Hotel Obscura | FOLA 2016 | Arts House | Melbourne
"Welcome to the city. Where will you find yourself? Lose yourself? Check in. Be led astray. Together. Alone. Across distances, time zones.
Who are you? Who might you become?
Take part in a unique immersive event that leads you through the city and into a hotel. Featuring an impressive line-up of local live art makers and three European guest collaborators, Hotel Obscura is a melding of audio experience and one-on-one encounters in hotel rooms and other spaces.
Conceived and developed by Triage Live Art Collective, Hotel Obscura has had seasons in Berlin, Linz, Marseille, Vienna and Athens, activating each city with performances and installations from the public to the radically intimate.
Welcome to Hotel Obscura."
Hotel obscura is and international cooperation project focused on intercultural artistic exchanges that investigated the intersections between performance, live art, site-specific, and urban arts practices. Hotel Obscura aimed at the development of rich and long-term artistic collaborations and networks for all participating partners and their cities.
It was initiated by Triage Live Art Collective’s Artistic Director, Katerina Kokkinos-Kennedy and Arts House in Melbourne, Australia with European partners, Die Fabrikanten (Austria), Mezzanine Spectacles (France) & Ohi Pezoume (Greece). All project outcomes showcased works generated by the activities of the overall project, featured guest artists from other countries, and responded to the unique artistic ecology of each city: In Athens, Hotel Obscura focused on a historically significant and underprivileged area of the inner city (Dourgouti); in Vienna the work was presented in Hotel Magdas a space organised and run by newly arrived refugees; in Tours the work aimed at blurring the lines between life and fiction; and in Melbourne, Hotel Obscura led audiences on a journey that was dreamlike and surreal, in the city, as also Sofitel Hotel.
In Melbourne's performance (as also, program's closure and part of Festival Of Live Arts), Katerina Protonotariou represented Ohi Pezoume - and became part of an immersive and intense puzzle of live-art performative interactions.
This project has been funded by the European Cultural Commission´s EACEA 3rd Country Collaboration fund, the Australia Council for the Arts, the Federal Chancellery of the Austrian Government, the City of Linz and the Federal Province of Upper Austria.
All photographs by HO
“The context of Live Art is much more intimate, thus it doesn’t include “exhibiting” oneself. It has to do more with a “provocative refuge”, some personal space where somebody can express his/herself. Every reaction (except for the offensive ones of course) is accepted and respected – nevertheless, as far as the general concept of interaction is concerned, I would say to relax, remember oneself as a kid and just have fun!” – Katerina Protonotariou
Read the full interview of Katerina Protonotariou, member of UrbanDig Project
