and museums. Kees de Pater and Waterlanders will takes us on excursion on site as the first audience for the Oerol 2015 performance Polderpracht. PeerGroup & Staatsbosbeheer > Levend Duin PeerGrouP Site Specific Theatre is based in the North of the Netherlands, in a rural area. Their work is usually site specific and site generic. A field, a big coaster or a whole village can be their performance site. Often the work is a mix between theatre (in the broadest sense), an exhibition and an (social) event. The work of PeerGrouP can be described as site-
specific in a socially engaged manner. The first focus lies on the people who ‘own’ the environment. These people are the key to the specific stories, the conflicts, the celebrations and ceremonies. With every new project, PeerGrouP starts off as an outsider. They are strangers, with strange intentions: “Theatre, art… that doesn’t belong here, does it?” Staatsbosbeheer is commissioned by the Dutch government and manages a sizeable amount of the nature reserves in the Netherlands. Central to our mission is working towards a sustainable living environment for man, plant and animal. They maintain, restore and develop the natural and cultural landscapes, sharing the enthusiasm and care for the national heritage by opening their sites to the public as much as possible, and by promoting outdoor recreation. Marin de Boer of PeerGroup and Remi Hougee of Staatsbosbeheer will take us on a tour through the dunes of Hoorn (Terschelling), tell us about dynamic dune management and the upcoming performance for 2016. Interventions at the seminar by theatre company Collectief Walden: Collectief Walden is young performing arts collective from The Netherlands that consists of a biologist, a philosopher, a mime player, a dramaturge and an artistic producer. Collectief Walden devises theatrical landscape experiences that entail academically informed performance lectures, story telling, mime and land art interventions or installations. They have made two performances for the Oerol festival and have resided in a run-down factory site in a forest near Turnhout, Belgium, a production initiated by cc De Warande in Turnhout under curatorship of performance artist Nick Steur. Collectief Walden believes that an uprooted tree, floating in a web of rope and pullies can be a statement about what it means to be human.