Description
The project «Hands full of Shells and Feet full of Flowers» consists in a collective artistic creation through a three level knowledge exchange programme between three artistic institutions with different backgrounds: the project promoter d’Orfeu – Cultural Association from Águeda (Portugal), Theatre and Marionettes Company of Mandrágora from Espinho (Portugal) and Franzisca Aarflot Productions from Svelvik (Norway). Throughout this learning process these organizations aim to create a non-verbal cross-disciplinary performance for small children (0-3 year old), up to 30 minutes maximum, combining music, theatre, body expression, dance, movement and puppets and marionettes manipulation based on folklore and traditional music, from both countries. Within Portuguese traditional music, for example, the project has different types of songs such as lullabies, working songs (hunting, pastoral, agricultural and sea shanties), religious and profane songs, love songs or festivities songs. All of them are tightly connected to a certain way of living or nature itself. The partners of each country will prepare and implement a collaborative research program and the visits to happen in Portugal and Norway for group meeting and working. Thus, each visitor partner gets acknowledge with geographical environment, folklore and traditions preparing them better for the following work and project development process. Each partner is responsible for gathering two elements to form a cast of six artists where must be three musicians and three actors. This double nation cast will work on a creative process where it will combine Folklore and traditional music from both countries generating a common nonverbal cross-disciplinary performance.
Summary of project results
Hands full of Shells and Feet full of Flowers” project was a collaborative creative process developed between d'Orfeu Associação Cultural (Águeda), Companhia de Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora (Espinho) and Franzisca Aarflot Produksjoner (Svelvik, Norway). The sea and all its imaginary were the great inspiration of this project, as a common element to Portugal and Norway. Both peoples exhibit moody traits stemming from homesickness and having their loved ones far offshore. By exploring traditions, objects, colors, shapes, stories, elements of nature, sounds, movements and gestures, an artistic performance was conceived as a multisensory experience of maritime inspiration, aimed at babies as a public of the present. During the process, with moments of research in both Portugal and Norway, the casts crossed learning and brought their local synergies together in the common process. Schools and partner organizations were involved in Portugal, namely in the region of Aveiro - where the Portuguese companies come from - as well as in Norway. The contacts with different school contexts, with different artistic collectives and with many logistic and operational bridges resulted in a wide formula for the design and construction of the show "Shells", besides having directly benefited the communities close to the three promoter structures. In the creative process of "Shells", starting from the collective memory of both countries, music and puppet theater were mixed in a cultural identity commitment. An iconic spectacle where the non-verbal approach gained shape through the phonetic fusion of the two languages, creating new words and sounds, coupled with musicality and body language. "Shells" tells the story of travelers, real and imaginary, privileging the babies and their families. The show "Shells" - final result that lasts from the project - continued and will continue on tour in Portugal, after the programme. Already as a further dissemination, fulfilling its umbilical link, "Shells" has just been presented in Norway at the Figur i Fossekleiva Festival in Svelvik. The Norwegian version of this creation, "Havet" (Mar), was also presented with the Norwegian artists who shared the creative residence during the Cultural Footprint programme, with the Portuguese cast. After returning "Shells" to the Norwegian sea, the show has an Iberian tour scheduled for 2017.
Summary of bilateral results
This project was an incredible opportunity for all partners, a space for exploration, experimentation, and learning, exchanging and sharing. The team managed to develop a cross disciplinary artistic creation for babies, promote capacity development through knowledge exchange between institutions, improve the skills of Portuguese and Norwegian artists, develop new forms of promoting and transmitting the interest in arts focusing on a new target audience for us, recover and reinvent traditional music and folklore through arts and, last but not the least, straightening relations with Norwegian artistic entities in order to promote regular collaborative projects and exchange programs. Therefore, the entire team believes that had accomplished the goals in full! However, dealing with different creative approaches, different work methodologies, communication gaps and misaligned agendas was a true challenge but with the effort of all partners it was possible to solve all the issues that came up during the process. Collaborative work is not easy especially at distance and it was necessary to concentrate most of the work in specific short periods of time, first in Norway and then in Portugal. During the project we realized that some of our first planned options were not so feasible such as one month for artistic residency. Due to agendas constraints it was not possible to gather the entire team for such a long period, so we had to adjust. This flexible approach was followed by all since the very beginning which allowed a very fluid and intimate creative process.