BRISBANE IMAGES
ANTI FESTIVAL KUOPIO IMAGES
The Walking Neighbourhood
A guided interactive tour by children 2014
Location/s: Brisbane Australia - Arts Market
Kuopio Finland -Anti Festival
Company: Contact Inc & Lenine Bourke
Role/s: one of the Facilitating Artists/ MC
Take a curated tour around the city with a child as your guide. The Walking Neighbourhood offers participants and audiences a new way to see and experience places and spaces. Children are in control of developing the artistic encounter, guiding an audience, navigating the physical space and sharing their experiences of autonomy and their world, all the while creating new friendships.
The show tours with a company of 2 professional artists that will be based the neighbourhood for 2 weeks, as a residency. During this time they will work with local artists, technicians, volunteers, the children and local businesses or community members to develop this custom made event. The number of performances usually results in 4 shows over a weekend at the end of the residency. The Walking Neighbourhood can be performed in a wide range of spaces, from theatres, studios, community halls, centres, indoor and outdoor spaces. The artists design this space to appear as a Departure Lounge. This lounge acts as the front of house and base for the project, the walks depart from this location into public spaces and return upon completion. This project was also facilitated by various artists in the following locations Bagot, Kings Cross , Thailand and Seoul
Brisbane Images shown by : Dimitiri Melly Niotakis
for more info go to http://thewalkingneighbourhood.com.au/
ANTI FESTIVAL - KUOPIO FINLAND 2014
The Anti Contemporary Arts Festival invited The Walking Neighbourhood to be part of their festival for 2014. “Children and teenagers… (where) the focus of this year’s …Festival, which presents site- and time-specific works made for public space.” Alongside the artistic program the festival also presented a seminar allowing for discussion around the theme – “Children operating in the field of contemporary art – subjects or objects?”
A version of this work was facilitated by Brisbane based artists in Finland as part of the ANTI Festival program, with the support of local artists and volunteers. The project was an immersive two week residency in the centre of Kuopio. The residency included a series of workshops with young people aged 12-17 from a community theatre group at the local youth centre. Audiences where invited to the foyer of the Youth Centre for the ANIT festival weekend which was transformed into an installation/ departure lounge. Here audience members were invited to select two walks each. The lounge also included posters from all The Walking Neighbourhood’s presented in Australia and abroad, a large interactive map of inner Kuopio, a slide show of images from the creative process, a found object gallery displaying interesting objects found out on the walks. A feedback booth asking audience members and participants to share their experiences of the walks on video along with an opportunity for audience members to share their ideas of their dream neighbourhood.
Each incarnation of this project allows for new meanings and possibilities to emerge in response to the cultural climate in which it is created. For Kuopio, this work focused on supporting the young participants giving them the opportunity to express themselves in ways that they choose, and encouraging freedom, confidence and responsibility to engage with people in new ways. For adult audiences this is a fascinating way to see and experience places, spaces as the young people are in control of guiding the audience, navigating the physical space and sharing their experiences and ideas.
FINLAND CREATIVE TEAM
Lenine Bourke- Artistic Concept
Verena Curr- Artist/ Facilitator
Sue Loveday- Artist/ facilitator
Harley Stumm- Producer
VOLUNTEERS
Henna Hartikainen and Eerika Jalasaho – local artistic support
Jenna Heinonen, Mira Lahtinen, Paula Hanninen, Terhi Nisumaa, Pauliina Koukkari, Arja Soininen