To-gather: (Re)Shape

“(Re)Shape” is a project that aims to develop the values of cross-continental artistic collaboration, hybrid formats for analogue-digital co-creation, new modalities of presenting and touring artistic work and the sharing of resources.

Organised and hosted in cooperation by international partners Work it Out (Switzerland/Germany), Fundación Mar Adentro (Chile), Wixutta Knowledge Center (Mozambique), The Art Corner of Tehran (Iran) and cheLA (Argentine), “(Re)Shape” expands possibilities of sharing resources, encountering beyond physical mobility, creativity as collaborative power, radical empathy as a going beyond one’s own mental and physical hemisphere.

“(Re)Shape” takes the form of a virtual creation residency that provides 10 artists the possibility for a virtual dialogue and collaboration with another artist from a different artistic discipline and geographical context. The artists are paired by the cooperating partners based on their project proposal and motivation. The format investigates the nature of virtual collaboration and the expansion of physical space into the virtual realm and vice versa. The virtual context also opens up the possibility or collaborations that would be unlikely to find a shared physical working ground. As such, the virtual-analogue context that the artists inhabit individually and together is the medium of creation, the channel for connection and the place to overcoming their own isolated bubble. It becomes a place for experimentation, of engaging with someone far away and unknown, and of letting their artistic practice merge into a shared project proposal.

For the collaborating partners, who function as hosts, organisers, networkers, presenters and mentors, the project provides a means to exchange visions and ideas on sustainable and inclusive ways to work.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Eliana N’Zualo is a Mozambican storyteller based in Maputo. Through her work she explores the themes of feminism, Africa and literature/arts, as well as history and politics. In 2019 she launched her first book, titled O Elefante Tendai E Os Primos Hipopótamos [Tendai the Elephant and the Hippopotamus Cousins], and has been featured in anthologies in Brazil and South Africa. She has also been exploring audiovisual mediums with works such as Margens [Margins] (2019) and Cartas de Amor para Meninas Mal Comportadas [Love Letters For Bad Behaved Girls] (2021). Eliana is also a feminist and a cat-lover deeply in love with words: how words stretch and break, at times betray us, sometimes run from us, how words are such a big part of us, kind of like cats.

Gökçe Uygun is an Istanbul-based composer, performer, sound designer and one of the co-founders of It’s Us: Ophelia, an international artist-led collective, as well as a member of NOD, a multidisciplinary art collective. Her educational background has come from classical and jazz music on piano and composition theoretically since 2000. Since 2018, her work has focused on the body, sound, space and movement relations searching for sound dramaturgy on live performance, trans-medial performance/composition and new mediums of storytelling. She is currently producing works with theatre communities, laboratories, and exhibitions as a live performer, multimedia artist, and sound designer.

Jamuna Mirjam Zweifel uses the question, Where does the body end & the world begin? as a starting point for practices and the development of new questions. As a dancer, concept designer and movement researcher, she is interested in how we as human beings can digest and transform information. One of Jamuna’s major current concerns is to think and engage non-human actors in artistic processes in order to invent an alternative future. Collective work is a large part of her artistic practice. She is a co-founder of the cross-disciplinary collective Zookunft.Project and part of the Zurich dance performance company The Field, which is closely linked to Tanzhaus Zürich.

Juan Pablo Margenat is an artist-designer and architect born and based in Buenos Aires. He is also a professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and Universidad Nacional de Avellaneda. His architectural work has focused on the urban scale, for which he has obtained awards and collaborated in projects for public spaces for the city of Buenos Aires. As an artist-designer, he is dedicated to researching and developing devices for sound and audiovisual installations in collaborative contexts, such as his project Umbrasonicas. He has also been a part of collaborative art projects such as Pedaludico, Vinanois, Nocturama and Estrategias Murales, amongst others, and is currently working on an urban performance with bicycles in addition to his Master’s thesis on city planning and management in relation to mobility, transformation, and new urban social movements.

Oliver Roth is a performance artist, dramaturge and curator living in Zurich. His works are situated between dance, theatre, performance and literature that have been shown throughout Switzerland as well as internationally. Under the title Social Conventions, he has developed performances that stage conventional rituals, such as a funeral, a birthday party or an exorcism, with strategies of autofiction and pop culture. In 2017, he was in the final of Premio, Switzerland’s promotional prize for dance and theatre, with his piece ME TIME!. In 2019 he received the Werkstipendium from the Dance Department of the City of Zurich and in 2021 the Freiraumbeitrag from the Canton of Zurich. Since 2022, he has also been the co-director of the
laboratory department at Theater Hora.

