Location: Online via Zoom
Watch the video documentation here.
After 2020, we have become used to collaborate and meet each other in distributed digital contexts. The technical platforms for online meetings are mainly focused on functionality, e.g. business meetings. This pandemic situation has been a challenge, not only for the performing arts, but also for fine arts and music. Many theaters have been forced to close, but we have also seen a change in accessibility that is not all bad – new audiences have found their way to the galleries, theater and musical institutions in digital spaces. When people are in separated contexts to experience arts, new challenges arise, but also possibilities for interaction.
Emma Bexell, one of the experimental, performing arts front figures in Sweden, says that “we need to find new forms for storytelling, new perspectives and tools to create digital interaction.” In 2021 Karen Toftegaard founded Denmark’s first festival for digital theatre –RE:LOCATIONS. This international festival of works produced directly for the digital stage delves deep into the exciting artistic opportunities of a new emerging genre. Darshika Karunahara, currently working at the Norwegian Film School, is an expert in the field of immersive media and will moderate the conversation.
Emma Bexell is artistic director of performing arts company Bombina Bombast: a dramaturg, director and playwright who creates original works for stage and screen characterized by the performative meeting innovative technologies and presented at festivals and venues worldwide. Received the Thalia award 2020.
Karen Toftegaard has been a cultural entrepreneur in Copenhagen for 20 years, developing cultural events, festivals and an award-winning outdoor gallery. In 2021 she founded Denmark’s first festival for digital theatre – RE:LOCATIONS.
Darshika Karunahara is the co-founder and producer of several projects on EX Situ and the founder of Det Ovale Rum (The Oval Room), a boundary-seeking sound collective based in Copenhagen. As Head of VR Education at the VR studio Makropol, she has been working closely with artists from various artistic practices on the intersection of art and technology. Darshika currently works at the Norwegian Film school at their Film and Interactive Media Arts center.