What’s Next? Performing Togetherness
an interdisciplinary research & collaborative laboratory-residency

Bucharest, May 9 –28, 2024
Bucharest, October 1–21, 2024
Areal |  space for choreographic development
Pavilion Goethe Institute Bucharest

Performing Togetherness is a new type of laboratory-residency developed by Gabriela Tudor Foundation as a result of the crisis within the cultural sector following the pandemic period and the war in Ukraine. It is a platform for research, cultural dialogue, reflection and innovation where participants are invited to meet and confront different points of view about culture and life and discover a new cultural routine based on the concept of togetherness, seen as the quality of working and belonging to a collective practice.

The laboratory aims to foster creativity and interdisciplinarity looking into the future, (re)imagining new ways of performativity, culture and life by creating a space for dialogue, sharing of different artistic practices, exchange and collaboration but also for reflection on (post)war in Europe. Makers from different disciplines, cultural researchers but also experts in biodiversity are invited in a collective co-authorship process, to slow-down their activity and allow time for reflection and experiment, recording emotions and memories of people in relation to nature, city and life.

The laboratory-residency is open to interested mid-career participants with experienced in collaborative practices from Austria, Germany, Poland, Romania and Ukraine who are willing to think, reflect and connect with the nature, the city of Bucharest, people’s emotions as well as engaging in a critical thinking process about a greener future. A total number of 8 participants will be invited for 3 weeks to Romania to meet, discuss and develop new ideas and projects on the proposed themes of the residency.

Following a 3-day introductory period at the Black Sea in the middle of the nature, each participant will be invited to lead the group for one day, sharing their own artistic practice, lead conversation and debates, propose films for watching together, experiment and test the concept of togetherness and slowness and what does it mean to create and live nowadays. In the last days of the laboratory-residency, participants will be encouraged to generate in small groups new ideas on the proposed themes. On the last day of the residency, the participants will choose collectively one project idea that was generated during the laboratory. The project selected (including up to 3 participants) will be offered an additional 3-week research time in order to further test and develop the project in October 2024 in a residency in Bucharest at AREAL and Pavilion Goethe Institute.

PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS

We are looking for bold participants – dance makers, visual artists, musicians, writers, researchers and experts in biodiversity from Austria, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Romania, ready to embark for 3 weeks in a collective and co-authorship process. The project developed during the Performing Togetherness laboratory and additional residency, will be invited to the final What’s Next? encounter in Ukraine in November 2024, if the local situation in Ukraine will allow the event to take place in safe conditions.

Priority will be given to applicants with a specific interest in cross-sectorial and participatory approach. The participants will be invited to propose an ideal residency format but also to live and work collectively in order to develop new project ideas.

WHAT WE OFFER

• Travel costs from the city of residence to Bucharest (return ticket up to 300 Euro/each participant)
• accommodation in a shared apartment (with single and twin rooms).
• fee of 1000 Euro (gross amount) for the laboratory period in May 2024.
• fee of 1000 Euro (gross amount, including per diem) for the additional research 3-week residency in October 2024 (fee per person/ up to 3 participants).
• coaching & mentorship support in Bucharest for the whole duration of the project. 
• space for discussions, meeting, rehearsals and research – 8 hours/day at AREAL | space for choreographic development.
• local cultural & well-being program.

The residency in Bucharest will take place in AREAL | space for choreographic development (www.arealcolectiv.ro) and will be mentored by Cosmin Manolescu, a senior cultural expert and dance maker with over 25 years of experience in initiating and developing artistic residencies and projects in Romania and Europe.

Those interested are invited to submit their application 

• Filling in the registration form at https://forms.gle/ZZNU4XXS625whhFQA

• Add an artistic biography or CV.
• Add 2 photos (one portrait), video links and other relevant texts.
  

Deadline for submissions: December 5, 2023

For further questions and information please contact cosmin@gabrielatudor.ro.

The selection of participants will be made on the quality of the application, ideal residency frame proposal and interest in the proposed topic. The selection will be made by the representatives of What’s Next consortium and the results will be announced by mid-January 2024. The decision of the selection is final, no feedback will be provided for the participants who were not selected.

Performing Togetherness is a research-residency developed by Gabriela Tudor Foundation (Romania) in collaboration with the Goethe Institute Bucharest, Polish Institute Bucharest and the Austrian Cultural Forum Bucharest.

This laboratory-residency is part of the project “What’s next? Safe cultural multi-spaces for the multidisciplinary reflection of (post)war and (post)crisis European identity”, created in  partnership by zusa (Germany), MitOst (Germany), MUSIKTHEATERTAGE WIEN (Austria), proto produkciia (Ukraine), Wrocław Institute of Culture (Poland) and Gabriela Tudor Foundation (Romania). Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the European Education and Culture Executive Agency can be held responsible for them.