Understanding the Greenlandic Performing Arts

In this essay, produced by IETM and Performing Arts Platform and published four months after the Plenary, Greenlandic-Danish director, researcher, producer and sound designer Sirí Paulsen offers a valuable insight into the Greenlandic performing arts from a performance-historical perspective. With a particular focus on Inuit narratives, archival traditions and the transmission of knowledge, she asks - which story is being told, who is telling it, and to which audience?

REPORTS

Performing Identity: Navigating Cultural Identities through the Arts

Kuluk Helms is an Inuk/Danish performing artist who has navigated between Greenland and Denmark her whole life. Based on the poem and performance ‘Jeg Hører Til – Uannut Inissaqarpoq’ (‘I Belong’), Kuluk explored and discussed some of the difficulties, gifts and challenges she has faced through her life of dual cultures. This performance lecture contained elements of Inuk culture pillars, performing arts, knowledge sharing and a Q&A session facilitated by Reneltta Arluk.

Art and Activism I - Environmental crisis: a dilemma for the artist?

During this session, two artists whose work is intimately linked to the human experience of water share their insights on their relationship with activism and how they relate to the urgent need for the reduction of the environmental impact of human culture.

Art and Activism II - Transforming culture through artistic influence

The panel discussion ‘Art and Activism II – Transforming culture through artistic influence’ explored the arts’ potential to challenge mainstream narratives and highlighted the power of art as a catalyst for cultural and societal change. It emphasised the urgency of addressing climate change, colonisation, capitalism and indigenous rights through artistic expression and collective action. Furthermore, it was discussed whether artists, by acknowledging and nurturing caring relationships with the non-human and more-than-human world, can inspire positive change and contribute to shaping better futures.

Indigenous Ecological Knowledge I: Insights from Outside the Arts

In this panel session held at the IETM Aarhus Plenary Meeting 2023, Indigenous knowledge holders and community activists from outside of the arts field discussed how modern societies can forge an environmentally and socially sustainable culture based on restorative justice and equity.

KEYNOTES RECORDINGS

‘Living on the Edge: A Nature Divide?’ [Monday keynote]

The Monday keynote dove into the sociology of the ecological transition and explore the rise of a new social class deeply rooted in ecological values. The keynote was led by Nikolaj Schultz, writer and researcher from Denmark, and accompanied by Ása Richardsdóttir, IETM Secretary General, and Charlotte Mors, Executive Director at Performing Arts Platform Denmark.

The livestream is available to view upon request. 

Climate Justice [Wednesday Keynote]

Led by Aili Keskitalo, former Sápmi president from Sápmi Land/Norway, the Wednesday keynote looked into the intersection of Indigenous rights, the paradox of green energy production, and the role of the arts in the understanding of history and its relationship with the present.

DANISH PERFORMING ARTS - A POINT OF VIEW

This article is a personal presentation and mapping of the Danish performing arts scene, with a specific focus on the Aarhus scene. It is not a comprehensive analysis that includes intricate details, players and their mutual relationships within the sector, but rather a narrative on the theatre scene in Denmark.

Jesper de Neergaard is a prehistoric archaeologist, stage director and former artistic director at two Danish venues in Aarhus: Entré Scenen and Bora Bora – Dance and Visual Theatre. He currently works as a mentor, dramaturge and facilitator. Jesper de Neergaard has been an IETM member since 2002.

FROM THE SPEAKERS AND MEETING CONTRIBUTORS

A VISION FOR PERFORMING ARTS BASED ON ECOLOGICAL DYNAMICS / VISION FOR EN SCENEKUNST BASERET PÅ ØKOLOGISKE DYNAMIKKER

This text was written in response to a series of conversations that took place in the autumn and winter of 2022/2023 in the frame of RØSK: ‘Refleksionsrum for Økologisk SceneKunst’ (Ed. Danish) – or in English: REPA: Reflection-space for Ecological Performing Arts. RØSK is a gathering of artists, organisers, and researchers.

