Beyond Touring: “Reality Surfing” and “Insider” tour at Tatwerk

Time is one of our most valuable, non-renewable resources, and the partners of Beyond Touring – Terén, Center for Experimental Theatre (Czech Republic), Tranzit Foundation (Romania), and Tatwerk (Germany) – have put it front and centre of their project. For this Central-Eastern partnership, sustainability within cultural production can’t be reached without time being valued as a major resource, as time builds connections and helps to develop performances. Time is a big privilege in the contemporary performing arts scene. Therefore, all partners have agreed to invest and share not only their financial resources and know-how but also their time.

One might wonder: How can such focus on time bring innovation to the touring landscape? Well, the producers of the partnership will spend a week with the presenters to adapt to the new environment, meet and engage with local organisers and art scene, present their work, receive feedback and further develop their art piece; in turn, presenters will help producers to get to know the local scene and introduce them to the local art field players.

In practice, this means that the way of presenting the production is never final. The producers and presenters will discuss which presentation options and production models work best in each context where the artistic work will be presented. This allows the partnership to find new ways of using the current infrastructure and adapt to current local realities.

Even more so, Beyond Touring is testing the limits of the productions and exploring new ways to present artistic work. They are bringing curiosity not only about the presentations, but also about the environment in which the productions take place.

The goal is to strengthen the Perform Europe partnership that has flourished, share resources and knowledge of specific contexts, develop better forms of presentation of particular productions, and increase the possibility for future collaborations.