SEAS FACEBOOK DIARY: Adam Jeanes
Odessa: 23 May
Permission was refused by the City Council to allow the use of the City Garden for Siri Hermansen's Borderline and Dritero Kasapi and Venelin Shurelov's Fantomat project this morning. Local authorities insisted on the removal of the Fantomats and Borderline from the public space of the City Garden in the centre of Odessa on the instructions of the Vice Mayor.
Intercult and SEAS in consultation with the artists themselves and after discussions with the park department, the head of culture and the head of international relations reached a compromise which required SEAS to move the projects into the main street of Odessa, Deribasovskaya, next to the square.
Odessa: 24 May
Dear Friends
Thank you to all of those who joined us at 17.00 on Deribasovskaya and took part in the spontaneous protest of moving the Fantomats against the wish of the police into the street, out of the City Garden.
For those of you not here the story is:
At 10 o 'clock the Fantomats started working and we were visited by the Department of the Parks and the Department of Aesthetics, both of which were angry that we had placed banners in the City Garden ("No Reklama!"). We explained that we are an international cultural non-commercial project invited to attend at the City's request having worked and researched in Odessa for two years. Nothing seemed to appease them. Stickers on the bins in the park were also an issue. We offered to clean them off but two ladies appeared with soap and sponges and started to do this. Eventually the head of International Relations Department appeared (such was the scandal we had caused) on a Saturday morning with a message from the Vice Mayor that everything had to be taken down and removed.
We debated and a compromise was reached. The Fantomats and the Borderline sound installation would have to move into the street nearby out of the garden. So we began to take it down. In the meantime hundreds (literally) of delighted Odessans stopped to look at the Fantomats: school children, old people, a bride on her wedding day, curious young people - pressing the buttons on the Fantomats, watching the videos and taking the leaflets. A hit!
Because of the delay the Fantomats were stars of the show all day long in their illegal home. At just before 17.00 we gathered for the vernisage of Borderline. And the Police appeared.
The Police refused to let us place the Fantomats in Deribasovskaya as we had been instructed to do by the Vice Mayor and Head of International Relations. We called him. He promised to call the vice mayor (another vice mayor) who was responsible for the area and who would call the chief of police to get the permission who would then call the Police Sergeant who was stopping us and tell him it was OK for us to move. We waited for an hour - meanwhile the "tranquil space" we had "ruined" with our sound, banners and Fantomats (still delighting everyone who found them) was enhanced by a concert of the Odessa Brass Band - and later that evening by disco versions of Classical Music played at top volume over speakers round the ornamental fountain.
We could wait no more. Each of us took one Fantomat and carried them in procession into the street past the ever growing Police presence and proceded with the vernisage of Borderline despite their objections. The Police watched and we watched the Police. No permission was given and no attempt made to stop us. About 50 people listened to Siri's Borderline before technical problems overcame it.
Then we packed up and went to the premiere performance of Dmytro Bogomazov's Sweet Dreams. Based on the ghost scene of Richard III by Shakespeare it was an intense and visually impressive short electro-acoustic opera - a serious piece of good music theatre. So many people wanted to come that they had to add an extra row of chairs in the front of the audience.
So SEAS Odessa begins with controversy but enthusiastic responses from the people of Odessa.
Odessa: 28 May
Subject: Huge Crowds
SEAS Odessa is underway
Our sentinels the Fantomats stand on the Potempkin Steps gazing out to sea, our flags and banners flutter in the trees, the Greek Square echoes to Siri Hermansen's beautiful Borderline sound piece (one Jewish, one Muslim and one Christian prayer played on three speakers) - people stop their shopping and listen in surprise. Over at the Bulgarian Cultural Centre Anne Lise Stenseth's video installation tells the story of three women from the Black Sea coast. Upstairs crowds of people wait patiently to enter Karena Johnson and Melih Gorgun's theatrical installation Underneath. Over at the Ukrainian Drama Theatre Dmytro Bogomazov's electro acoustic opera performance Sweet Dreams fascinates the audience and the world famous Odin Theatre present their Salt piece. A big audience of students and young people crowd into the City Hall to participate in CityScape. Tonight Wunderbaum will shock a Ukrainian audience with their foul mouthed British beer tourists and the SEAS club will present an extraordinary range of musical talent from Odessa. Tomorrow night Metro Boulot Dodo with amuse and confuse their audience with Night Scene - an evening of peculiar and saucy happenings and Hotel Pro Forma will present their highly acclaimed Relief...