FROM IETM GALWAY

The IETM Galway Satellite meeting tackled one of the most urgent topics of our time: Climate Action. It explored relationships between artists, the arts ecosystem and the planet. Many of the resources collected during this Satellite remain useful for the IETM Aarhus Plenary Meeting 2023, and can be explored below. 

Preliminary notes by Ben Twist, Creative Carbon Scotland

In preparation for the IETM Galway Satellite meeting in 2020, we asked all of the participants to read the preliminary notes prepared by Ben Twist from Creative Carbon Scotland, to define the terms that will be explored during the meeting and put the conversation into perspective.

Climate action and the performing arts

This report presents some of the reflections and discussions on the relationships between performing arts and climate action held during the digital IETM Galway Satellite Meeting in December 2020.

ON ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY

Perform Europe Insights: Sustainability through innovation

This report brings together the main learning points which we drew from the Perform Europe process.

Guidelines for a just transition towards environmentally sustainable economies and societies for all

These guidelines are both a policy framework and practical tool to help countries at all developmental levels manage the transition to low-carbon economies.

FRESH PERSPECTIVES 4: Art for the Planet's Sake. Arts and Environment

This IETM publication looks at how the arts can tackle environmental issues and includes interesting examples of greening practices and projects.

IETM Brussels Opening Keynote Speech: Art in the age of populism

During his keynote speech at IETM Brussels, Eric Corijn used a holistic approach to embed climate change in his talks on the position of the arts in the age of populism. 

ON DECOLONISATION, TRANSLOCALITY AND TERRITORY

Translocality in the arts (video)

In this session held online on 22 October 2022 in the context of the IETM Lyon Plenary Meeting, Dutch philosopher, writer and poet Maarten Doorman talked about the concept of translocality in the arts, followed by reactions from art professionals from Australia, Poland and Lebanon.

Opening keynote speech IETM Porto ‘Other centres, paths, perspectives, practices’

Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, the Brazilian anthropologist, known for his attempt to decolonise thoughts, is the author of the opening keynote speech from IETM Porto, which was delivered in the format of a lecture performance by Fernanda Silva, founder of the activist Metaphor Teatro Galpão in Parnaíba, Brazil, and by Alvaro Domingues, Portuguese writer and geographer with a specific interest in the geography of social inequalities.

While Viveiros de Castro in his text “Os Involuntários da Pátria” denounces the condition of the Native Americans in Brazil—uprooted from their indigenous presence in the Americas, colonised by the Europeans, and excluded as full citizens—Domingues leads us to central questions of the Anthropocene: who are the “excluded” of today and what new or old worlds do they inhabit?

FRESH PERSPECTIVES 2: Shifting Scales and Sceneries. Arts, Globalisation and Territories

This publication from IETM’s Fresh Perspectives series deals with performing arts and territories, touching on global issues such as economic stress, environmental challenges and migration flow.

FRESH PERSPECTIVES 9: Arts in rural areas

This new Fresh Perspectives highlights the valuable contribution that the contemporary arts have in non-urban areas, and brings the views of three experts on sustainable ways to improve conditions for artists working in those areas.

Fields of Vision. Other voices, rural places, global stories

IETM Satellite Wales deepened some of the conversations initiated during our plenaries in Brussels and Porto around the theme of working outside of the big centres and in rural areas.

Relocalising Artistic Practices

This IETM Brussels report seeks new opportunities to rethink the local outside the nationalistic paradigm and to reinvent the international without the unification of the globalised culture.

Olivia U. Rutazibwa - Decoloniser

With her call to 'Decolonise the western Minds', Prof. Olivia R. Rutazibwa enriches the debate on diversity and development both in the West and the Global South in this TEDxTalk.

Meanwhile in the Countryside

This report from IETM Brussels highlights some experiences, practices and methods of undertaking art projects in rural areas.