Mobilise/Demobilise Festival!

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Mobi­lise/Demo­bi­lise began as an artis­tic response to a world of incre­a­sing conflict, crisis and emer­gency, before Covid19 lock­downs and travel restric­ti­ons forced us to live more and more of our lives online. Now, issues of human mobi­lity and the impact of mobile tech­no­lo­gies have become even more urgent. The unsus­tai­na­bi­lity and inequa­lity of the old “normal” can no longer be igno­red, and we must imagine a new way forward. Mobi­lise/Demo­bi­lise brings a criti­cal and artis­tic pers­pec­tive to the current crises.

Over the past year, artists in Germany, Austria, Sweden and Aote­a­roa New Zealand have rese­ar­ched the theme and lear­ned to use the online plat­form UpStage for presen­ting live online events. Diffe­rent thema­tic thre­ads have emer­ged in each loca­ti­ons. In Austria, the artists’ plat­form Schaum­bad Freies Ateli­er­haus Graz have asked the public what kind of a city they want, and how might the city look without cars. In Malmo, Sweden, Teater Inter­Akt is working with young skaters to unders­tand their pers­pec­tive on issues of mobi­lity and the envi­ron­ment. And in Whakatū (Nelson, NZ) the histo­ric shif­ting of the tide­way is used as a metap­hor for the rela­ti­ons­hip between human expan­sion and the natu­ral envi­ron­ment.

Connec­ting and unders­co­ring the perfor­man­ces are the univer­sal concepts of loss and grief asso­ci­a­ted with climate change and soci­e­tal uphe­a­val that the world is expe­ri­en­cing. Audi­en­ces in Europe and globally will be invi­ted to reflect on and discuss the theme and concepts at the weekend’s opening and closing events.

The perfor­man­ces launch the newly “mobi­li­sed” version of UpStage, which now func­ti­ons on mobile devi­ces as well as desk­top and laptop compu­ters and incor­po­ra­tes many new featu­res. Audi­en­ces click on a link and UpStage opens in a web brow­ser; they can inter­act in real time via text chat and reac­tion emojis.

Mobi­lise/Demo­bi­lise is a Crea­tive Europe funded colla­bo­ra­tion between Teater Inter­akt (Sweden), Schaum­bad – Freies Ateli­er­haus Graz (Austria) and UpSta­ge@CCT (the Centre for the Culti­va­tion of Tech­no­logy, Germany). Schaum­bad’s parti­ci­pa­tion is suppor­ted by the Bundes­mi­nis­te­rium für Kunst, Kultur, öffent­li­che Dienst und Sport (Austria).

Parti­ci­pa­ting Artists:

Katha­rina Ascha­uer, Manel Ruiz Blas, cym, Parnian Faizi, Alexan­dra Gschiel, Eva-Maria Gugg, Doris Jauk-Hinz, Anita Hofer, Rebecca Hofer, Helen Varley Jami­e­son, Sara Lars­dot­ter Hall­quist, Jesper Miik­man, Ceci­lia Nkolina, Keyvan Paydar, John-Paul Pochin, Lyn Russell, Sally Shaw, Vicki Smith, Eva Ursprung, Faye Wulff and Karl Wulff.

Part­ners:

UpStage is an online plat­form for cyber­for­mance (networ­ked perfor­mance) and an inter­na­ti­o­nal commu­nity of artists. The plat­form was first deve­lo­ped in Aote­a­roa New Zealand in 2003 and since then has hosted many online festi­vals, perfor­man­ces and events. www.upstage.org.nz

Teater Inter­akt is a commu­nity thea­tre company based in Malmö, Sweden, that works inten­si­vely toget­her with people with expe­ri­ence of migra­tion, mainly in the asylum-process, crea­ting perfor­man­ces commu­ni­ca­ting alter­na­tive narra­ti­ves of migra­tion and Swedish iden­tity. www.teate­rin­te­rakt.se

Schaum­bad – Freies Ateli­er­haus Graz is a multi-disci­pli­nary artists’ plat­form in Graz, Austria that provi­des studios for about 30 artists, and orga­ni­ses exhi­bi­ti­ons, events and inter­cul­tu­ral exchan­ges. www.schaum­bad.mur.at

The Center for the Culti­va­tion of Tech­no­logy acts as a host orga­ni­sa­tion for inter­na­ti­o­nal free soft­ware projects, provi­ding orga­ni­sa­ti­o­nal infras­truc­ture. www.tech­cul­ti­va­tion.org