Eugenio Barba said at our Press Conference in Kiev - "you know, in twenty years may be we will look back and say SEAS was Ukraine's Woodstock.... "
And even the Police like us now...
Varna: 4 June
Subject: Farewell Odessa - Hello Varna
The Closing Ceremony in Odessa at the colanades was gloriously chaotic celebration of music from Odessa, dance from Turkey, our best friends the Fantomats, and featured Chris Torch and Boris from Odessa's clown troupe Maski as comperes. The wind (which blew the Chamber Orchestra of Odessa's manuscript everywhere in the middle of Mozart) and the fact that the City could not turn off the spotlights on the Colonades themselves (and therefore ruined the lighting effects and the films we planned to show) did not dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd who applauded warmly as three balloons (labelled Varna-Balchik, Mangalia and Istanbul) lifted aloft a giant SEAS paper boat which sailed into the night sky and over the Black Sea, picked out by a searchlight.
A day of rest (for some of us!) that allowed people to do a little sightseeing and partying was followed by everyone struggling to get up at 4 o'clock on Monday morning to go to the airport where two charted jet planes flew the 40 artists and staff with the Fantomats in the cargo hold to Varna.
The Varna Summer Festival staff greeted everyone at the airport and whisked them away to their various hotels. Meanwhile somewhere at the Ukrainian border Claes and Ed in the SEAS van (carrying all our other worldly possessions) crept slowly through tedious bureaucracy (and some attempted corruption) to re-enter the EU.
The sun is shining in Varna. We keep meeting SEAS people in the streets, stopping everyone so often to have coffee with them. Everyone is comparing hotels. Metro Boulot Dodo seem to have the best one by common consent (sea view, pool, masseur etc). We don't talk to them any more.
Tonight Monday in the Sun was performed in the open air outside the Puppet Theatre. A strange moment occurred. As Safak and Bedirhan danced the slowest section of the piece a huge eerie flock of white seagulls started to circle overhead, crying out over the sound track, while on the video screen was a huge seagull filmed as it flew over the Bosporus. Hitchcock couldn't have written it better.
Tomorrow some technical problems have to be solved but we are here.
Varna: 5 June
Subject: Parking a Car in Paris
This morning some nervous meetings at the Mustang Cinema immediately after a rushed breakfast as Hotel Pro Forma measured and re-measured the stage to see if their screen for Relief would fit. After some scratching of heads and climbing around in the fly tower the decision was made to go ahead. Bravely done. After assembling the frame the screen was lifted by 12 Bulgarians drafted in from the local theatre by Nikolay Iordanov (director of the Varna Summer Festival, our hosts). Then it was manoeuvred delicately into position, as Ralf Strobech the Pro Forma artistic director said, "like parking a car in Paris".
Then to Signa's "house" where there are concerns about the physical structure of the building - will the floor collapse? A Structural Engineer is found who walks around for a while and then shrugs and says "It's OK". You can tell he is clearly wondering why on earth these northern Europeans want to hold an international theatre event in a wreck like this.
Both shows have postponed their openings by a day in order to get over the technical bumps.
Strange experience for me this evening - one of the Varna Summer Press people hands me the Festival Bulletin Paper in which is carefully transcribed the text of the press conference Chris and I gave yesterday. Reading in print what you have said on the spur of the moment in a meeting is always a little disturbing - print seems more permanent than the spoken word. And whenever I read transcriptions of what I have said I always think I sound like a jerk.
Tomorrow the official opening in Balchik -the mayor, speeches, ribbon cutting etc etc.
Varna: 6 June
Subject: Cherry Season in Varna
This morning we heard that Borderline - the three-prayer sound installation by Siri Hermansen which we set up in the main square in Varna - has to be suspended on the instructions of the Courthouse. An important meeting was being held there and because of the heat, all the windows would be open and the judiciary of Varna did not wish to be disturbed by prayers. Is this something to do with the Separation of Powers?
