Not Festival: lovelier, the second time around. September 16 to 21, 2013

The Not Festival is back in Copenhagen. It is happening from September 16 to 21, 2013. The tittle chosen for this year’s Not Festival is lovelier, the second time around. Happening since 2003, this is its 5th episode. All the activities will be created, developed and presented at BYGN5 / PB43 and Statens Scenekunstskole.

E-mail us for more info at notfestival@gmail.com.

The Not Festival is a kaleidoscopic, ephemeral, erratic and nomadic artistic object. It embraces the ideas of global artistic collaboration and the cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, DIY attitudes.Through the use of old and new artistic approaches, technologies and media it exists outside the realm of the establishment, which implies generally non-existing financial support. However, its inclusive nature allows it to move inside and outside of institutions and at the same time avoid the institutional restrictions. This political “object” aims to fight the standardized and systematized commodities of the arts. Thus, it is NOT a FESTIVAL.

It will serve as a platform for experimentation, creation, presentation and open dialogues. It consists of a series of performances and installations, jams, screenings, lectures and discussions of topics that are relevant to contemporary dance, performance and art today, as well as contemporary dance classes and workshops.

In every edition of the Not Festival a conceptual framework is offered to the participants and it is embedded in the title chosen for each occasion. However, it is open to the artists‘ own interpretations. Participants are not restricted to having to use it, but can get in and out of it; re- frame it; re-conceptualize it; and fully remove themselves from it to allow meaning to be created in tandem with their own creative process.

The event also questions the boundaries and definitions of the generally accepted roles of the “presenter” and the “presented”. Participant artists are encouraged to play an active role in managing and facilitating it, and to use their creativity not only in their own work but also in the creation of the event itself. For instances, My Lindblad and Gry Raaby , two Copenhagen-based choreographers/ dancers are helping to coordinate the event and to organize a team of other Copenhagen-based artists. The Dance Department of Statens Scenekunstskole has agreed to be part of this and to help to co-produce part of the event, as this will be of great benefit for its students.