Gathering Festival Antigel

Antigel Festival and SharedSpace Switzerland
audio exhibition and round table
February 7 – 8, 2014, Geneva, Switzerland

The Antigel Festival, organized by The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, brought both private and public space in Geneva to life with around 60 concerts, dance performances and other events. This mid-winter festival occupied the entire city and motivated people to think about the political and social reality they live in. Greenhouses, swimming pools, stations, school playgrounds, community centers and bus depots in suburban districts of Geneva were temporarily transformed into occasional venues for music and dance performances. This metamorphosis of the public space had also changed the traditional notions of stage and performance.

"People bring places to life, and thereby turn them into spaces that they then perceive as such. Spaces are more than materialized geometric shapes," says Imanuel Schipper, dramaturge and curator of Antigel Festival. “They contain stories, are charged by encounters and are holders of potential for the future. Scenography – the art of spatial design – is concerned with such processes. The relative, temporary and transformative characteristics of spatial production make it a performative form of art."

SharedSpace Switzerland is the country's run-up project for the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space that will be held in June 2015. As part of the SharedSpace project, the guided audio expedition Cosmoland and special Round Table: Fascination and risk in exploring new territories was held at Antigel Festival February 7 – 8, 2014.

SharedSpace Switzerland consists of another three various events, which will be organized in next two years. In June 2014, a project called performaCITY will stage events at various venues in Basel and explore the potential of the city as a receptacle of collective memory. From November 2014 to May 2015, the members of the Swiss curatorial team for the Prague Quadrennial 2015 (Muriel Gerstner, Eric Linder, Markus Lüscher, Imanuel Schipper and Barbara Zürcher) are inviting the wild public to five Salons scénographiques for a debate with special guests on scenography-related topics. Finally, in reflection of the Prague Quadrennial 2015, held in parallel during summer 2015, HAUS FÜR KUNST URI will be transformed into a scenography-related Gesamtkunstwerk.

The list of SharedSpace Switzerland activities:

• Antigel Festival, International Festival of Dance and Music, February 1 – 16, 2014, Geneva, Switzerland
• performaCITY, performance, June 2014, Basil, Switzerland
• Salons Scénographiques, November 2014 – May 2015, different places, Switzerland
• HAUS FÜR KUNST URI, exhibition, summer 2015, Altdorf, Switzerland

SharedSpace: Music Weather Politics – Antigel Festival is organized by The Swiss Art Council ProHelvetia .