We acquiesced and it was agreed that once the legal minds of Varna had finished their hot meeting at half past five we would play Borderline every hour until half past eight. All this is ironic - Borderline is part of the Varna Summer Festival programme which is this year addressing issues of art in the urban space. Yet it seems that even when we have the necessary permissions to present art in the public space of the city those permissions can still be removed or overlooked if the authorities consider them inconvenient or cannot close their windows.
But it didn't end there. Borderline seems to be fast becoming our most "controversial" piece. Extraordinary for what is, after all, just a series of sounds of different religions in prayer. Someone complained to the Police and at 8.30 I get a call from Kare, the technician running Borderline, that he is about to be arrested if we do not produce our permission documents. Ten days ago (in Odessa) this would have been a drama. Now it is all very familiar - even tedious. On the way to the square I meet Claes our technical director in the street. He sighs at the news and says he'll join me after he's visited the bathroom.
I find Kare stting with the old lady who sells Icons in the square, a passing vagrant swigging moonshine and another older guy (who tells us he fought in Afghanistan and has nominated himself as Borderline's bodyguard) while two grim police men stand over them. I go with one of the Police in search of the permission document at the Varna Summer Festival office while the Icon lady feeds Kare cherries in a motherly way.
The office is locked. Some festival staff smoking outside produce the festival brochure - the Police read it and decide that we must have permission after all. They leave without a goodbye. I return to find Kare and Claes chatting with the Icon lady who suspects that the complaint was made because the Muslim prayer is Turkish. Our new bodyguard is ready for them if they come back and shows us what looks like a home-made soldier's identity card (complete with pictures of Putin and Stalin) as evidence of his credentials. We all enjoy more cherries and part cheerfully.
Tomorrow we are participating in Creative Collaborations - a networking conference for cultural operators in Europe organised by the British Council in collaboration with Varna Summer; and we now have a subject for our presentation...
Varna: 7 June
Subject: Angels of Light
Yesterday the police (six of them) turned up to Borderline and rattled the door handle to the room in which the computer is housed but went away again disappointed. The installation is now safely in Balchik.
In the afternoon Signa began their 2 day performance in their house - the Black Sea Oracle Games. You lose all sense of time when you are with Signa - I thought I had been there for about an hour but found it was two and half. The other nice thing about Signa is that they are serving really good chocolate cake to their guests.
Then to the SEAS Club. Deirdre and Matt have searched Varna in vain for something other than minimal techno - but this is a party town and there seems to be a group of young DJs who make their money playing nothing else. The Club hasn't received the same response it had in Odessa (which was a pretty high benchmark to pass, it has to be said). But it was full. Here in Varna when you walk around the town, day or night, techno of various kinds comes doof-doof-doof out of every restaurant and bar. Our hotel even plays it in the breakfast room.
Metro Boulot Dodo's Night Scene and Wunderbaum's Beer Tourists are playing side by side in the Club - Metro in the front bar and Wunderbaum in the dance room at the back. Necessity is the mother of invention and the two groups have now worked out how to cohabit the same space very successfully. At the end of the night Deirdre presents her latest discovery.
Last night the Wunderbaum duo gave a barnstorming performance. It's a rowdy show with an extremely subtle psychology. The jokes are good and plentiful, timing brilliant and delivery energetic. But there is more to it than just a couple of clowns standing on the bar counter. Sometimes the room goes completely quiet - such as when the two drunken "Brits" complain about Bulgaria's membership of the EU, drawing comparisons with the Poles taking British jobs: (“I do my work well. No complaints. Never. I've been working for six years now. I've had no complaints at all. The Polish guy, he fucks it up.”). But the audience quickly shift into hysterical laughter as the two start fighting with each other, rolling on the floor, struggling with the European Union flag and screaming "Fuck Off!" "You fuck off!" while Beethoven's Ninth blares out. The point is made.
The sight of two Dutch men pretending to be English football fans from Manchester singing the Bulgarian National Anthem (in Bulgarian) is crazy enough - but when all the Bulgarians in the room stood up and sang it with them, the evening reached new heights of surrealism. A standing ovation at the end.
