As part of the collaboration between the Australia Council for the Arts and IETM, the international network for contemporary performing arts, a program of activities has been developed by Project Director, David Pledger. It will foster artistic partnerships between Australia and Europe in 2010-2011.

Artists and organisations from both regions will collaborate through artist-residency programs, producer placements, a one-off commission, workshops and a special ‘green’ project.

A number of underlying themes drive the program for 2010-2011: the acknowledgment of climate change in artistic practice, an inbound-outbound principle of international exchange, quality long-term relationships and the embedding of Australian artists in Europe.

These activities include:

Artistic collaborations

• Melbourne-based Ranters Theatre will undertake a one-month residency with Mladinsko Theatre in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
• Broome-based Marrugeku artists, Dalisa Pigram and Rachael Swain will develop new dramaturgical practices for Marrugeku in consultation with Hildegard van Duyst (dramaturge to C. de la B’s Alain Patel), choreographer Koen Augestijen and Australian Aboriginal senior lawman Patrick Dodson.
• Director Bagryana Popov will present workshops and discussions on her work with immigrants and the socially displaced at the Inaugural Year of Akcent 2010, the International Festival of Theatre With a Social Outreach in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
• Sydney artists Ahil Ratnohaman and Daisy Wouters will undertake a development stage of their project Michael Essien I want to play as you in Belgium, France and Italy. The project explores the world game of football and human trafficking.

Producing Producers

• Independent producer, Sarah Greentree, will be placed with Belgium production company caravan productions on a special project with American choreographer, Eleanor Bauer, in the context of a larger brief to familiarise herself with the workings of the independent European producing sector.
• Urban Theatre Projects Producer Michelle Kotevski will be placed with London International Festival of Theatre, shadowing Artistic Director, Mark Ball and working on special projects around issues of climate change and education.

Climate commission

• As part of the Tipping Point Australia Conferences, a one-off commission will be offered to an Australian-European group of artists and scientists in an open application process. Brussels’ Kaai Theatre, a leading advocate in the art-and-climate change nexus and a member of the influential Imagine 2020 Network, will host the commission in Europe.

Ex Pat Im Port

• As part of a program to return to Australia highly regarded European-based Australian artists – who have immersed themselves in other processes and created a practice distinctly their own – Manchester-based composer Liza Lim and Adelaide-born, Berlin resident dancer, director and voice artist, Joanna Dudley will present a series of public lectures and workshops for professional artists in a program hosted by Australian organisations.

Special Project in partnership with Julie’s Bicycle

UK-Based Julie’s Bicycle (www.juliesbicycle.com)  is a broad coalition of music, theatre and scientific experts committed to greening global culture industries. With David Pledger, they will work alongside artists and producers participating in the program to assess their projects’ carbon footprint, a process which will assist the development of a standard ‘green’ rider on which future international activities can be based.

The activities from the 2010-2011 collaboration program are driven by long-term approach to developing opportunities in Europe rather than short-term contracts. Their objective is to develop new relationships and build on existing connections between artists and cultural operators in Europe and Australia, and to provide continuity, structure and direction to these relationships.

For more information, contact David Pledger at david.pledger@ietm.org or Ellen Dwyer at e.dwyer@creative.gov.au