European BauhART Cycle
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
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Project Description
Performing arts don’t know about race, borders or capacities. Understood by anybody, they are the best example of a universal language. The European BauhART Cycle is an international project that aims to tackle the future of the performing arts sector from a sustainable and inclusive point of view, where music and dance will go hand-to-hand to offer a unique experience using Bauhaus architecture as its source of inspiration. 3 countries, 3 artists, 3 venues. Join us, live it. (Also digital!).
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
The European BauhART Cycle is a unique proposal that showcases the potential of art as both an end to itself and a means for inclusion, community building and social and sustainable development. Music, dance, architecture, color and words to connect with people, to identify with a bigger community, to be moved through different ways, adapting to the multiple senses and capacities that we, as humans, possess.
It is structured around 3 performances that shape the complete piece, a musical and dance triptych with the former European Bauhaus architecture not only as inspiration, but also as a tangible resource. The former Bauhaus heritage, its buildings, serve to prove how easily can we turn into a more sustainable society: how any construction can be used for artistic purposes, a way to rethink and convert any space into performing stages, into cultural venues. Citizen participation is a key element to the project: an online voting process will allow anyone to be part of the project, to make their voice count and be heard. How? Each performance will be held in a Bauhaus building: Mies van der Rohe’s Pavilion in Barcelona, UNESCO’s headquarters by Marcel Breuer in Paris and, the third one, chosen by the audience among 5 buildings in Bauhaus School home country, Germany.
The project has been devised by Paula Sánchez Lahoz (Bcn, 1995), cellist and cultural manager, with the participation of Pablo de Diego (Madrid, 1997) in charge of the music, and Mamadou Wagué (Paris, 1994) for the choreography. Performances will be recorded and broadcast live via social media, and will include haptic feedback to translate movement into words, as well as music into colors with the dancer using multiple colored brushes. A public informative digital deliverable will be designed to disclose not only the project itself, but how it fosters the New European Bauhaus values and the Bauhaus School principles (artistic wise).
3 pieces, 3 countries, 3 artists. 1 European work of art.
Key objectives for sustainability
As history shows us, during the past few decades, human beings have had the tendency to build more and more, to forge locations with specific purposes, disregarding their impact on the environment, instead of developing venues able to accommodate different activities, sustainable in the long run.
With this in mind, the European BauhART Cycle fosters sustainability from a practical perspective: the reuse of preexisting buildings that can, should and will be used, in the project, as performing art stages. This is not only a way to avoid the construction of specific sites for specific purposes that become obsolete or underused over time, but it also allows us to build a community through one of the main schools that art history has set, letting citizens from different European countries to feel the common identity that the European Union delivers. For us, this is also a way of showing that any building, regardless of its initial purpose, its age, its location, etc., can be used for artistic ends: either as a source of inspiration or, indeed, as a performing hall. We intend to take action so as to show that it is a real solution to an environmental defying situation, using the potential of our cultural tangible heritage.
Sustainability has also been taken into account for the development of the projects: though all three artists live in different countries, it will not be necessary for them to come together until the moment of the performances, therefore avoiding unnecessary trips and lowering our carbon footprint. In relation to this, all performances will be broadcast live: this way, we not only reduce the energy consumption but we also make the performances accessible to all those people who, for multiple reasons (distance, mobility problems, delicate health…) can not be there physically.
At last, the public deliverable will be designed and distributed in digital format, to evade printing processes that generate paper waste.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Beyond the sustainable and inclusive aspects of the project, we always bet for quality, otherwise, culture only becomes a means to an end. Arts are a purpose for themselves, we aim to create an experience that moves people, that creates a reaction: think, feel, imagine, abstract… capture the audience attention by innermost identification, each through and with their own senses, capacities and experiences.
