NKDT starts a 4-year international Creative Europe project DECONFINING: 12 European partners, cooperation with partners from the African continent

On July 1^st 2022, the National Kaunas Drama Theatre will start a 4-year European cooperation project called Deconfining with the purpose to create new cultural ties between Europe and Africa and look for exits from space boundaries.

European Cooperation Projects is a programme that supports cooperation projects between organisations from different countries (inside and outside the EU) and cultural sector organisations of all scales, enabling cooperation, exchange of experiences, co-production, networking and experimentation. “Deconfining“ (exiting boundaries) is a large-scale collaborative project bringing together 12 partners – performing arts and visual arts organisations from different European countries. The project aims to create a new engaging model of physical and virtual cooperation, explore and test new mobility policy recommendations, and create and disseminate art projects. The idea of the project is to create new equal links between the European and African continents, based on the connections and cooperation between the European and African capitals of culture. “Deconfining“ aims to change the relationship between continents, countries and cultures, break free from paternalistic and colonial points of view, and promote engagement and creative cooperation. Connections between cultural operators, the performing arts and visual artists, universities, communities and audiences from different continents will help to achieve this aim; the project envisages creating a series of conferences and forums, mobility platforms, new performing arts works, installations, webcasts, digital publications, and more.

In the first stage of the project, two authors from Lithuania and two authors from Africa will write different texts on the topic of boundaries. The texts will be translated into English, Lithuanian, and French. They will be voiced by professional actors; audio recordings will be made public, and written texts will be published in the form of an e-anthology. The texts of Lithuanian and African authors will be turned into a play, based on which the director of one of the partner countries will create a performance in Lithuania (2024). In the same year, the project partners in Lithuania will implement an art installation based on the project’s theme. In 2025, the performance will be toured to 3 European countries and 1 – to the African continent. The partners of the National Kaunas Drama Theatre from Africa are Burkina Faso and Senegal representatives.

Project partners: National Kaunas Drama Theatre, Lithuania, International Theatre Institute, Berlin, Germany; artistic hub Pro-Progressione, Budapest, Hungary; Bodø European Capital of Culture 2024, Bodø, Norway; Bad Ischl-Salzkammergut European Capital of Culture 2024, Bad Ischl, Salzkammergut Region, Austria; The Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc, Rijeka, Croatia; Art Transparent Contemporary Art Foundation, Wroclaw, Poland; Arts and Theatre Institute, Prague, Czech Republic; association for international mobility On the Move, Brussels, Belgium; Goethe-Institut, Munich, Germany; Institute for Transmedia Design, Murska Sobota, Slovenia; arts centre Culture Funding Watch, Enfidha, Tunisia. During the project, cooperative relationships will be established with the performing and visual arts centres of the African capitals of culture.

The programme is funded by Creative Europe.

National  Kaunas Drama Theatre’s information