The audience leave and the first thing they see as they come back into the front bar for a drink is Esther from Metro Boulot Dodo standing in a paddling pool screaming as a bucket of water is poured over her.
As I walk home, the seagulls are circling the illuminated Varna Cathedral (the birds that featured so much in Monday in the Sun's performance) as they do every night. We have discovered that the locals call them Light Angels. And apparently if you look at an aerial photograph of Varna by night you cannot see the Cathedral, just a white fuzzy blur of seagulls.
Balchik and Mangalia: 10 June
Subject: If its Monday it must be...Romania!
The SEAS Club closed on Saturday night - and with it closed the Comics club forever - due to be bulldozed next month.
Meanwhile I got a chance to go to Balchik for the first time (having been anchored in Varna for the duration of the SEAS Coastal event so far). The artists are staying in the Balchik Castle (the former home of the Romanian Queen - this part of Bulgaria once belonged to Romania) which is owned by the Ministry of Culture. Alongside its hosting of cultural activities, it also has a fair number of paying tourists. The whole complex is built on a hill side overlooking the sea and is made up of a series of villas. Apparently there is a habit for the tourists to mistake the holiday villas for parts of the castle buildings and frequently sightseers barge into holiday-makers private apartments assuming that it is all open to the public. Guess what - this is exactly what happened to me - a mother and family of three daughters walked into my villa (fortunately I was dressed) and asked if they could "visit"...er, sure, I said...After they walked around for moment they obviously realised their mistake, that there was nothing more historic to be seen than my dirty washing, said thank you, and left.
In Balchik, Theatre Sfumato are holding a workshop with an international group of young performers - Margarita Mladenova is impressed by her group. She asks Chris not to come early in the morning because she will be doing "psychological exercises" with them. I understand that they also don't take lunch during the workshop - is this all part of the psychological conditioning?
The bus arrives from Varna with the SEAS artists and the Balchik artists join it to go north across the border to Romania. It was been a mixed few days in Balchik - the ministry of Culture suddenly announced that it needed to accommodate 10 guests in the Castle and our accommodation plan was ruined. Audience has been hard to find - except those who we have brought to Balchik from Romania. But the positives are that Tiyatro Oyunevi have presented their work in progress and Nedyalko Delchev has shown his Suitcases piece - both in the public space. A loud group of diners in the cafe stopped talking and rushed to take pictures as Oyunevi's "procession" passed them. Monday in the Sun in the harbour was also very good. Some hip-hop boys in the audience showed off their moves at the end of the show. Bogomazov in the church drew a good crowd and the church is venue is an ideal place for Sweet Dreams the show. Dima's son and two colleagues sing us an old Ukrainian traditional song over dinner - its about love and involves a boy, a girl and a horse. All Ukrainian love songs seem to be about a boy, a girl and a horse, jokes Dima.
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So next to Mangalia - the southern-most Romanian sea resort – our last stop – and also home to the Romanian Miss Diaspora competition (a kind of Miss World competition for Romanian ladies living abroad) which can be experienced at the following link:
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/miss-diaspora-2006-dans-popular-grup-1/1452629389
We arrive in Mangalia to discover that the mayor (who is up for re-election) has arranged for a big screen to be put up in the harbour to show the European Football Championship at top volume and is giving away free beer to attract a crowd (just to make sure?). As we will be using an area next to the stage for Monday in the Sun and a house next door as our club this is not good news. Some phone calls are made and a meeting is organised for tomorrow... Romania played France tonight - the Wunderbaum duo took this as a golden opportunity. They ran up to their rooms, changed into their Manchester United shirts - Rooney and Ronaldo - and ran out of the hotel (still getting dressed) down to the screen with their photographer to get the pictures they need for the slide show at the start of their show. Later that night, Netherlands beat Italy 3-0.
Mangalia is noisy town - everywhere there is music booming out of bars. Our art is going up against a seaside party energy that we either ride or sink beneath and our SEAS banners hang between the advertisements for the political parties. VOTE for SEAS!
