WEAVING VOICES as threads of communities

Collaborative research project (2022-2024)

During the workshop weeks at Roy Hart Centre and Bureau Postjesweg Amsterdam 2022/23

What is the project about?

Weaving Voices as Threads of Communities is an Erasmus+ project, in which seven organisations in Germany, France, Hungary, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands jointly explore their participatory practices and share their research and practice with people who have less access to culture and art throughout Europe. Their practices range from: voice work, weaving, movement, writing, community art and environmental work. This project will run over a period of two and a half years (2022-2024)

Who are involved?

TuYo Foundation from Netherlands, represented by artists Rosa Smits and Nina van Hartskamp
Centre Artistique International Roy Hart from France
Colaborative Reichenow e.V. from Germany
Leeds Beckett University – Performing Arts from UK
Sinum Theatre Laboratory Association from Hungary
Soharóza Nonprofit Association from Hungary
Solsidans Kulturförening – Studio Folkhemmet I Unnaryd from Sweden

Weaving Voices group statement

Together we will investigate how participatory art practices can contribute to meaningful exchanges between residents and artists in remote and/or economically weaker areas in Europe. The aim of this project is to involve others, who have little or no access to art and culture to different European (art) practices, through workshops and the creation of joint art works. We believe that when people connect through bodily and material practices, in this case; voice, weaving, movement, writing and environmental work; people can meet, see and hear each other in new and extraordinary ways. When safer spaces are created, trust can be built beyond languages.

The result of this research will be exhibited in the participating countries in 2024 and will be included in an extensive publication.

First year (2022-2023)

During the first stage of the project (2022-2023) the international partners share their expertise with each other: Their practices, methodologies and approaches and search for connections across the fields of research, which are often experimental and emergent in nature. Practices and lineages explored on this project include: the vocal heritage of Roy Hart Theatre; weaving as a means of connecting; the traditions of the Swedish herding call (kulning); Georgian polyphonic singing; Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement, creative writing, Vision Quest and perceptual practice.

Second year (2023-2024)

These activities and the collaborative research are then opened up to interactions and knowledge exchange with geographically marginalised local communities in a range of workshop, walks and exhibition settings, in the second phase of the project (2024). You can find us in the small villages of Baranya county (Hungary), in the forests near Unnaryd (Sweden), the suburbs of Leeds (UK) and in suburban communities in Amsterdam (The Netherlands).

Photo’s by Olga Ganzha (and others), during the workshop week in Amsterdam 2023

Weaving Voices in Amsterdam, April 2023

From 19th till the 26th of April 2023 Rosa Smits and I hosted a workshop week for our partners at Bureau Postjesweg, Amsterdam. We explored our togetherness through weaving, singing, dyeing, mending, collecting and writing. With contributions by the Feministische Handwerk Partij, Liza Pins, Michał Jurys (Pear Paper), Matilde van Beekhuizen, Abi Patat and Chaimae (Memoirs of a Moroccan). ‘’When many hands are involved the meaning of objects and space elevate, as they become ingrained with a multitude of stories interconnecting.’’

The workshop week took place within a research residency at Bureau Postjesweg; WEAVING VOICES Slotervaart in Transitie. A daughter project in which Rosa Smits and I interacted and reflected with the neighbourhood of Slotervaart on the spacial transitions (gentrification) that are taking place in this area. How do old and new local residents experience these transitions and what do they need to feel at home together? Curious about this project? Click here.

Filmed by Olga Ganzha during the workshop week in Amsterdam 2023

Weaving Voices is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.