Gateshead International
Festival of Theatre
Fri 2 - Sat 3 May | 9am - 5pm | Gateshead Central Library Gallery
IN A STRANGE PLACE
By MIA + ERIC
Place of Origin: Canada
About
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​In a Strange Place is a meditative 9-channel video installation and social engagement project that delves into the future of our forests and those who care for them. Born out of a multi-year, international research and engagement process with communities, In a Strange Place features 150 foresters, ecologists, activists, conservationists and land keepers from England, Germany, Norway, and Canada performing abstract, slow-motion gestures in the woods. These improvised choreographies are reflections of the participant’s care work, their connection to their local forest, and their role in an uncertain multi-species future.
The aim of In a Strange Place is to translate the complex knowledge and expertise of forest caretakers into emotional and visual gestures for a non-science audience. Showing forest work as an embodied practice, each video—a type of slow portraiture—captures the forest workers waist up and wearing handmade masks of imagined future forest creatures.
Date: Sat 26 April - Sat 28 June - OPENING EVENT AT GIFT , Sat 3 May, 10.30am - 12pm.
Time: Drop in during building opening hours
Duration: 40 minutes
Age guidance: 14+
Access Considerations: Wheelchair accessible, relaxed performance
Venue: Gateshead Library, Prince Consort Road,
Gateshead, NE8 4LN
In a Strange Place is a video installation that plays on a continuous loop. Audiences are welcome to come and go at their own pace.
Artist biographies
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Mia & Eric are an award winning interdisciplinary artist team from Calgary, Canada. They bring together elements of craft, performance, and multi-species ethnography to create site-specific and socially-engaged art works. They have presented works about ecology and biodiversity internationally.
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Credits
Videographer: Benjamin Hotz
Sound Design: Kris Demeanor
Collaborative Producers: Maíra Wiener, Jenna Winter
Artistic Assistants: Maíra Wiener, Rachel Rose
Indigenous Relations Coordinator: Pam Beebe
Supporters
In a Strange Place was originally commissioned by Matchbox (Germany), Gateshead International Festival of Theatre (England), and Arctic Arts Festival (Norway).