Despite their youthfulness, the 3 participating artists have undergone outstanding careers, with experience in the contemporary performing arts field and several prizes, scholarships, etc. that endorse their professional path. Their maturity, both in the personal and professional life, makes them perfectly suitable and elegible for the European BauhART Cycle, an important aspect to take into account as they will be the outer and public layer of the project, the ones who transfer and communicate with the audience.
Besides the quality of the artistic part, the author of the project has looked for the best ways to engage with any kind of audience, to provide a 360º experience for anyone to enjoy the performances: dance and music are completed with other visual, sensorial and haptic elements that make the best of it, pursuing quality in every aspect and in every detail of the proposal.
In terms of aesthetics, the colors, shapes and other creative elements will follow two main axis: a mix of the colors of the Bauhaus School (blue, white, yellow, red and black) and the New European Bauhaus (light blue and green), and the former Bauhaus principles. As for the Bauhaus principles, we would like to underline the following: no border between artist and craftsman, the concept of the “complete work of art” (through the 3 performances, venues, and inputs the complete experience is achieved), its minimalism (in terms of cutting unnecessary elements, relying on the power of the selected artistic forms), the smart use of resources and the simplicity and effectiveness.
Key objectives for inclusion
As it has already been mentioned, the project pursues inclusion in each and every possible side; from its conception and early development to its performance and execution.
Concerning the performances, two main elements have been taken into account. As per the musical element of the project, in order to be able to interpret it without the need of hearing, an extra visual element will be added: color. The music will be transformed into shapes and figures that the dancer will paint through his movement, using up to 5 different brushes with a small deposit of paint that will allow him to paint avoiding to interrupt the choreography, without compromising any movement or the flow of the piece. The other element that has been considered is the interpretation of the dance, the translation of movement into words to get the whole experience without the need of the sight. Haptic feedback will be provided during all three performances to achieve the main goal: the full experience for everybody. Also, a list of materials that can be easily found will be given to relate the motion and the space to different textures. No high technology will be used for this processes so that as much people as possible can have complete access and enjoy it, even from home.
The broadcast of the live performances will allow people all over Europe or any other part of the world to watch it and be there, in the distance but together. It will be done through accessible and free social media platforms, needing only a smart device (i.e. smartphone, tablet, etc. no need of computer or any other major technological element). This way, we ensure that no matter the economic situation of the audience, nor their place or physical situation (mobility wise) they will be able to attend.
The deliverable will be no less: a part from the digital and visual version, it will be recorded in order to have an accurate and complete audio description of it. This way, everybody gets to enjoy it and learn from it.
Innovative character
Innovation can be found in many ways, without the need of new technologies that make ideas unfeasible, insanely increasing their budgets. With the motto less is more in mind, innovation in European BauhART Cycle comes from the inside, from the scope from which arts are envisaged, its transversality, its inclusiveness.
The transversal approach aims to give these almost centenary buildings a fresh angle, looking at them from a different perspective, aiming to generate new environments and uses through transferable actions to any other site or geographical location. At the same time, the ephemeral character of the performances collides with the notion of traditional architecture, but here, it actually relates to the history of the last performing stage of the cycle: Mies van der Rohe’s pavilion, which was constructed only for the Universal Exposition in 1929, then teared down because “it had no use”, and then built up again when society realized that it was an icon, that it had a meaningful value. Same happens with art: though in a complete different way, performances need time to exist, so we need to create space for them. This is what this project is about: creating a brief space in time to reflect, to allow ourselves an enjoyable and unique instant.
European BauhART Cycle looks for an innovative and cross-sectoral approach of the arts and cultural and creative industries, yet affordable and sustainable, to offer arts from multiple standing points, for anyone to be understood, searching beyond the mainstream, breaking a paradigm in where music can only be heard, and dance can only be seen. We intend to deliver a real inclusive experience.
Although the concept of the “full” piece of art (Gesamtkunstwerk) takes us back to the XIXth Century, in this case cost-effective technology allows the audience to be able to attend and witness the whole piece without the need to move, either completely from home or combining the live encounter with the online experience.
