I am in Torino for Magfest! When I left Munich on Thursday morning, the first winter snow was falling - but in Torino it was a beautiful sunny day. I was met at the airport by Valentina and Christina Kyriazidi, who had just arrived from Berlin, then we had lunch with Gabriella and her parents. Gabriella and Valentina have put the festival together on almost nothing (in New Zealand we'd say "on the smell of an oily rag") and focussed on performances - 17 performances over two days and one evening - mostly by "younger" women.
We all know how difficult funding is to get, and that in the "current economic climate" it is getting harder and harder. But there are funds out there, and perhaps if we join forces and apply together we may be able to access something. As an international network, the Magdalena Project is significant and fairly unique, and our work connects into many funding organisations' priorities. We just have to find the right fund to approach and give them a good pitch.
Once the Magdalena Norway group gets up and running, this will be a place for group members to post blogs about Magdalena Norway's activities. In the meantime, this is here as a placeholder, to show you that it can be done!
Magdalena festivals are wonderful comming-together times, when women from all over the world converge for a short, intense period of performances, workshops, presentations, conversations and meals. There are reunions after many years, new encounters, and the pleasurable translation of knowing-by-email into physical meetings. But for every participant at a Magdalena festival, there are many more within the network who are not at the festival.
In June, I went rather spontaneously to the Prague Quadrennial; i knew quite a few people who would be there, & when Suzon offered a free bed where she was staying, I decided to go. I'd never been to Prague before & the festival seemed like it would be a good time to discover it - and it was.
The theme of this year's Transit is peripheries - of all kinds, geographic, artistic, cultural, etc. in my presentation i talked about my own peripherical work, on the edge of theatre & also on the edge of digital art. i also talked about peripherals - things you attach to your computer to expand its capabilities such as a printer, web cam, external hard-drive, etc. periphical things have important roles to play in relationship to the centre(s) as well as to each other.
packed festival days continue! after giving my own presentation yesterday, as well as helping with projection for gabi's show earlier in the day & eva's show the night before, i'm having a quiet day today to upload & offload rather than try to take more in.
I am in Holstebro, Denmark at Odin Teatret for the 6th Transit International Festival of Women's Performance. Organised by Julia Varley approximately every 3 years since 1992, the Transit Festival is a highlight of the Magdalena calendar. It's a great coming-together of women theatre makers from all over the world, for an intense period of workshops, work-in-progress showings, discussions, performances and of course a lot of great conversations over good food & drink :)
