SUMMERLAB/
Imagine2020 Paris
Exchange Project Imagine2020, St. Denis, France 2017
Zone Sensible in St Denis, is founded in 2003 by Parti Poetique. After the original farmer retired, the 4 ha rural area became a cultural retreat and farm, located just on the outskirts of Paris, connecting inhabitants through food and art.Being part of the international exchange program between theatres to work toward sustainable arts and culture connecting art, ecology and climate change, I wasn’t to represent Theatre Rotterdam at the Imagine2020 Artists Summerlab. It was a first exercitation out of entrepreneurship, into the freedom of collaborating with international artists and it created an understanding on the importance of the work with indigenous plant life, local communities and the divide between urban and rural surroundings. These were all subjects I touched in my food-related work before, but here I became an advocate speaking from the perspective of local flora.
The week consisted of several workshops exploring the materials on the farm, as well as, future perspectives on the location. Ending the week with an exhibit on the artists’ point of view, a collaboration between Latvian artists and directors Martins Zarins and Toms Treinis arose. They created a musical experience, recording and composing the sounds of the surroundings, as I created a collection of scent in sniffing jars and taste drinks, based on cultured or ‘wild’ urban flora.
To step out of the location for a moment, we created a dark space, to experience all senses but sight. Asking the visitors on their connection being part of a more urban or rural experience, they were guided through two different sensorial experiences in the same small hot and dark space. Zarins and Treinis’ Urban Pharmony, guided the journey through the location, while musically connecting brewing and rhythm. As the experience of using the method of non-visible senses ended, the doors of the space were opened, and the realisation being immersed fully in this environment, turned out to be a beneficial participation in being one with Zone Sensible.