What Is To Be Reshaped
Toni Cots, Igor Stokfiszewski and Amahl Khouri in conversation with Barbara Van Lindt (Belgium) about perspectives of artist, art workers and policy makers in Europe and South Mediterranean.
Political, economic, technological and ecological shifts in our society are profoundly affecting the way the arts are created, presented and experienced. Existing imbalances in the mobility of artists and their works have increased while public policies, industry practices and the market have failed to ensure that a true diversity of aesthetics and discourses reach existing and potential audiences throughout Europe. Meanwhile, artists are increasingly working across aesthetics, disciplines, beyond national boundaries and in partnership with other sectors. The not-for-profit arts sector is functioning largely in an organisational framework - both on the institutional as well as on a national and European level - that has not yet integrated these transformations. How to consider one’s own place in this changing landscape? What are the perspectives of artists, arts workers, policy makers? How can artists and art workers become active contributors to a new arts ecosystem, instead of merely suffering its consequences?
Toni Cots is an actor, author, professor and director. He performs and studies contemporary dance in Barcelona, London and Oslo. Previously member of the Odin Theatre and ISTA. As author and director, he created the performing arts platform BASHO, directing and producing numerous works and events in different parts of the world. Between 1997 and 2000 he created and directed Borderland in Denmark a cultural project on exile and refugee policies. He was artistic co-director and coordinator of ‘L’animal a l’esquena’, Celrà and runs the Master MACAPD, in collaboration with the University of Girona. He is currently a member of CRA’P – Pràctiques de creació i recerca artística in Mollet (Barcelona, Spain).
Amahl Raphael Khouri is a queer transgender Jordanian-German documentary playwright and theatremaker based in Berlin. Khouri is the author of several plays, including “She He Me” (Kosmos Theatre, Vienna 2019), “ICH BRAUCHE MEINE RUHE” (Münchner Schichten, Politik im Freien Theater Festival, Munich 2018) and “No Matter Where I Go” (Beirut 2014). Khouri is also a part of the Climate Change Theater Action and their play “Oh, How We Loved Our Tuna!” was read internationally as part of the initiative. They are a recipient of a 2018 Arbeitstipendium from the Munich Kulturreferat and worked as a dance dramaturg on somewhere/shared (Munich, 2018). Khouri’s work has been published in several U.S. journals, as well as Global Queer Plays (Oberon Books 2018), Skrivena Ljubav (Samizdat 2018) and International Perspectives on Where Performance Leads Queer anthology (Palgrave,2016).
Igor Stokfiszewski is a researcher, activist, journalist and artist. Author of Zwrot Polityczny [Political Turn] (2009) and Prawo do kultury [The Right to Culture] (2018), editor of Culture and Development: Beyond Neoliberal Reason (2017), co-editor of – among other books – Built the City: Perspectives on Commons and Culture (2015). He’s a member of the Krytyka Polityczna organisation team. He is active in the board of trustees of European Alternatives organisation and DiEM25 political movement.
Barbara Van Lindt studied philosophy and theatre studies. She cooperated with Antwerp European Capital of Culture, Monty (Antwerp) and STUK (Leuven). In 1997, Van Lindt founded the theatre workshop “Gasthuis” in Amsterdam, where she was Artistic Director until the end of 2001. She worked as a programme officer at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels in 2006, contributing to the intercontinental dialogue between artists, producers, curators and audiences. 2009-2018, Van Lindt worked as the Managing Director of DasArts, the international Master of theatre at the Amsterdam University of the Arts (AHK). In this position, she was responsible for the daily management of the Master and the artistic and educational development of the curriculum.
Toni Cots is an actor, author, professor and director. He performs and studies contemporary dance in Barcelona, London and Oslo. Previously member of the Odin Theatre and ISTA. As author and director, he created the performing arts platform BASHO, directing and producing numerous works and events in different parts of the world. Between 1997 and 2000 he created and directed Borderland in Denmark a cultural project on exile and refugee policies. He was artistic co-director and coordinator of ‘L’animal a l’esquena’, Celrà and runs the Master MACAPD, in collaboration with the University of Girona. He is currently a member of CRA’P – Pràctiques de creació i recerca artística in Mollet (Barcelona, Spain).
Amahl Raphael Khouri is a queer transgender Jordanian-German documentary playwright and theatremaker based in Berlin. Khouri is the author of several plays, including “She He Me” (Kosmos Theatre, Vienna 2019), “ICH BRAUCHE MEINE RUHE” (Münchner Schichten, Politik im Freien Theater Festival, Munich 2018) and “No Matter Where I Go” (Beirut 2014). Khouri is also a part of the Climate Change Theater Action and their play “Oh, How We Loved Our Tuna!” was read internationally as part of the initiative. They are a recipient of a 2018 Arbeitstipendium from the Munich Kulturreferat and worked as a dance dramaturg on somewhere/shared (Munich, 2018). Khouri’s work has been published in several U.S. journals, as well as Global Queer Plays (Oberon Books 2018), Skrivena Ljubav (Samizdat 2018) and International Perspectives on Where Performance Leads Queer anthology (Palgrave,2016).
Igor Stokfiszewski is a researcher, activist, journalist and artist. Author of Zwrot Polityczny [Political Turn] (2009) and Prawo do kultury [The Right to Culture] (2018), editor of Culture and Development: Beyond Neoliberal Reason (2017), co-editor of – among other books – Built the City: Perspectives on Commons and Culture (2015). He’s a member of the Krytyka Polityczna organisation team. He is active in the board of trustees of European Alternatives organisation and DiEM25 political movement.
Barbara Van Lindt studied philosophy and theatre studies. She cooperated with Antwerp European Capital of Culture, Monty (Antwerp) and STUK (Leuven). In 1997, Van Lindt founded the theatre workshop “Gasthuis” in Amsterdam, where she was Artistic Director until the end of 2001. She worked as a programme officer at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels in 2006, contributing to the intercontinental dialogue between artists, producers, curators and audiences. 2009-2018, Van Lindt worked as the Managing Director of DasArts, the international Master of theatre at the Amsterdam University of the Arts (AHK). In this position, she was responsible for the daily management of the Master and the artistic and educational development of the curriculum.
