LAND

LAND (Land stewards AND artists) is a project that focused on bringing together arts organisations that have a specialist interest in working in the landscape. Activate was the sole UK partner and the project was led by Oerol festival in The Netherlands in cooperation with partners, Le Citron Jaune in France and Artopolis / PLACCC Festival in Hungary.

From 2017-2019, LAND partners worked in conjunction with key land stewards and environmental organisations in each country, to offer the landscape as a field of experimentation in the hope of reuniting what is often seen as disunited or separate spaces; humanity and its environment, art and nature, science and experience.

The next iteration of this collaborative partnership between Oerol festival (NL), Le Citron Jaune (FR), SYTEV (SK) and Activate continues today through Transitioning LANDscapes.

LAND’s vision was to create a distinctive collaboration between artists, programmers/curators, producers, land stewards and environmental organisations and the rural landscapes of the partner organisations. Science and the heritage were examined through the medium of art while taking account of major environmental issues that impact our landscapes.

For additional information please visit the LAND artists website.

“It has opened our minds to the possibilities and raised our ambition for arts in the landscape which encourage an audience to think differently about place.” Tom Munro, Dorset National Landscape Manager, Land Steward

LAND’s key goals:

Produce stronger inter-connected relationships – to strengthen the relationship between partners, artists and land stewards in the creation and production of artistic work in the landscape. This is the major focus of the project.
Engage audiences with artistic work in the rural landscape, particularly targeting young people.
Exchange knowledge, skills and learnings, develop professional skills and abilities of partners and land stewards in the understanding of this specialist field of work.

LAND statistics:

9 Artists / Companies were engaged

6 Residencies were undertaken

10 Presentations of work were made

82 Performances / Installations where shown

34,212 Audiences attended

9 Land Stewards / Environmental Organisations worked collaboratively

Over 1000 young people engaged with 40 workshops across 3 countries

2 seminars with 21 speakers, attended by 69 delegates in 2 countries

1 University and 17 schools were worked with

Outcomes and benefits:

Rural landscapes animated through art attracting audiences to experience it in a new way
A stronger cohort of artists working in the landscape benefiting from new European markets
A connected European network of arts organisations, land stewards and artists
Academic institutions developing distinctive work supporting this practice in the industry

The activity programme

1 – Presenting artists work with land stewards in the Netherlands, Hungary, France and the UK.

June 2018 – The company AND NOW (UK) presented “Wayfaring” at Oerol Festival
September 2018 – Dutch Companies Waterlanders and Collectif Walden presented “De Wiede Wereld” and “Olie” at Activate’s Inside Out Dorset festival
May / June 2019 – Le Citron Jaune (FR) has hosted presentations by Jony Easterby (UK) “Remenant Ecologies”, AND NOW (UK) “Bord” as part of Les Envies Rhônements
June 2019 – Oerol Festival presents three artist companies: Studio B (HU), Studio Maarten Kolk & Guus Kusters (NL), Studio Buiten Werking (NL)

2 – Offering residencies with land stewards for artists and university students in the Netherlands, Hungary, France and the UK.

June 2018 – AND NOW (UK) had a residency of creation before the Oerol Festival
May / June 2019 – Le Citron Jaune (FR) has hosted residencies by Jony Easterby (UK) AND NOW (UK)
June 2019 – Oerol Festival has hosted residencies three artist companies: Studio B (HU), Studio Maarten Kolk & Guus Kusters (NL), Studio Buiten Werking (NL)

3 – Creating an outreach programme for school children/young people linked to the presentations in the Netherlands, France, Hungary and the UK.

All the partners did a special work with the artists during their residency or presentation dedicated to the school children.

4 – Two professional meetings bring together the partners, artists and land stewards to share good practices and experiment new ways of collaboration.

September 2018 as part of the Lifecycles and Landscapes Project, led by Activate Performing Arts
At Oerol festival 2019

Further activities took place for September 2019 with Collective Walden (NL) at PLACC festival, Hungary and other artist residencies in the UK.

The artists

Collectief Walden (NL)

The Walden Collective is a young performing arts collective that consists of a biologist, a philosopher, a mime artist, a dramaturg and an artistic producer. The Walden Collective devises theatrical landscape experiences that entail academically informed performance lectures, story-telling, physical theatre/mime and land-art interventions or installations. The Walden Collective, through offering differing coexisting perspectives and manipulated landscape experiences, tries to create larger awareness and finer sensibility of the value, meaning and vulnerability of our natural surroundings.

Waterlanders (NL)

Waterlanders is a Dutch artists’ collective, specialized in creating site specific art and theatre. They have developed shows for internationally renowned festivals and have performed at a wide range of spaces/places such as empty factories, forests, beaches, bars, churches and museums.

They have several small shows at hand, but they also do a lot of commissioned work.

Jony Easterby (UK)

His work as an artist explores the boundaries between raw elemental materials, natural dynamics, sound technology and composition. This work is contextualised within his interventions within landscape and architecture. Using a wide range of artistic skills, he has been developing projects, including the construction of sound sculptures, audio visual installations, architectural constructions and the artistic direction of large-scale performance projects.

And Now: (UK)

And Now: conceives, designs and creates visual performance, image and installations working with people, ideas, fire, fireworks, structures, sound and light. Their work is unexpected, accessible, entertaining and public.

LAND is funded by the current partners and Erasmus+, the EU’s programme to support education, training, youth.