Be SpectACTive!2: international immersions and European pathways

Since December 2014, BE SpectACTive!, a large-scale European cooperation project has been active, co-financed by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme. It is dedicated to the development of participatory practices in the performing arts, in particular by involving citizens and audiences in the definition and implementation of programming or in creative processes (audience committees, participatory approaches, immersion residencies within territories, etc.).

Axis 1: the production of the #Generation project
Within the framework of the Be SpectACTive!2 project, Occitanie en scène and its regional partners will co-produce a show whose creation residencies will take place in four partner venues in Europe:  International Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra (Slovakia), CapoTrave/Kilowatt (Italy), Goteborg Festival (Sweden) and at one of the associated partners in Occitania.
In July 2020, after several selection phases and 42 pre-selected projects, the Le Cri Dévot Company has been declared the winner of the call for projects. This new process of creation will touch a public of young people of very diverse horizons.
Their challenge today is, with the complicity of a sample of teenagers, to invent a poetic and polyphonic manifesto of the 2010 generation on a European scale. Strengthened by the previous editions, nourished by their numerous artistic works and always curious to renew their artistic conception protocol, they wish to inscribe their approach as close as possible to the concerns of teenagers. In a connected world – in which young people circulate as never before – for those born in a borderless space, in a Europe where cultural rapprochement is intensifying, it is necessary to let them express themselves on social issues specific to their generation (the metoo and blacklivesmatter movements, the law of marriage for all, conspiracy theories, cyber-bullying or global warming).
Do these reflections go beyond the boundaries of their everyday space?
What do the perceptions of a teenager in Lozère, Montreal, Sansepolcro, Gothenburg or Nitra have in common?

International immersion residencies – European pathways BE SpectACTive 2!
The agenda for the work and residency phases is as follows
• April 2021: preparatory work for the immersion residencies, at L’Atelline, Lieu d’activation art & espace public (Montpellier, France), during six days
• November 2021: labo 1, at Kilowatt Festival (Italy), during eleven days
• January 2022: labo 2, at Gothenburg Dance and Theatre Festival (Sweden), during eleven days (in the process of being postponed)
• February 2022: labo 3, at Inter Theatre Festival Divadelná Nitra (Slovakia), during eleven days (in the process of being postponed)

Creation residencies
The calendar for the creation residencies in France extends over many months:
• 25 to 29 January 2021: writing and conception, at the Théâtre de L’Albarède (Ganges), during five days
• from December 2021 to March 2022: workshop at L’Atelline, Lieu d’activation art & espace public (Juvignac), during three days
• from 23 April to 8 May 2022: internship at Parvis, Scène nationale de Tarbes-Pyrénées (Tarbes), during fifteen days
• from 9 to 15 May 2022: internship and music, at the Scène Nationale d’Albi, during six days
• June 2022: finalisation (video and light techniques), at La Bulle Bleue (Montpellier), during three weeks

Diffusion
The creation will take place on 13 July 2022, at the Théâtre de L’Albarède (Ganges).

Diffusion 2022-23 season
The venues that will host the show are:
• Le Parvis, Scène nationale de Tarbes-Pyrénées
• Scène Nationale d’Albi
• Scènes Croisées de Lozère
• Melando, Rencontres des cultures en Pic Saint Loup, L’Atelline, Lieu d’activation art & espace public (Juvignac)
• other venues, currently being programmed
Link to the show’s file in English: file
Link to the project in French: projet

Axis 2: spectator committees
Despite the current delicate context, the partners in Occitania are mobilised to maintain a collective dynamic with regard to the project. The committees of Théâtre le Périscope and Melando have agreed to meet in November 2021, in order to discover shows together and to work on proposals suggested by the European spectator day.
In addition, the Théâtre du Grand Rond and its committee of spectators have proposed a viewing session at Région en scène in January 2022.
In July 2022, all the partners are planning to bring together all the committees with the European partners for the premiere of the production #génération in order to share the collective selection.

Axis 3: meetings
Between January and July 2022, three meetings will take place:
• March 2022, in Novi Sad (Serbia): international press conference, third international conference, performance of the eleventh production
• June 2022, in Sibiu (Romania): project meeting, start of the twelfth production, start of European Art Commissioners.
• July 2022, in Occitania: project meeting, start of the fourteenth production, fourth meeting of communication managers.

Publication
Following the international Politiques culturelles en Europe: un tournant participatif? conference organised on 21 and 22 May 2019 in Montpellier (France), with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Région Occitanie, the University of Montpellier and the CNRS, Occitanie en scène has co-edited and published a book together with Éditions de l’Attribut that retraces the main exchanges and contributions of this international event.

This book brings together some of Europe’s leading specialists and seeks to clarify the meaning, potential and limits of the participatory experience in cultural policies. It explores the transformative potential of participation and its relationship to several issues facing democracies. A publication under the direction of Félix Dupin-Meynard and Emmanuel Négrier, in coordination with Lluíí Bonet, Giada Calvano, Luisella Carnelli and Elettra Zuliani, entitled Cultural Policies in Europe: a Participatory Turn?
Order the book: online

For more information:
The page on the Occitanie en scène website: Be SpectACTive!

Occitanie en scène:
Angèle Picgirard
+33 (0)7 67 84 50 86
a.picgirard[@]occitanie-en-scene.fr

The BE SpectACTive! project is co-funded by
the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.