outside the box

German version


outside the box | November 2013 - June 2014

relation between art and the public
Just as you find the Axolotl only in Lake Xochimilco, Mexico City’s water system, you find Komuna//Warszawa only in Warsaw and Het Veem Theatre only in Amsterdam. Each of them has settled in their particular place for a reason, they have acclimated to the local living conditions, developed symbiotic relationships and cohabitated among beneficiaries and predators. outside the box is a one-year research project studying and experimenting with the living conditions and habitats of art spaces. Six art spaces are participating. All exist under similar economic conditions but possess their own dynamic and organisation of institutional life. Which role and function fulfills Kanuti Gildi SAAL in Tallinn? What kinds of complex interactions take place between Forum Freies Theater and the politicians of Düsseldorf? How does zeitraumexit affect the cultural life of Mannheim? How does the Grand Theatre charge Groningen’s atmosphere? outside the box leaves the confines of Black Box and White Cube to explore an art space as a living creature, while considering its particular time, place, social, and political microcosm.


Each of the six participating art spaces acts as a guest as well as a host. As guest, a team travels across Europe to visit its host and, together with local audience members, funders, donors, passers-by, neighbours, politicians and critics to research its living conditions—much like conducting a field study of an organism in its natural habitat. The researchers will collect their findings—specimens, artifacts, drawings, notes, documents, guides through the urban jungle, instructions for movements in a cultural political ecosphere, maps of utopian reservations—in sea boxes that will be presented at the market in Mannheim in June 2014. The findings will be presented on a virtual research platform—platform.otb-research.com— together with contributions by advanced students of the Choreography and Performance MA Programme of the University Giessen.


Part of the living conditions of an art space are the societal and political circumstances that dictate the way an art institution produces contemporary work—a fact surprisingly similar across Europe. Today, creators of art as well as art managers live in projects that they first develop, then apply for funding in a time consuming application process, and—after a successful application—realize in a limited time span. A life in projects, limited in time and funds, creates the pressure to constantly produce as well as a necessity to permanently reinvent the organisational structures to adopt them to a project, all the while trying to maintain stability. These limits establish the cultural sector as a front runner for adaptability and precarious working conditions; it also diminishes differences between different spaces and their specific political and cultural statements. The experimental conditions for outside the box partially undermine those constraints and establish a temporality of sharing attentive to minute variations of different organisms. The differences in the way art spaces become alive also articulate various cultural and political demands and reinforce the positions of artists.


We are delighted to have found benefactors, particularly the Kulturstiftung des Bundes, who accept and agree to the openness of the research and its possible findings. At this point we are unable to say if Het Veem will create a performance as a reaction to the conditions of Forum Freies Theater in Düsseldorf or if they will build a Roman bath where politicians and artists meet for discussion or if they will construct an inviting front gate to the theatre.


the market
To pose no expectations for predetermined results generates considerable creative liberty. We alleviate the pressure of having to craft completed productions by hosting a market at the end of the project in June 2014 where no finished products will be presented. Instead, ideas, sketches, drafts, beta versions, test runs, models, and manuals will unfold their own aesthetic quality. All of these are available for further development and realization. Rather than reinventing ourselves, we want to find out who and what we are at this particular time and in this particular environment, in this cultural art space, in this city and with these particular people as companions. We want to reflect our own degree of institutionalization, supported by the Institute of Applied Theatre Studies of the University Giessen and Prof. Dr. Bojana Kunst. We strive to pass on the findings of our studies and the experiences and expertise of the guests and hosts and will present them at the market. The spirit of the research is one of curiosity, openness, and generosity.


cooperation of art and academics
The examination of our own institutionalization is done with the Institute for Applied Theatre studies of the University of Giessen. Students of the Master program »Choreography and Performance« will participate in the research. Their specific training of theoretical and critical analysis and dance and theatre practice enables them to take performance and choreography from the location of presentation into the realms of political and social spheres. The students provide external support to the project team, actively accompany the research process, and connect the work with contemporary discourse. The experiences, observations, and insights will be analyzed, summarized, and presented at the market in Mannheim in June 2014.


More information coming soon on www.otb-research.com
 

contact
zeitraumexit
Hafenstraße 68 / 68159 Mannheim / Germany
Phone: +49 (0)621 33939755
Fax: +49 (0)621 37098-32
Email: isabella.kessel [at] zeitraumexit.de (isabella[dot]kessel[at]zeitraumexit[dot]de)
Project management: Isabella Kessel