SETTLEMENT ALL

a place where humans live

during 2008 - 2009 several settlements will be set up in different cities

"Settlement " is a performance created in 2 weeks with a local group of professional performers from different age/origin/background. We construct from day one a temporary village/settlement with material found or collected. The area where we work can be inside (as long as it is a large, rough looking place that can suggest an outside world) or inside a theatre with a wide stage. The creation process will take place in that environment.

We associate around the notion of "settlement", a concept with many different interpretations and subjective outlooks.

A performance (or -s) will be shown for an audience at the end of the workshop-period. It is no work-in-progress, we aim for a finished result. We try to perform the constructed outline 3 times in a row in one evening, to create the sensation of duration and real life feeling. It is important that the participants differ in age and background; it makes the settlement more enriching and more realistic.

The first settlement took place in may 2007 in Sydney, in an immense old railway station transformed in a contemporary art venue (Carriageworks), and was produced by the Performance Space and subventioned by the Australia Council for the Arts. Audience and participants had a sense of sharing the same, raw reality, 'loss' being a theme several times mentioned by the

watchers.

The intention is to explore and to create this performance in other cities. Part of the research is to know how other participants in other cultures/settings react on the notion of settlement.

We work with a mini-team of artists/performers from Belgium (more or less 3 people) and we collaborate with 15 local artists minimum. These artists participate in a learning process/workshop where the outcome is essential and is shown to an audience. To work, create and come to a final result in this short intense period of 2 weeks, is possible because a detailed work plan/scenario is constructed beforehand. The interesting aspect of this way of working is that the process will take each time another form, depending on the city and the different participants.

Our goal is to create a new settlement wherever we go

performance / 2 weeks creation