Mangalia: 11 June
Our van is suffering from four weeks of trans-European travel – a quick visit to the van-doctor in Constanta has hopefully repaired it enough to get it and everything in it back to Sweden.
The pace of Mangalia is really slow. The artists and the SEAS team are all in one hotel (the President) and the venues are nearby. There are many informal and ad hoc meetings in the lobby of the hotel. SEAS people sit together in groups with their laptops in order to get wifi: the other guests are slightly puzzled by these foreigners hunched in groups of four and five over their computers, silently tapping on their keyboards or chatting on Skype. Everyone agrees that the hotel is great – good breakfast, huge lunch and good restaurants (tonight a highly recommended fish restaurant while watching Sweden against Greece in the Euro 2008). The director of the hotel is very pleased to have us here and would like to have ALL the SEAS events in the hotel, if possible. Her welcoming manner is so in contrast to the City authorities of Odessa all those days ago. One of the other diners in the fish restaurant glanced at the election leaflet of the Mayor’s opponent with a sneer and put it back on the bar counter. Then he picked up our Mangalia flyer, read it with interest, put it in his pocket and left. So we are ahead in the polls.
All the Fantomats have arrived in Mangalia now so their family is reunited ready for their Romanian debut on the aptly named Revolution Square.
We have made a deal with the Mayor – the screen showing the football in the harbour will stay but the sound will be turned off. A “good” political - and politic - compromise.
Tomorrow the press conference and the opening.
Mangalia: 12 June
Subject: SEAS Mangalia
Not so much press at the press conference but it was important as an event to present the project formally and give our thanks to the Cultural Department of Mangalia city who have been incredibly helpful and very welcoming.
After the press conference we go to Revolution Square and find the Fantomats lined up smartly, surrounded by children that are running from one to another pressing the buttons. Later Borderline plays from speakers hidden in three trees: passers-by strolling to the beach stop and peer into the branches – a man on a scooter comes past twice, slowing down just to double check that he wasn’t mistaken the first time.
At 5.30, while we are in our office in the hotel creating flyers for the SEAS Club which will be distributed on the beach, we hear jolly brass band music. Another recording in this town of tannoys - we assume - because it sounds too good. But no, it is a REAL brass band, sitting on the steps of the Culture House under our SEAS banner, overlooking the Fantomats and the trees where Borderline is placed. Did we invite them? Apparently not. Then some men put up their own banners and the Romanian flag on the steps – it becomes clear that it is part of the election campaign of the Mayor’s opponent.
The brass band is very good. But in an ironic reversal of our recent fortunes, we are now the ones with the “permission” and they are not. They pause to let Borderline play at six o’clock but they remain for the hour they have been booked to play, notwithstanding our (mild) protest and the arrival of the police who are sympathetic but neutral. This is a local matter.
After dinner we go down to the harbour where Monday in the Sun is to be performed, next to the big screen showing the football championships. At 9.30 the sound is switched off by the event managers, as arranged, and a curious crowd moves from the soccer screen to our performance. About 150 people in total (mainly young guys) settle like an expectant crowd in a sports stadium to watch contemporary dance from Turkey. Chris gives a short speech in which he wishes Romania well in their game against Italy (big cheer) and the show begins. It’s obvious that most of the spectators have never seen nor ever expected to see anything like this in their lives.
There is applause during the performance for the more athletic sections of the work, some laughter and heckling during the quieter and more tender moments between the two male performers, but in general it’s like a football crowd giving the opposing side the respect they deserve for a good match. Some of the crowd are genuinely fascinated and want to know if it will happen again tomorrow night.
After the dance, we sit down in front of the big screen, take a beer, and watch the rest of the Turkey v Switzerland game. The score - 2-1 to Turkey – is a nice bonus.
Mangalia: 13 June
The SEAS (Youth) Club
The home of our SEAS club, the White House (Casa Alba), is still underconstruction. New concrete goes down today for the front terrace and you have to walk across planks to enter it. But it is a perfect space for us – a blank canvas and right on the beach.
