Horse in Love / The Absurdity of Love – Connecting in Europe

The partners behind this Perform Europe partnership – En Dynamei Ensemble (Greece), Gdansk Shakespeare Theatre (Poland), Teatro com (Portugal), CUARTZ LTD. (Bulgaria), Ipogia Skini (Cyprus) – share a common vision for inclusion in how art is created and experienced, overcoming any disability, of any kind. Horse In Love focuses on empowering voices of underrepresented professionals and giving them visibility, especially artists with disabilities, as well as being relevant and inclusive to the communities they tour.

Horse in love / The Absurdity of Love is the outcome of En Dynamei Ensemble’s research and exploration of universal aspects of human individuality, love, and sex. It’s a big, complex production usually only possible to be put on at large festivals. The collaboration that Perform Europe is fostering gives both the En Dynamei ensemble, made up of 28 artists and technicians, and presenters of smaller venues the opportunity to bring this inclusive work to international audiences for the first time.
The presenting partners of this project vary in many ways, from facilities to audiences, from their wider context to good practices of engaging the local (and other) communities. Because the artistic work is big in scale, the partnership has also embraced digital solutions to explore how to present a complex work in unconventional venues or smaller facilities whilst not compromising the production of the work. These hybrid presentations will also help audiences to access high quality artistic work, which would otherwise be hard to reach or afford.

The performance is a mixed ability production exploring and enabling inclusivity through art by inviting viewers to really think about love, to witness commonalities everybody shares, and bridge the perceived gap between people with disability and people without, when it comes to love. The post-performance discussions and workshops in each context serve to create a safe space for open communication, allowing audiences to openly question love, sex, and what it means to be inclusive.
The ultimate goal of this partnership is to create connections between presenters, artists, and audiences to engage in more creative and inclusive practices and artistic endeavors.