SHROUD

LISTEN TO CONNECTED PODCAST

• ART HOLDING SPACE FOR TABOOS - Art has an extraordinary capability to unfold and hold space for taboos. What happens with the art and with the taboos in society when this happens? Do we even have taboos today? We invited two Danish companies that are working with taboos in the work that is presented at CPH STAGE's International Days. And an intercultural collaboration between a Danish company and a Greenlandic company - facing the taboos in the colonial history. Starring: Andreas Constantinou (SHROUD), Louise Beck (LOL - Laughing Out Lonely), Hanne Trap Friis (Freeze Productions), Naleraq Eugenius (OUR STORIES / OQALUTTUAATIGUT), curator Anna Teuwen and artistic director Aniko Racz.

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THE CONTEXT

Over the recent years death and grief have impacted the world in an unprecedented manner and loss has become a scary reality for many. Covid19 has swept through the world like an invading wave leaving many in great loss and grief. Wars began and continue. The world watches as families lose their homes, lives and loved ones. How are do we deal with our losses? How are we prepared for death when it comes our way? How do we socially hold space for grief? Why do we shroud death and grief in our society? Can art contribute to these difficult themes and open up space for reflection, communication and even healing? Death, grief and loss is a taboo in our societies. It is something we often actively avoid. We know that we and those we love will die one day and this thought can seem so daunting that we conceal it away. But it is important to share stories of death, grief and loss because it nurtures empathy, healing, and understanding. Doing so opens the door for community, connection and empowerment. Shroud open’s the curtains and pulls back the veil. It aims to cut through the taboos of talking about death, grief and loss to create understanding, reflection and human empathy.

THE COMPANY

HIMHERANDIT are an award winning performance company led by the artistic vision of Andreas Constantinou and are one of the leading Queer Art Companies in Denmark.

HIMHERANDIT'S artistry fluctuates between genres of performance art, physical theater, immersive theater, dance and large-scale video installations. The company develops projects that push, provoke, and engage audience into discourse around often difficult to approach social subjects.

Over the course of the last ten years the company has supported the development of queer art in Denmark with professional productions, community engagement projects, The GENDER HOUSE Queer Art Festivals and most recently the opening of Q&A Studios - Queer Art Studios Aarhus, which is both home to the company and a residency center that supports local, national and international queer art makers.

INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY

Shroud is currently in production and will be created over a year in different time blocks between October 2023-October 2024. The performance is co-produced by Bora Bora – dans og visuelt teater and supported with a research period at K-Selekt. We will be inviting international programmers and relevant organisations to experience the creation of the work throughout the year while the work is still being developed. This will include inviting people to our period at K-Select in November 2023, our first production period at Bora Bora in January 2024, to the pitch at Cph Stage in 2024 and then finally to the premier of the work in October 2024. Our goal and aim for strategy is to over time build long lasting relationships with a few international partners who believe in the themes of the work, see the relevance for their local communities (audience) and strive to partner with us in the development and presentation of the work. Our international strategy is led by Sigrid Aakvik

CONTACT PERSON

SIGRID AAKVIK

FORMAT AND SUSTAINABILITY

As a company we work with sustainability through deep touring and high involvement of local communities. We try to keep our air travel to a minimum and find new ways to think creatively about how we can carry out longer term projects that offer value into local communities. This means we consciously devise strategies for to engage local communities and find ways for their involvement into a process and the work. This involves everything form Locals becoming the performers to a work (reducing our cast on tour), collaborating with local artists on various elements to a new work (instead of bringing along our known collaborators) and in some models even have a structure so the performances have an outline, and a venue can buy the work, present it with an entirely local cast. We like to think of sustainability in terms of Justice, ways to empower communities, lift marginalized voices, and create on-going dialogue that has a more long term impact beyond touring.