Register for UTLYSNING: KOREOGRAFISKA ARKITEKTURER / ARKITEKTONISKA KOREOGRAFIER

The Rural Movement’s residency Choreographic Architecture / Architectural Choreographies is open to anyone who is a choreographer, dancer, architect, landscape architect or has other skills within urban planning. You will be connected with people from other disciplines for an intense, artistic ‘blind date’ that lasts for twelve days.

Concept
Together you will explore the potential of movement in the rural landscape. The purpose is to provide a space for a meeting between place, choreography and architecture in an immediate and group-based artistic process that can create new ways of thinking, methods and collaborations.

The process is built around a program of activities, lectures, workshops and conversations, where researchers and artists share relevant knowledge and practices. Based on these meetings and experiences (in combination with your own interests, areas of expertise and curiosity) you then jointly bring structures, ideas or events to life. The project is about creating or encouraging movement – physical, social and/or fictional. 

Unexplored meetings
Dance as an artform has been connected with architecture since the 1960s thanks to, among others, the choreographer Anna Halprins and architect Lawrence Halprin’s crossborder work. Still, the meeting between the two disciplines is relatively unexplored.

How can the movements of the landscape be shaped and made tangible? What happens to the methods of the architect and the choreographer when they meet? What new perspectives and knowledge can we discover? What alternative uses for spaces can we reveal in the fusion between architecture and choreography? What could a space created for movement look like?

Meet the site 
The last weekend of the residency coincides with the Rural Development in Emtervik's annual plant market, which many people visit to buy cuttings and seeds. Through unexpected meetings and public interactions, this becomes a chance to test your work on a 1:1 scale.

The residency will be documented, and the experiences compiled in a publication.

About Östra Ämtervik
Östra Ämtervik, located in Sunne municipality in Värmland, is an agricultural and forestry community with some 800 inhabitants. The flat landscape was previously a bay of the Fryken lake. As the ice sheets retreated and the land rose, the bay was transformed into marshland. This beautiful place has a rich cultural life, being the home of the author Selma Lagerlöf's Mårbacka and the contemporary art museum Alma Löv Museum of Unexpected Art, which also runs Residens Gunnerud – a meeting place for locals and cultural practitioners.

Despite the fact the local population has decreased in recent decades, Östra Ämtervik can still rightly be described as a living countryside. The country store in the church village of Prästbol was reopened in 2021. In the same village, at the mouth of the river Ämtan, which meanders between the fields and meadows past Mårbacka before it mixes with Fryken's waters, you’ll find the community house Sjösala. The building has, since the 1940s, been a popular gathering place in the area, with dance nights, revues and concerts. Sjösala has a small stage, a large hall with beautiful wooden floors and a café.

About Rural Movements
Rural movements – choreography and dance as a political force and movement – is a three-year regional dance residency that was formed and is being developed in Värmland between 2021-2023. It is also a platform where the rural countryside and choreography can meet for productions and public events that take place in Östra Ämtervik and the surrounding area. The initiative aims to strengthen the ongoing development of dance and support existing and new spaces for public meetings in rural areas. It is a collaboration between Riksteatern, Region Värmland, Riksteatern Värmland, Kultur på landsbygd and Alma Löv Museum of Unexpected Art.

Who can apply for a residency place?
You can apply if you are a choreographer, dancer, architect, landscape architect or city planner, and work in Sweden or another country. You must have a relevant education or equivalent work experience. You should be interested in temporarily ‘repurposing’ something together with others as part of an artistic process.

When?
The 12-day residency takes place between 11th - 22nd May.

Practical information:
During the residency participants will work and reside at Residens Gunnerud in Östra Ämtervik. Sjösala bygdegård is the residency's main workplace and stage. Participants also have access to a mobile, modular dance floor that can be used as a stage, meeting place, seating and spatial installations. The process takes place based on current possibilities at the location and primarily aims to work with existing resources.

It is a 20-minute walk from Residens Gunnerud to Sjösala, where the country store is located. It is useful to have a driving license and access to a car during the residency for increased freedom of movement. The residency's project manager is able to pick up and drop off participants at the train station at the beginning and end of the program.

The residency includes:

• A fee of SEK 17,000 + VAT (F-tax is a requirement)
• Accommodation at Gunnerudsgården
• Workspaces and places for public meetings
• Seminars, workshops, talks and meetings with researchers, artists, local businesses and figures
• Hosting and on-site project management 

What to include in your application:

• Your CV
• A description of why you are interested in working with this concept (max 1 A4 page)
• A brief description of your artistic or architectural background
• Feel free to attach video or links from previous or ongoing work

Applications must be received by Rural Movements no later than 15th February 2022. Participants will be chosen no later than March 1st, 2022. All decisions will be made by a selection group consisting of representatives of the cooperation project and the surrounding area.

Download the open call as a PDF. 

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT
ANNA ASPLIND: anna.asplind@ruralmovements.se