Your thoughts wanted for the Babylon Village

This via Facebook:

We are bringing together artists with past associations with Splinters to create a new event in collaboration with The Village for the Centenary of Canberra.

Get Involved:
Please let us know your interest/availability by 20th January 2013.

We are asking that you come to one of the meetings below with some creative suggestions of how you may install, perform, interpret at the Babylon Village.

SAT 2nd February 2013: Canberra Artists
SAT 16th February 2013: Melbourne Artists

Artistic Statement: Vision for the event
We are bringing together artists with past associations with Splinters to create a new event in collaboration with The Village for the Centenary of Canberra.

BABYLON is a semi-mythological place- its relevance, significance and even existence in the dreamt form of the idealised hanging gardens continues to be debated. We have sequestered specific aspects of the grand mythological narrative of Babylon with the most resonance for this event and the current cultural milieu.
Utopian chronicles of the idealised city- the presence of Babylon (specifically the ‘whore’ in contemporary apocalyptic and collapse metaphors) and most importantly the biblical account of the inhabitants building the Tower of Babel to remain connected as one people with a unity of purpose…to defy the ‘authority of God’ and to defy their own mortality.

The isolated ‘shed dreaming’ of the inhabitants of Babylon
We plan to use some of the existing smaller/intimate Village structures as well as construct small ‘sheds’ around the Village site which are the secret, isolated, dreaming spaces of Babylon. Artists involved will be asked to interpret this and collaborate with us to create these spaces. The idea is that the individual ‘sheds’ containing people or residues of Babylonian existence make up the macrocosm of the city yet they stand alone. They serve to create a larger picture of the mythical city as the audience journey through them- voyeuristically peer into them- or interact with the inhabitants within them. The guided audience journey will follow a basic quest narrative formula with the audience viewing frame positioned as one with the ‘hero/heroine’ (we will include some puzzle/problem solving/ intimate interaction for the audience also).
The finale of the event will involve the inhabitants facing a threat of collapse/extinction that can only be solved by building the Tower of Babel out of their lonely sheds…
Doors or sections of the sheds will be removed and used to build a grand tower in the centre of the Village (the decision as to whether they are successful in unity or scattered as finale will reveal itself in devising process).
This is the basic shape of the event…details will be filled in collaboration with the artists involved.

Options for Artistic Involvement (Please keep in mind we have not received full funding for this event. There is no budget to pay people full fees- but we will endeavour to cover all reasonable costs)

1. Bring Creative response to one of the workshops scheduled below OR get in contact with us if you can’t physically be there and then work independently on contribution in communication with Rebecca, Renald and Louise along the way- bringing it to the Village in Canberra 18-20 March and taking part in construction/rehearsal/performance during production week.

2. Just attending for production week 18-24 March and becoming part of the overall ensemble.

3. Artists with a past association with Splinters can contribute media, music composition, writing, images and any other material from a distance to be potentially woven into the event by the artistic facilitators.

4. ACT artists working on the Village can be incorporated into larger ensemble sections of the event.

PROPOSED PROJECT TIMELINE

DATE LOCATION ACTIVITY and ARTISTS
JAN 2013 Melbourne Rebecca Rutter and Louise Morris- Creative and logistical Planning: Performance sequence and outline completed
2nd FEB 2013 Key Creative Meeting
ACT Renald Navilly + Louise Morris + ACT artists

16th FEB 2013 Key Creative Meeting
Melbourne Rebecca Rutter + Louise Morris + Melbourne Artists

1-18th March 2013 Glebe Park and ACT venue TBC Rebecca Rutter + Renald Navilly + Village Team planning, rehearsal and consultation with artists

18-19 March 2013 Glebe Park Village installed on site. Key artists to install environments and properties for Babylon. Rehearsals on site-
All artists TBA.

20 and 21 March 2013 Glebe Park Dress/Technical Rehearsals

Fri 22 and Sat 24 March Glebe Park Babylon Shows