TestArt in Ljubljana: Discovering Slovenian and European performing art scene and international productions
The first study visit to Ljubljana of the European TestArt project has ended, an opportunity to meet and exchange good practices with local artists and cultural operators for the 15 partners of the European project coordinated by Consorzio Marche Spettacolo.
The program, developed by the Slovenian partner Bunker, was held during the Mladi Levi Festival 2024, one of the most important events for the performing arts in Slovenia, which has been operating in the capital for 20 years and hosts numerous events and international premieres in different locations in the center of the capital, including the redeveloped space Stara Elektrarna – Elektro Ljubljana (Old Power Station), an old power station now transformed into a cultural center and managed by Bunker.
From 29th to 31st August 2024, the participants had the opportunity to get to know numerous realities in the Slovenian territory, involved in different areas of the Slovenian and international cultural scene, including:
Association that promotes and supports the inclusion of women in culture. The Association for the Promotion of “Women in Culture – City of Women” was founded in 1996, one year after the first edition of the City of Women festival, with the aim of preparing and managing the festival annually. Today, the association is a multifaceted organization that focuses on artistic, activist and theoretical presentations and productions by women* throughout the year, while expanding its activities to arts education, managing projects for youth and teachers; to community building, initiating temporary communities that engage in the co-creation of art; and the connection of art and culture with other sectors, such as social, educational and entrepreneurial.
*The term women and other words written in the feminine grammatical gender are used inclusively and address anyone who identifies with the feminine gender, as well as non-binary, trans- and intergender people.
Glej Theater is the oldest non-institutional theater in Slovenia (and one of the first theaters of this kind in the former Yugoslavia), boasting bold performances, (re)thinking interesting production models, non-hierarchical forms of work in theater and is based on collective and socially engaged work. Active in the area for 50 years, they explore the possibilities of contemporary theater in relation to collective theatrical creation, community and the various forms that the concepts of collective and community can encompass.
Krušče Creative Center is a small cultural center run by Tomi Janežič, theater director and psychodrama psychotherapist, and Katja Legin, dancer/performer and choreographer. It offers an intimate and peaceful space for inspiration and creation, a place where art has its value, purpose and meaning. It creates conditions in which avant-garde art meets other contents, from live entertainment to psychodrama, from education to group work.
Pogon is an independent house of cultures based in Zagreb (Croatia), which makes its premises and equipment available free of charge to associations, artistic organizations and informal groups. Since 2009, Pogon, under the direction of Emina Višnić and the entire team, has gradually become an important place of production and presentation of culture and art, not only for the independent cultural scene but also for the entire cultural panorama of the city .⠀
As partners of the Stronger Peripheries: A Southern Coalition project, Sonja Soldo and Anja Pletikosa illustrated to the TestArt partners the virtues and difficulties in realizing transnational artistic residencies and productions, providing important examples of collaborations and useful feedback that can be used for the carrying out TestArt activities.
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Furthermore, in the days dedicated to the studio visit, the partners - grouped according to their expressed artistic needs - began to explore ideas of transnational productions, planning future collaborations in periods of residency, as foreseen by the objectives of the project.
The next in-person event will be held in Dresden, Germany, guests of the German partner Zentralwerk e.V..
More information on TestArt is available on this website, at the ABOUT section.
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Let’s introduce TestArt!
TestArt – Testing new skills for the circulation of innovative co-creation methods in the performing Arts sector, the project co-financed by the Creative Europe community funds – medium-scale cooperation projects for the Cultural sector, aims to support the creative, economic and social dimension of performing arts at European level, stimulating innovation, mobility and transnational cooperation in cultural and creative industries. The EU co-financing amounts to more than 600,000 euros.
TestArt, counting a total of 15 partners from 5 different countries, will be coordinated by Consorzio Marche Spettacolo and will involve local and international entities, such as Welcome Aps, AMAT – Marche Association of Theatrical Activities, Pergolesi Spontini Foundation, Asini Bardasci Cultural Association, Cultural Association Centripeta, CollegaMenti APS and MALTE Cultural Association from Italy; Teater Nu and PotatoPotato from Sweden; Kulturanova, Misholovka Theater and Led Art Multimedia Center from Serbia; Bunker from Ljubljana (Slovenia) and the Dresden-based Zentralwerk (Germany).
“Starting from the success of TrainArt, TestArt pushes for artistic collaborations between different realities that are predominantly oriented at a local level, increasing their potential at a European level and defining a concrete opportunity to create international networks for the co-production of shows and cultural initiatives – states Katiuscia Cassetta, President of Consorzio Marche Spettacolo.
From January 2024 to December 2026, TestArt will develop the skills of cultural and creative micro-organizations for the activation of a network of transnational cooperation, which aims at the exponential expansion of the range of collaborations, also beyond the conclusion of the project.
“The range of TestArt partners is particularly interesting because it is active in different fields of the performing arts sector. However, they all pursue the objective of stabilizing their international network by operating transversally within the cultural and creative sector” declares Lucia Chiatti, Director of Consorzio Marche Spettacolo.
TestArt will develop in 3 phases: an initial mapping of the needs of the artists and operators involved, which will include study visits to Dresden and Ljubljana for the capacity building of cultural operators and artists; the artistic residency period where partners will collaborate and co-create new transnational artistic productions, which will then debut on a European tour touching all partner countries in the final phase.
“For Zentralwerk, TestArt is a stimulating networking and organization development experience to take home. We will be tutors and students at the same time thanks to the incredible network of entities involved in the project" concludes Barbara Lubich, Head of International Cooperation of the German partner Zentralwerk.
UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT
The TrainArt project
To effectively comprehend the origin of TestArt, the TrainArt project and its aims and results should be looked at. TrainArt was a 3-year small scale cooperation project, ended in September 2022 and involving 5 partners from 4 different countries (Consorzio Marche Spettacolo and Welcome Aps from Italy, Kulturanova from Serbia, Haceria Arteak from Spain and Teater Nu from Sweden), with the aim to strengthen the competitiveness of the European Performing Arts sector and to shape new skills for those cultural operators interested in developing innovative business models in the CCIs.
The project focuses on two particular fields: A) new management models for cultural spaces and B) artistic interventions in non-conventional contexts. After a transnational capacity building programme, the 24 selected beneficiaries have had the opportunity to test the skills acquired, experimenting with new business models and new artistic interventions aimed at public or private organisations.
Given this context, the project idea for TestArt stems from the necessity to give a follow-up to TrainArt, which represents a successful first step towards an actual international cooperation, focusing on capacity building for and best practices exchange between artists and cultural operators. In fact, TrainArt activities led to mutually-contaminated mindsets that allowed an upgrade to the resulting pilot actions implemented locally.
Now that the partners know each other and had the chance to influence one another transnationally, our aim is to create a favourable condition for them to actually work and co-create together.
