Performance LAB: Call for Applications
OPEN CALL FOR AN OPEN CALL: NAVIGATING THE CHAOS
with Varia Sjöström and Hatz Lambo
In 2020, artist-duo Varia Sjöström and Hatz Lambo will transform Performance LAB into a seven-month laboratory for artists based in Helsinki at the Museum of Impossible Forms (M{if}).
How to lecture on a toilet? How to dance in the kitchen? How to perform with books? How to sing on a sofa? How to eat a Döner? How to rap on a roof? How to cook a clown? How to read in a Market Square? How to connect with impossible forms?
We are looking for unusual ideas for unusual places. It can be just an idea or something you have been working on for a while or something you feel you can’t finish alone.
We don’t perceive ourselves as teachers or patrons. We believe that everyone can share knowledge and experience. In creating this program we hope to encourage all the participants to learn from the skills and values and beliefs and habits we have learned or inherited through life. We dismiss hierarchy and wish to create a safe space for all the participants where we feel inspired and free to create new work.
M{if} is located in Kontula inside a shopping mall, opposite a prayer hall, and next to a hair salon. We invite artists to take a look at M{if}, acquaint themselves with the place and the idea behind the space and try to create ideas especially for the mentality and the venue. It can be placed inside or outside M{if}. Whether they are long-durational, one to one performances, short productions, the choices are plenty because all forms and ideas are welcome! We encourage everyone from a wide spectrum of backgrounds to apply.
Varia Sjöström, born in 1980 in Vienna, works as a Performer, Actress and Musician. She grew up in a musical household and recieved a classical Piano education. While studying acting at the Academy for Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main she founded the Performance Group Nova Kleingeldproduktion with Norbert Pape. She has been working in Deutsches Theater Berlin, Schauspielhaus Frankfurt, Theater Bremen, HAU Berlin, Radialsystem amongst many others. With Mirko Borscht she created the long-durational performance project Station Neu Blumenthal. Since 2016 she worked with the Director Herbert Fritsch at Volksbühne Berlin. Currently she is collaborating with the Artist Hatz Lambo. Their Performance The 1755th Anniversary of Dust and Seeds, was invited to the Festival Today is our Tomorrow, Helsinki, 2019. Their work is focused on violence-based Symptoms and questions on Trauma.
Hatz Lambo, 1980 born in Germany, is working since 2008 in poetry and prose. His family background is Contemporary Dance and Martial Arts. He studied Philosophy at the University of Zurich. Amongst others he worked with the Poetrycollective G13, the Performancollective Showcase Beat Le Mot and the Director Jasco Viefhues. In 2018 he started collaborating with Varia Sjöström. Currently they are developing the Performance-Installation The Itching Triangle. In 2019 he finished the Novel The young Mesut. For his new Poetry Collection Dancing with Pilotes he started writing in english.
In 2020 Varia and Lambo are invited to collaborate with Museum of impossible Forms (M{if}) for several projects. Such as LOOK BACK AND LAUGH: a long durational research project on laughter. The Residency Program: Navigating the Chaos and a Live Arts Festival.
“We like the idea of social fantasy. We like the state of over exhaustion and lasting plays. The repitition of given narrativs is one of the last Dinosaurs on earth. It’s time to bury it with dignity but fast.”
TIMELINE
Together with the artist-duo the selected artists will work on projects and realize ideas which will be showcased at the Museum of Impossible Forms in November 2020. During the six months alternative pedagogy program we will focus on dramaturgy, scriptwriting, how to develop a performance, and how to work in a space.
In the first Laboratory Period (April-May-June), each selected artist will meet the artist duo twice a month to develop their ideas, rehearse them, as well receive mentorship and support.
In June, a midpoint presentation and gathering of work-in-progress performances will take place.
In the second Laboratory Period (August-September-October), the selected artists will work together in a group and benefit from each other to complete and realize the projects together.
In fall the selected artists will work rigorously to prepare and develop their individual and/or group performances with respect to stage scenery, costume, light, duration, speech, sound and space. This will culminate in a Live Arts Festival at M in Autumn 2020. Each project will receive a professionally made video footage of their work.
ADDITONAL INFO
The schedule will be created individually with the participants.
The program is free of charge and we will offer workshops, time, support, mentoring, space, equipment, resources, networks and if needed some financial support to realize each project.
This is an opportunity for artists to work on their projects individually as well as during the Laboratory.
A wider professional support can be provided after the Autumn Festival, such as access to resources, communities and different networks
The working language will be English, and the artist-duo also speak Finnish and German.
If you have any questions regarding the application please contact us via our email: mif.performancelab2020@gmail.com
the participants should be at least 18 years old
APPLICATION
Submit Application Form to mif.performancelab2020@gmail.com
Subject line: <Full Name>_OPEN CALL FOR AN OPEN CALL_Application_2020
Application deadline is March 15, 2020 by 23:00
Selected candidates will be notified by March 31, 2020
Museum of Impossible Forms is a cultural space, located in Kontula, Helsinki. It is a contested Space and it represents a contact zone, a space of unlearning, formulating identity constructs, norm-critical consciousness and critical thinking. Impossible Forms are those that erase and facilitate the process of transgressing the boundaries/borders between art, politics, practice, theory, the artist and the spectator. For 2019-2020, Museum of Impossible Forms operates under the curatorial theme of ‘The Atlas of Lost Beliefs (For Insurgents, Citizens and Untitled Bodies)’.
Museum of Impossible Forms is a Safer Space. We follow a Safer Space policy to create a welcoming, inclusive, awesome environment.
Events at the Museum of Impossible Forms are completely free and accessible without prior booking.
Museum of Impossible Forms is accessible by lift with thresholds up to 4cm on the way. The toilet has no thresholds but is not spacious enough to meet accessibility standards. The nearest accessible toilet is located at Kontula metro station.
For directions, please refer to this Map.