NEWCOMERS – THE FIRST MASTER SCENOGRAPHERS OF SCANDINAVIA

«Since January 2015 Norwegian Theatre Academy of the University College Østfold from way down south in Fredrikstad has become the temporary home for a truly international group of masters of art students. Alejandra Mendez from Costa Rica, Hazel Barstow from Norway, Jan Hejdelak Hustak from the Czech Republic, Maret Tamme from Estonia and Marie de Testa from Mexico with their vastly differing backgrounds in the visual arts, media and archi- tecture are on their way to become the first master scenographers of Scandinavia.

For the two weeks of METEOR their artistic works will become actions, satellites, interven- tions and add-on performances to the main program of contemporary theatre and perfor- mance art. Seriously testing the grounds of the projects in the frame of the festival will give their work the necessary forum, exposure and hopefully feedback required to develop it further during the second year of studies. With a focus on the visual and aspects of art, the five installations, performances and interventions are developed for the specific site of USF Verftet while growing out of the individual students interest for a certain topic - be it natures greenery framed inside the gallery, furious sounds by William Faulkner staged in the outside cafe zone, the unforseeable and mediated threshold of inaction to action, the subtlety of the changing light of the window spaces irritating our perception, or the very real doubling, mirroring and multiplication of a figure.

The five works can be found dispersed through the public space surrounding Verftet, the boardwalk along the seaside, as well as in the gallery space of USF Verftet. Watch out for scheduled performances in the dark, grass that is never greener on the other side and hid- den calls to action. Thank you Meteor 2015 for welcoming and trusting us.

Karen Kipphoff

Norwegian Theatre Academy /University College Østfold

Marie de Testa: day to night

A light installation, at sunset.
Marie de Testa is an architect and visual artist.

Ale Mendez: the smallest detectable sensation
Nature becomes a space to rest and to take a break, as well as a distraction from the envi- ronment. It is used as a construction of the image of a city or town. Nature becomes a tool to distract from social problems, to a point where it acts like a curtain between what is ap- pealing and what a city prefers to hide.

Jan Hustak: All Cats Are Beautiful
This is safe space. This is gallery. You are allowed to do it. So just do it.
A.C.A.B. stands for All Cops Are Bastards, but many anarchists refers to it as All Cats Are Beautiful. This project is about police brutality, about radical demonstrants (Black Bloc), about creative power of destruction, about action and reaction, about being blind and not seeing, about need to DO something in order to SEE something. Do you want to see or you want to stay blind?

Hazel Barstow: Nownow
We moved our heads to the side and it wasn’t each at a time, but it was kind of at once. A singular decision for a multiple choice. We felt the hairs gently lift and sway on our arms, but they didn’t grow from our skins. We are six and two and two.
Hazel Barstow is a visual artist with her background in Fine Arts. She works with distortion and transformation making mirrored versions of the everyday - altering situations, objects and humans in order to highlight them. Hazel is currently undertaking an MA in Scenography at the Norwegian Theatre Academy.
Nownow is an outdoor performance that is shown on Sunday 18 October at 18.45 and on 19 October as a part of PrøveRommet. With contributions from Kaja Mærk Egeberg og Karoline Clasen Holland.

Maret Tamme: The Fence

“He wont hurt you. I pass here every day. He just runs along the fence.”
William Faulkner, The Sound and The Fury
Maret Tamme is a visual artist and scenographer from Estonia. She is currently doing her MA studies in scenography at Norwegian Theatre Academy. Performance with Rasmus Jensen in the fence on Monday 18 October at 17:00 in front of USF.»

Source:

Meteor Festival program, 2015