Being made out of water means belonging somewhere. By drinking a glass of tap water, we are not only connected to the network of sewers that run through Budapest, but also to the thousands of square kilometres of the Danube catchment area – with all its history and inhabitants. We share the next sip with 81 million people and billions of non-human neighbours, the journey of water that nourishes our cells is just a stop in a cycle that crosses geographic boundaries, national borders, landscapes and states of matter.
But the role of the bodies of water that surround us goes beyond biology, they seep into our culture, our songs, our celebrations, they infuse our image of community, they permeate our rituals. What happens when we become aware of this belonging? What can we learn from rivers and from discovering our own water-ness?
Water takes us further with a riverside walk with a focus on the Danube: living along a river is a theme that addresses many issues, whether it is the urban environment and access to natural spaces, regulations, floods and droughts, or water purity.
In our collaborative art process with senior ladies, we explore the themes offered by the Danube, exploring the qualities and situations we share with the river. Together, we put what we have learned and our curiosity into synchronic forms.
Femini (Napsugár Trömböczky and Eszter Dobos):
Graduated in 2020 at the University of Theatre and Film Arts as drama instructors, they already explored the possibilities of collaborative creation and score-based participatory performances in their theses. During their university years they became creative collaborators, their first joint performance was the Staféta award-winning Social Karaoke. In their applied theatre projects they explore new forms of participation, socially engaged arts and non-hierarchical methods of creation. By engaging ‘non-professional’ and underrepresented co-creators, they aim not only to create opportunities for self-reflection and self-expression, but also believe that democratising art brings valuable (perhaps necessary) new aesthetics and perspectives to the contemporary art canon.
The working method and practice of Stories carried by old waters was developed during a residency at the Divadlo na Cucky theatre in the Czech Republic last August. The presentation, created with local participants, was presented on the banks of the Morava river, as a conclusion to the research process. The landscape-specific performance for PLACCC 2024 is a (ancestral) presentation of community theatre adapted to the local context and transformed with participants.
Concept and creation: Femini (Eszter Dobos, Napsugár Trömböczky)
Participants / performers: Magdolna Gáspár, Anikó Magyar, Erika Ster, Magdi Szabad, Tünde Török
Collaborators / contributors:
Lau Tóth – music
Kinga Szemessy – aquasoma workshop
Róbert Szűcs (Grasshopper Geography) – consultant
Lilla Kammermann (Valyo) – consultant
Dates and times: 5.30 PM on 20th September 2024
Meeting point: at Pavilon Bar, 1093 Budapest, Nehru part
Duration: 90 minutes
Language: Hungarian
Ticketed program.
Ticket prices:
Full price ticket: HUF 2.900
Student- pensioner ticket: 1.500 Ft
Supporter ticket: 5.000 Ft
Ticket purchase: HERE