The deadline for application of the Expanded Curation programme is extended to 11 December. Download the Open Call for the profile 'curators' (pdf).
DAS Theatre is an educational master environment for theatre makers and curators. We believe that an intense exchange between theatre makers and curators can instigate new ideas, approaches and practices for both.
Therefor DAS Theatre opens up the educational environment for curators in order to enrich the discourse and expand existing curatorial practices.
In the last two decades, curatorial practices have gained a lot of attention within visual arts; books have been written, discourse has been developed… But what about the curator within the performing arts? What is his or her role in our cultural fields and how does this relate to challenges and changes in our societies.
Within existing performing arts institutions this position has different names such as: ‘programmer’, ‘artistic director or ‘dramaturg’. Whatever the title may be, it is clear that a performing arts curator engages with artists, works, voices, audiences, programs, festivals and therefor curates the institution itself. Some do this very consciously and clearly, others much more intuitively and hidden, but that the curator has a huge influence on what and how we perceive works and in what way performing arts are positioned within society at large, is evident.
New modes of curation
Theatre makers today present their work as banquet, as workshop, as dialogue, as a walk, or as a piece in the black box… Artists are setting up their own platforms and curate their public presence. This expanded artistic practice allows for and demands new modes for encounters, beyond the traditional division between the artistic work and the context programme.
The DAS Theatre programme offers conditions for researching and developing new modes of curation. An environment where professional boundaries can be challenged and where the potential connectedness with audience, institutions, discourses, partners and collaborators can be cultivated.
Expanded Curation stresses the constellational activity of the act of curating, where new relations to other areas in society (politics, education, media, science, philosophy, social spheres and daily life) can be researched, negotiated and established.