Sebastián Mejía, born in Lima, Peru is a photographer and teacher based in Santiago de Chile. His work focuses on the peripheral and unremarkable scenes that go unnoticed in the modern metropolis. He earned his bachelor’s degree in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York and his Master’s degree from Finis Terrae University in Santiago, Chile. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in Chile and abroad including Nous les Arbres at the Fondation Cartier (2019) in Paris, Urban Impulses at the Photographers Gallery in London (2019) and Quasi Oasis at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago (2013), amongst others.

Tatiana Cuoco is an image and sound designer as well as producer of audiovisual, performative and interactive pieces with electronic media. They are also currently a professor of audiovisual projects, photography, expressive media and design of futures in the University of Buenos Aires. Currently, they are developing their thesis “Cyborg Social Networks” for the Master’s Degree in Interactive Design of the same university. They believe deeply in the potential of hacking tech and life to create alternative hybrid futures based on our collective desires. Tatiana also enjoys sharing audiovisual workshops and experiences that mix gender studies with new media. Recently, led by their curiosity on systems, flows, myths, social networks and collective fictions, they began studying to become a full stack developer.

Lizette Chirrime is a self-taught artist based in Inhambane Tofo, Mozambqie. She has always enjoyed creating artwork using paint and sewing. In 2004, she participated in her first solo exhibition in Mozambique, and in 2005, she accepted a residency at Greatmore Studios in Cape Town. Her work considers the creation of large-scale textile-driven canvases that portray abstract forms rendered in a collage of printed fabrics from Tshwe-tshwe to other so-called African dress prints.

Pantea Shayesteh, born in Tehran, Iran and based in Cyprus, Turkey, is a performance artist with a BSC in psychology and an advanced diploma in animation and filmmaking. She has had many solo and group performances, among which are her first solo performance in 2018, at the International Festival in Tehran, Iran with her work titled Willow Tree that I know. Later that year she participated as part of Marina Abramovic’s performance team at the Bangkok Art Biennial. She has also performed in the Antwerp Art Pavilion with her piece Where Are You From, and has also participated in BOZAR in Brussels, and SPAMI Residency in Italy. Her latest
collaboration was in an online format with a group of international performers called Endlessly Performing Artists.

Claudia González Godoy is an independent media artist and manager of educational projects on art and technology. Since 2006, she has developed work on the notion of materiality in analogue and digital technological supports in the form of sound installations, electronics and engraving to reflect technological developments and materialities and their effects on our natural and artificial environment. She has participated in various festivals and biennials, among which she has hosted countless workshops and talks on Art, Open Hardware, electronic experimentation and DIY Culture. She is currently co-director of the Project Laboratorio de Arte y Tecnología Chimbalab (2008-2012) and a professor at the Faculty of Arts of Universidad de Chile.

ABOUT THE PARTNERS

Work it Out is an independent platform dedicated to sharing resources and knowledge in the performing arts. Its hybrid – digital and analogue – formats create space for intercontinental and interdisciplinary artistic exchange, sharing of resources and co-creativity. As such, Work it Out enables collaboration and exchange by means of encountering, (un-)learning, sharing, gathering and listening.

Tanzhaus Zürich was founded in 1996 and is located on the banks of the Limmat river. As a welcoming institution for dance, choreography and performance, Tanzhaus partners to support the realisation of artistic initiatives, co-produce projects, invite residencies and offers individual support in the area of production and artistic creation processes.

Wixutta Knowledge Center is located in Macuti Town on Mozambique Island. Wixutta is a research and training centre for different artistic disciplines. Since 2022, the centre provides weekly workshops in theatre, music and dance for children and teenagers as well as interested adults.

cheLA (Centro Hipermediático Experimental Latinoamericano) in Buenos Aires, Argentina is a research centre dedicated to experimentation with converging forms of art and technology and exploring the potential impact on Latin American cultures (i.e., culture, technology and community). The Center began in 2003 as a collaboration between Fundación exACTa of Argentina, the UCLA Program on Digital Cultures, and the UCLA Center for Research in Engineering, Media and Performance (UCLA REMAP).

The Art Corner of Tehran (ACT) is an online platform dedicated to showcasing the work of Iranian artists. It aims to create a space to showcase artistic practices and enhance international collaborations for these artists. In the face of a biased cultural context in the contemporary art world that renders Iranian artists largely invisible, the ACT is committed to challenging these structures.

Fundación Mar Adentro is a non-profit organisation founded in 2011 in Santiago, Chile dedicated to creating collaborative experiences between art and science to develop knowledge, awareness and action for nature. The multidisciplinary team works together with a network of collaborators within three areas of work: Conservation; Creation/Research; and Experiential Learning Dissemination. The research and reflections generated through the programme inspires art exhibitions, publications, educational material and audiovisual pieces, which contribute to instigating change with respect to the value that is currently placed upon natural and cultural heritage, as well as foster multidisciplinary dialogues that reveal the importance of environmental literacy and art education for the construction of collaborative social responsibility with the environment.