"Theater with no Theater."
 

Theme: Scores and performance sketches to take place in private or public spaces in domestic and neighborhood settings.

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Reconnect Festival aims to discover and create alternative spaces for performing arts. In the previous editions, we focused on digital spaces as parallel platforms for performance.  In this edition, after a long pause and observation, with an understanding of the intertwined everyday protests and urban performance/non-performances, we have decided to focus on private and public spaces where artists can engage in the artistic experience and social action without dependency on institutional power.

The goal of this project is to break out of the customary cultural-social loops that have formed due to the unequal distribution of social and economic privileges. "Theater with no theater" invites ideators from every artistic and scientific field who can use simple yet compelling designs to expand the audience for art and raise awareness. Ideators who think about the need to redefine the audience, performance, performer, and their relationship to society and the system.

Family gatherings, neighborhoods, localities, and any form of civic relationship are potential platforms for creating performa situations or transferring performative designs with a focus on "the closest audience."

The proposal of this Reconnection period is to:

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• Rediscover effective parallel spaces for performance art.

• Review the closest social entities as the audience, such as family and neighbors.

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In this collective project, the production and design of artistic performance are not the goal. A collection of executable scores for others, is the desired outcome of this experience. This can be done through the use of performance theories, conversation strategies, awareness-raising, and social interaction with performative methods.

 

Criteria:

This phase of the project is dedicated to Scores that are designed for neighborhood spaces. Although the term "neighborhood" has different definitions, for the purpose of categorizing and publishing the works, in this phase of the project, it refers to all public and private spaces within a circle of ten blocks in all directions with the performer's/designer's room at the center.

Audience,

The audience can be permanent or temporary residents of any of these spaces, including family members, neighbors, and passers-by. We pay special attention to those audience members who are not familiar with your previous works, supporters, or like-minded individuals.

Context, Space,

There are no restrictions on the selection of performance spaces, from a built-in closet to a kitchen, from an engine room to a rooftop, from an alleyway to a staircase, from an elevator to a courtyard.

Format,

There are no limitations on performance techniques, from performing a play in a home environment to unconventional physical or temporal examples, object theater, or written pieces. From printing and broadcasting performance orders to digital or physical environmental experiences, from street to home experiences, and certainly other creative ideas.

Designs should be submitted in the form of "performance orders" and through the online form. https://forms.gle/nwLjtESsTYy2oLkD6

The Scores should be submitted in the form of "Scores" or "performance instructions".

What is "Score"?

The Scoretodo project seeks to achieve performative action in off-site locations, self-executions, and the creation of new performative relationships. The project's title is based on the closest Persian equivalent of the word "Score," which has become a shared concept among various branches of art since the 1960s.

"Score" is a textual medium that connects the writer and the reader under the conditions described in the text. The performance instructions are written by the idea-maker for one or more performers. The main substance of each score is text + action, and its boundaries of executability are broad, meaning it can be either imaginary or real. Therefore, a task or a set of tasks can be written to be performed.

The idea of Scoretodo was born during the pandemic, and two projects under this title were previously published. The first project was specifically aimed at discovering possibilities in public spaces, and the second project was born out of gathering performance instructions from Iranian artists, searching for executable possibilities in everyday life. Today, as we approach the start of Project No. 3, many artists are avoiding returning to the stage and producing works based on their previous conditions, creating a conscious or unconscious lack of engagement that creates a different future. Thus, Project No. 3, Theatre Without Theatre, is in search of a new possibility of connecting with others in performative ways, through transitional conditions to future images, without a face and without a view.

Related examples: https://www.reconnectfestival.com/scoretodo

Platform

Performances can be digital or not. Unlike other Re-Connect's projects, the focus is not on virtual platforms. However, digital tools and virtual networks are used for dissemination and communication with other executors and audiences. Also, features such as "physical absence", "anonymity", "security", "extensiveness", and "message transmission speed" experienced in digital executions can be utilized.

Each execution command may contain text, image, sound, executable file, video, or a link to a book, article, application, or website.

Duration: Depending on the design form, the execution can range from one minute to one day, be timeless or eternal.

Standards:

• Participation in this project is open to everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, language, gender, and belief.

• Only Scores that are written or rewritten after September 25th, 2022 will be published in this round.

• In this type of performance design, the focus is on the author and the scene, and the package of the influential executive performance for the audience and the audience who can be the performer themselves is prepared and designed.

• The main goal is to collect designs, not to perform them. However, the designer can perform their idea to clarify the performance method, and with the permission of the participants, attach their documents to the execution order while maintaining security. These documents can include videos, photos, sounds, or an analysis of the performer's feedback and a report of the performance results.

• It is good that the execution orders have the ability to be executed by everyone. Ideally, people with no previous performance experience should also be able to implement the idea with the help of the designer's guidelines. The same is true for the text of the execution order. Designs should be written in a way that is understandable to audiences unfamiliar with art and performance.

• Participants' safety is a priority in this round. To maintain caution and focus away from the artist's name and reputation, all selected works will be published as "anonymous" on social media and in printed notes. Name and contact details are optional in the relevant forms. It is suggested that you introduce yourself with a pseudonym. (Two letters of the alphabet, age, city of birth/for example, M-T-28-Zahedan). This "anonymity for now" will be the general policy of the project until further notice.

• The red line of Re-Connect is the  content that includes: incitement to violence, ethnic/sexual/religious insult, homophobia, misogyny, and child abuse.

About Reconnect Festival:

• Although the internet seems to create equal opportunities for everyone, we know that access to online space is not the same for all individuals. Infrastructure, access, and censorship issues can limit people's participation in public activities. Reconnect Festival is an effort to create a fluid and accessible platform that utilizes the internet and digital facilities for education and awareness.

• Digital, environmental, and experiential performances are often considered as a sub-product of festivals. In this collection, we strive to provide a dedicated space for these performance forms and support each other to challenge the norms of mainstream artistic currents.

• Reconnect Festival is an independent and artist-run project. It has no affiliation or center and operates completely experimentally on the free space of the internet, formed by a group of volunteers. The goal of this group is to design a platform to bring together artists, students, and researchers and help process ideas, experience, and study the impact of performances in important historical and social periods.

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If you have any questions, suggestions, or intend to support this project and its participants, please contact us at:

info@reconnectfestival.com

instagram.com/reconnectfestival