César Augusto from Tempo Festival das Artes visit to the Netherlands

Saskia Schoolland tell us about  the visit of César Augusto from Tempo Festival das Artes

Last year César Augusto and Marcia Dias of the Tempo Festival das Artes from Rio de Janeiro visited the Netherlands, thanks to the curatorial team of the Central de Cultura programme .

It all started a year before, when César participated in the Brazil Today debate organized by SICA and the Central de Cultura team. There, Cesar met several theatre makers and from them he invited Ria Marks to do workshops in Rio within his festival. This was supported by the Central de Cultura program and Fund for Performing Art.

For a couple of weeks Ria Marks worked with local artists, and created a small production. The artists and Ria were really excited about this co creational process and the Tempo team had become really interested in this method. They wanted to see more!

The Central de Cultura team discussed the possibility of a Dutch focus with the next edition of the Tempo Festival das Artes in partnership with the Dutch Theatre Institute. During the visits of César and Ria (partly hosted by the Dutch theatre Institute) they met several theatre and dance artists. And they did their homework: around 20 companies and artists have sent DVD’s, links or materials in dropboxes for them.

After this research, in march,  César Augusto came back and spoke with the preselected companies, saw shows, and got a better idea of what they wanted. And it was much more than we could organize!

 In the end they had to make a – difficult – selection, but with a great line-up of Dutch performing arts. Amongst the artists that will perform between October 5-9 are Emio Greco|PC, Wunderbaum, Ria Marks’ direction at Orkater, the Sadists and Dries Verhoeven. Also, two introductions to Dutch theatre and dance will be held. But more important, the Dutch artists will also collaborate and discuss with Brazilian (local) artists, and future plans may be created, also for those companies and theatre/dance artists that have not been selected this time!