Our nightly audience is mostly between the ages of 14-18 years old – the young kids who usually hang out on the beach with nothing to do. We didn’t predict this but we have accidentally done a remarkable piece of audience development among young people. A large number of the noisy group who watched Monday in the Sun on Wednesday evening came back to see Wunderbaum last night and saw Monday in the Sun again and loved it. They’re getting this international contemporary art thing now... And they are sharp and two or three very articulate in English. And they are not impressed by the election campaign. Wunderbaum’s observations are very much appreciated. But they are VERY young...some had to call their mothers to see if they could stay up past midnight to watch the film at the end of Metro’s show and a lot had to go home.
Tonight the Romania v Italy Euro 2008 game will attract a large crowd, despite the change in the weather (a cooling breeze and some rain). Later the Mayor is holding his last election rally on the big stage just opposite Casa Alba. We are waiting to see which way the football game goes and will have to time Metro Boulot Dodo’s Night Scene show accordingly.
This morning an America tourist stops me in the Reception of the Hotel. “Are you part of this Trash project?” “Trash..?” “Yeah this Trash and Kissing project...” I tell him that Anne Lise Stenseth’s Kiss and Waste Project is in the city art gallery. In fact yesterday not only did we open a new club, we also inaugurated the new City Art Gallery as well with the vernisage of Kiss and Waste, complete with champagne and a ribbon cut by Chris and the City Cultural Department.
This afternoon a football game on the beach between the SEAS artists and some of the local young guys ended in a home win. And just at the moment I am writing this, Siri Hermansen’s Borderline is playing, mingling with the sounds of car horns as competing political supporters and football fans drive round and round the City centre. We are in the middle. Here everybody wants to win, but we just want to play.
Mangalia: 16 June
Subject: Farewell Mangalia
On Friday night the noisy election campaign in Mangalia reached an apotheosis of volume with live football, music and fireworks simultaneously erupting across the city. The locals rapturously celebrated a 1-1 draw between Romania and Italy. There was no competing with it. We opened Metro Boulot Dodo’s Night Scene later than planned and a good audience enjoyed it.
On Saturday, our last day, the Fantomats came out for their last appearance and over on the other side of the town the Balchik Choir gave an excellent concert of religious and secular music from Bulgaria and Romania in the Saint Mina church (which looks like it has been made of matchsticks). The Mayor, Mr Iorgus, greeted them. I learnt today that despite all the noise his campaign was able to generate he lost the election.
The final show at Casa Alba, Night Scene, was followed by a barbeque on the beach and music and visuals from Electric Brother and Daniel Gontz from Bucharest. Everyone was feeling tired (and emotional?) so it was a quiet finale to a very long four weeks. Even the beach and the football screen were deserted early in the evening – as if the town had had enough as well. A burst of James Brown had the club guests dancing however.
The next morning artists gathered in the reception of the hotel to be seen off to their airports. Our poor battered green van was packed and set off to Stockholm. Now all that remains of the SEAS tour are (what must be) about 1000 pictures, three podcasts/postcards due out soon (check www.seas.se), several videos and lots of memories.
Istanbul awaits, 11-19 October.
Some Comments from Readers of the Blog on the
SEAS Facebook Group:
It is great hearing stories live from Odessa! Feels almost like being there myself! Keep up the good work! Looking forward to hear more about your work together with the Odessa police.....
So sorry to get your news - bit of a weird series of events no? I thought they wanted you there? Glad the public enjoyed - stay safe.
...Your updates are juicy and make me feel i am with you in the SEAS crew in action...kind regards to everyone
...what Odessa and Varna show is a problematic character of the public space as a notion and as spatial experience. The public character has been suspended de facto. There is private usurpation of the public space, an intrusive corporate presence through the advertising, but no one is bothered by that, and then there is a close policy scrutiny to make sure that the nominal public space does not function as public (=inclusive, open, accessible, free) but as a power-controlled zone...
Wonderful receiving your letters on the progress! Everything comes to life,
Magical dance between performers, arrangers and bureaucracy...I, like many I am sure, am transported to where you are and wish i could have experienced it firsthand! Thank you";-)
Great to get an update of all that is happening! You are really giving a very much alive account of SEAS for us who are back into normality- if a warm and hot Sweden is normal that is...
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