Call for applications - Scenography workshop SpaceLab: LIGHTHOUSE

SpaceLab: LIGHTHOUSE
Scenography workshop for arts students 
December 3 to 6, 2013 (arrival in Fredrikstad December 2, 2013)
Homlungen Fyr, nearby Fredrikstad, Norway
Registration deadline: October 10, 2013

Organized by Norwegian Theatre Academy/Østfold University College and Prague Quadrennial as a part of SharedSpace: Music Weather Politics project, the workshop provides a unique opportunity to think and practice scenography at the most unusual setting. A total of 16 selected students together with 3 teachers will explore the spatial narrative potential and inquire inherent scenographical quality of this specific site while spending 4 days at the Homlungen island lighthouse, characterized by true Nordic climate. Held in the frame of SharedSpace project, this event belongs to the SpaceLab – an essential educational platform designed to deepen the knowledge and practice of scenography beyond usual school curriculum and to create the meeting point for students with top professionals. The head tutor of the SpaceLab: Lighthouse will be Prof. Serge von Arx (Norwegian Theatre Academy/Østfold University College).
The genius loci of a lighthouse incorporates the encounter of nature in its rawest state and the most functional human striving. Most lighthouses are located at the perimeter of human settlement, where the sea in its constant movement hits solid land. Men have built structures to facilitate trade and expand knowledge at exactly those remote places which can be spotted from the oceans. Those lacking maps and the understanding of the complexity of the lighthouse are doomed to run aground. It is the combination of centralized political or strategic power, the financial strength and engineering knowledge which shape the background for the existence of lighthouses that mark the edge of human presence in a site specific way. The solitude of the lighthouse and those who have worked there in analogue times represent the strongholds of narrative silence.

What to expect? 
Good will be fundamental to the workshop and the participants will have to engage in finding, collecting, fishing and preparing the food under the guidance of an archeologist and experimental cook Kjartan Fønstelien. Food is understood as an essential component of site-specificity and its preparation as an access to the respective culture’s vernacular. 
Accommodation in the lighthouse and its adjacent building will be modest. Drinking water will be available but hot water is limited. 
Weather will most likely show off its uncontrollable side: participants may experience harsh weather conditions during the stay on the lighthouse, which includes the small risk that they may not be able to take the boat back to the mainland in time on the last day, resulting in a delay of the departure. This is to be considered as a quality of the workshop not as a drawback.

How to apply:   
- All participants should be enrolled in a theatre, performance, architecture, visual arts, film, music or other art department.
- Both BA and MA students can apply. The age is limited between 20 -30 years of age.   
- All participants should consider that the workshop will take place in the winter in the harsh Nordic climate and accommodation will be modest.  
- All selected students have to organize and pay for their transportation to Fredrikstad (2 hours south from Oslo main airport). This will be the only cost associated with this SharedSpace workshop (no registration fee is required).
- The workshop will be conducted in English language.

If you would like to participate in the workshop please send your CV and motivation letter to by October 10, 2013. All applicants will be informed about the result by November 2, 2013. 
For further questions please contact SpaceLab coordinator Michaela Stránská at:  Lighthouse Workshop is a part of the SharedSpace project in cooperation with the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space.
Music, Weather, Politics is the central thematic framework of the international scenography research and artistic project SharedSpace: Music Weather Politics, aiming to establish a platform for exploration, redefining and creating performative environments. Organized by the Prague Quadrennial and 13 European institutions, SharedSpace is open for all scenographers, theatre-makers, architects, theorists, art professionals, students and wide public. Symposia, exhibitions and educational modules will be held in 11 European countries intensively from 2013 to 2016. 
www.sharedspace.cz

SharedSpace is organized by the Prague Quadrennial in cooperation with:  Finnish National Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiasma Theatre; New Theatre Institute of Latvia; Santarcangelo dei Teatri; Victoria and Albert Museum; Theatre Faculty Utrecht School of the Arts; Academy of Performing Arts in Prague; The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama; Centre for Creative Actions IMPACT Macedonia; Center for Polish Scenography, Silesian Museum; Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute; University College of Østfold, Norwegian Theater Academy; The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia; School of Visual Theatre Jerusalem. 

With the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union.