Bazaar Festival

How do individuals become communities? What connects us? What does being in a community make possible, and what blind spots does it create?

These questions take on another meaning when artists endeavour to extend our understanding of community beyond human experience. Let’s focus on the microscopic communities that surround (or inhabit) us – through them, we can see communities of other species that share our landscape, cities and future… If we come together, we create a much bigger, intricately connected whole in which the human and non-human unite: from the skies, mountains and highlands of Central, East, and Southeastern Europe, through the earth, and the forests, fields, marshes, villages, towns, towns, cities, and rivers to the shared waters of the North, Baltic, Black, Aegean, and Adriatic Seas – and on to the ocean.

The past year of travels, observations and meetings across Central and Eastern Europe has shown us that many dance and theatre makers are reflecting on how we form groups through their courageous practices and creative work. They are interested in which communities work together and which are mutually exclusive. They also track interdependencies, whether familiar or entirely new to us. 

The artists whose work we are presenting this year do not approach these topics from a distance – they explore them through their bodies and everyday realities. Their practices and research enable them to reflect on broader contexts with extraordinary sensitivity and emphasis. It is remarkable how often their work returns its very foundations – to the body that perceives, feels, thinks, and acts. Through contemporary dance, physical theatre, and other performance forms that place the body at the centre of cognition, the artists of this year’s BAZAAR Festival ask: How does my body relate to the whole? How does it all work? How are we connected? Where are we headed?

The festival program opens with a performance that explores the role of male and female communities in our behaviour and identity, as well as works and practices dealing with human communities that share similar views but also seek intercommunity dialogue. Part of the festival will present communities that are not human, but inspired by plants or microorganisms. There will also be plenty of space for play, pleasure and acceptance. 

We hope the Bazaar Festival will be a community you want to belong to.

–Ewan McLaren–