2017-project of the week - Aarhus Produktionsskole and La Fura dels Baus

Together with legendary Spanish theatre group La Fura dels Baus, students from Aarhus Produktionsskole (Aarhus School of Production) recently had the experience of a lifetime. Two weeks of demanding and educational theatrical process culminated with the show 'Mi Memoria' on Saturday, January 24 in The Raw Hall at Godsbanen. The school’s collaboration with La Fura dels Baus and the two-week workshop were the first steps in a three-year process towards 2017.

Under the headline 'Work in Progress' Aarhus Produktionsskole created the performance 'MI MEMORIA'. The show played one time on Saturday 24. January, and all 300 tickets were sold out in advance.

A total of 20 young people from the school's various workshops volunteered to be part of the Performance Group where they worked concentrated and carefully together with the two instructors Pep Gatell and Nadala Fernandez of the Spanish theatre group La Fura dels Baus.

Meanwhile, the rest of the school's students and teachers were working hard in a creative collaboration to create innovative framework and tangible productions around the workshop. Students were deeply involved in the construction and production of everything that went on in connection with the performance. The different fields of study were working together to make sure that the project was successful. But in reality it is not the final result that is the most important. The process, and what it gives the young people and the schoolteachers, was: both now and up until 2017. As the school’s vice principal Lis Holm explained to Århus Stiftstidende on 8. January:

"Next year we have planned a collaboration with Sisters Academy from Funen, and in 2017 we show everything we have learned. We have two objectives of the project; one is to give the students a sense of what we can accomplish, when we do it together. Next, it should also develop the work competencies of the school’s teachers," said Lis Holm to Århus Stiftstidende.

Read the original article (in Danish).

From a group to a team
The show was only performed once, because it is not the important part – the process was. The participating young people need to take something with them, which is useful to them as people and individuals, not only in connection to theatre or in other arts. But it is not only Aarhus Produktionsskole who learned something from the process:

"It is quite exceptional that we say yes to something like this. Here, you work with a variety of disciplines in a combined school. We talked about this; if we were to create a school, then we would make one like this. This is something that enriches us both [...] I care about the whole process. How the group changes from people who three days ago did not know each other, to on the fourth day people who are giving hugs to each other. We have created a team rather than a group," said Pep Gatell, director and artistic leader of La Fura dels Baus, to Århus Stiftstidende on January 8.

Read the original article (in Danish).

The young as co-creators and active cultural citizens
The goal of the project is to give young people an experience of a lifetime – together. To show them everything they can do – when they work together. The young participants need to be co-creators of culture and be heard and be taken seriously as active citizens in the cultural Aarhus. 

"We want the project to excite both the young and the people who are around them, just as the wish is to involve their networks, so they also want to and have the courage to take part in the cultural life that takes place in the Capital of Culture 2017 already in 2015. Meanwhile, we as teachers are getting inspired and better at thinking creative in our work with young people," says Lis Holm.

Facts:
• The overall theme of 'Mi Memoria' is memories. It is Pep Gatell, artistic leader of La Fura dels Baus, who has chosen the theme, but it is the young people's own memories and ideas that have been the foundation.
• The show lasted about 45 minutes and offered a moving audience in a universe of sound, light and moving images.
• Programme Officer Pia Buchardt represented Aarhus 2017 at the opening and gave a speech before the performance.
• In creating the project, Aarhus Produktionsskole collaborates with Aarhus 2017, and this project is the first of three projects that the school will make in connection with the Capital of Culture year in 2017.
• La Fura dels Baus is known for their unique theatrical language and their ability to work with young people. They have previously created, among other things, the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992, worked with Indian tribes in Mexican Acapulco and made Chinese opera with young and old in Shanghai.
• Aarhus Produktionsskole is moving the current location at Katrinebjerg down to Godsbanen and is hoping to have a new school ready in 2017. They have therefore already started collaborating with various actors at Godsbanen, because they want to help creating a creative youth environment there.


The students' roles in the process
• The students at Metal, Wood & Sewing were responsible for building and installations in The Raw Hall at Godsbanen.
• Potemkin Film and Photo students have documented the whole process, just as they have made several visual installations in The Raw Hall.
• The students at Graphic have been responsible for PR and Marketing.
• The music students have been active in producing the sound universe in The Raw Hall.
• All art students are participating in the performance, while F16 students are spread among the various workshops and workgroups, so everyone has been able to benefit from their creative and aesthetic skills.
• Throughout the process, the Kitchen-students played an important role in the production of food for all participants and visitors.
• Front desk students have been responsible for the major task of transport and coordination.
• The students from Receiving Class have partly been part of the workshop itself, and part of practical training at the workshops they usually attend.