Page 139 - PIP

»Insights« are very simple and powerful, they are tours given by each artist through his*her artistic universe several times during one edition. Every artist is granted a free interpretation of this task. During an »insight« we all meet and are again and again introduced to what someone else is doing, what s*he is driven and motivated by, looking for and anxious about. Through these »insights« we delve deeper into what is already there and what each of us brings in anyway.
Some time at the beginning of 2019, a very strong moment occurred between the four of us: we suddenly started to speak of growth and of “letting it emerge”; most likely this revelation came to us as a reaction to the 3AM series that overwhelmingly exploded in size (both in terms of audience and of artists wanting to participate). But as much as it probably was a reaction, it somehow became something in itself, a guideline that gave us direction without being a “program”.
In contrast to other groups I am or was part of, we do not try to categorise, align or brand Flutgraben Performances. We don’t long for a profile, a program or principles. From the beginning, we did not know if we could work together, and it certainly takes time and constant attention to figure out how much and how little is needed for us in order to be able to open up to ourselves and those who we invite.
With Flutgraben Performances, the idea and practice of staying in an in-between, of trusting in what is already there instead of projecting into the future and continuously getting to know each other expands like concentric circles: it grows from the in-between the four of us into the larger group that we build together with the invited artists, and it finally also affects the way we address the public.
Especially the current edition in 2020, which had to be changed and was challenged by the Covid pandemic, has started to make the in-between - a space of constantly new encounters - visible and accessible to the audience. Intimate settings and limited numbers of guests bring the way we work from the inside and the way we open up to the outside closer together.
It is, perhaps, a space in between public and private that we are creating together.
139