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Description
"Show the language" is a two-year program consisting in artistic residencies, workshops, debates, shows, and many other events, ending in a summary conference. The main entities participating in the action will be Teatr 21 Foundation (leader) and partners – the Norwegian Interart_s Foundation and the Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. The main beneficiaries of the action will be artists with disabilities and artists interested in social inclusion. The third important group will be the Polish minority and other language minorities in Norway. The launch of the project will be coordinated with the opening of a new and, also, the first seat of Centrum Sztuki Włączającej (Centre for Inclusive Arts, CSzW), operating since 2018. This institution, established by our foundation, is dedicated to the art created by persons with disabilities and is the first of its kind in Central Europe. The events have been designed in such a way as to show diversity of disability and to look at it from a different, non-medical perspective. We wish to present to audiences in Poland and Norway artistic and educational events of high quality, that is why contributors to the project include: Kjersti Horn, Tori Wranes, Krzysztof Globisz, Paweł Althamer, Karolina Wiktor, Daniel Kotowski, Un-Label Theatre, Chris Pavia, and many others.
Summary of project results
The need to implement the project corresponded to tasks of Beneficiary of the project. They result directly from the situation, the beneficiary was facing – the art of people with disabilities was still considered peripheral. Project “Pokaż język” [Poke your tongue out] was a project constituting an actual step towards: - raising awareness among audiences and culture animators about working with groups particularly prone to stereotypical attitudes from the society; - holding of events and meetings, and towards increasing visibility between groups who, until now, remained strangers (usually, only people whose relatives or friends are disabled are familiar with disabilities, while the majority of the society lives in a bubble, preventing it from meeting and gaining knowledge about minorities – the resulting gap is filled by stereotypes); - promotion of art created by persons with disabilities as valid and autonomous, raising its social status, caring for proper and equal representation, engaging so-called professional artists in our actions, and constructing a broad educational program which will allow to find the key to understanding of this new type of art (subjecting it to critical analysis); - enrichment of educational offer by actions dedicated to the broadly understood inclusive art and construction of the program in such a way as to allow asking questions and talking to artists; - popularization of studies on disabilities, as a field of science which in Poland is only at an early stage of its development; - solidifying of the position of Centrum Sztuki Włączającej [Centre for Inclusive Arts] as the first inclusive, social institution for culture, which in its artistic, educational, and social vision will initiate, develop, and conduct projects drawing directly from the idea of social diversity, in particular with regard to persons with disabilities
"Show the language" was a two-year program consisting in artistic residencies, workshops, debates, shows, and many other events, ending in a summary conference. The main entities participating in the action were Teatr 21 Foundation (leader) and partners – the Norwegian Interart_s Foundation and the Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. The main beneficiaries of the action were artists with disabilities and artists interested in social inclusion. The third important group were the Polish minority and other language minorities in Norway. The launch of the project was coordinated with the opening of a new and, also, the first seat of Centrum Sztuki Włączającej (Centre for Inclusive Arts, CSzW), operating since 2018. This institution, established by Beneficiary''s foundation, was dedicated to the art created by persons with disabilities and is the first of its kind in Central Europe. The events have been designed in such a way as to show diversity of disability and to look at it from a different, non-medical perspective. Beneficiary presented to audiences in Poland and Norway artistic and educational events of high quality, that was why contributors to the project include: Kjersti Horn, Tori Wranes, Krzysztof Globisz, Paweł Althamer, Karolina Wiktor, Daniel Kotowski, Un-Label Theatre, Chris Pavia, and many others. Actions within the project were developed around the topic of language. Beneficiary looked at what the society considers to be a cultured, correct, safe language, and what, according to standards, was a provocation, a social transgression, or simply a language of the second category.
The program was divided into four modules, each dealing with different aspects: the sign language, alternative motor skills, neuro- and bio-diversity. In each of those fields, our Norwegian partner, the Interart_s Foundation, will be present. In its activities, it will focus on researching the disabling function of the language, which, depending on the perspective, can be an efficient communication tool, but also a proof of belonging to a minority. “Show the language” will be also a manifest about a change of representation in the theatre, in the world of art. In this aspect, cooperation with the Academy of Dramatic Art will prove essential. Students of artistic faculties and lecturers will participate in joint undertakings with our partner, and the result of that cooperation will be, among others, lectures, workshops, performative reading, seminars, publications, and a conference summarizing the project
Summary of bilateral results
The Donor Partner of the project was International Art Scene (interart_s) which an organization operating since 2017 in Oslo, established by a team of theater producers, critics, performers, graphic designers and nature lovers. As ayoung organization, the partner saw great value in the possibility of drawing on the 17 years of experience of Theater 21 ( Beneficiary of the project) in the field of art, cultural and social policy, as well as the developed tools. The knowledge and tools acquired during the cooperation were developed and transplanted into the areas of our Norwegian activities in the future. The second partner was a partner from Poland - Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art is Poland''s oldest theatrical academy with over two hundred years of tradition. Solidity of the partnership was founded upon two main pillars. Firstly, main topics of the project played along with the strategic aims of AT, as in the sphere of availability, as well as in internationalizing. The Academy were involved in all the types of activity, delegating the different groups of participants: students, teaching staff (and at the same time artists), administrative staff including the coordinator of availability to participate in the workshops, panels, joint development of the materials, or organizing the conference summing up the undertaking. Secondly, the project has fit into the systemic building of a model of an artistic academy accessible to persons of many types of disabilities, which AT has been realizing since 2021. As a result, the competencies and experiences gained during this project can be constantly used by the teaching staff during the classes or exams they organize, or in didactic materials they share with their students, as well as the governing and administrative staff in terms of governing the academy, and planning its development.