BORDERS Albury Wodonga Lab: 23 June-2nd July 2023

www.bordersproject.com.au

BORDERS is a creative enquiry into people and place – exploring the relationship between creative communities in Victorian and New South Wales cross-border towns and their Murray River environment. The project offers a series of online gatherings, as well as place-based research labs along the Murray River, concerning creative enquiry into place.

Presented in partnership with Murray Arts and Greenhouse, The Lab will pursue the question: what is a border? We will consider the notion of border towns, the Murray river as a border, and our bodies as borders within our environment. We will investigate how individually, and as communities, we can connect and respond to the river.

The Lab is free to attend and is for artists and researchers in any discipline, and anyone curious about our relationship with place - with a particular focus on the Millewa-Dhungala (Murray) river. Those interested in investigating their relationship to the environment will benefit, such as people who are actively engaged in an artistic practice, eg visual artists, dancers, performers, writers, craftspersons, sound and video artists. Also people who are engaged in environmental work would benefit. No movement training is required. The physical work will be low - medium intensity

There are limited spaces available. If you have any queries please contact Rach Kendrigan, Creative Producer via borders@regenerativecommunities.com.au 0r 0415 355 598. There are four elements to the Lab program, which you can book individually.

PROGRAM

Venue address released on registration

Friday 23 ~ Lab 1 Dinner 6.30-9.30pm
Saturday 24 ~ Lab 1 10am-4pm
Sunday 25 ~ Lab 1 10am-4pm

Tuesday 27 ~ Socially Engaged Practice Workshop 5-7pm

Wednesday 28 ~ Open studio 4-7pm
Thursday 29 ~ Open studio 4-7pm

Saturday 1 ~ Lab 2 10am-4pm
Sunday 2 ~ Lab 2 10am-4pm + sharing 3pm

LAB 1

Friday 23 June, 6.30-9.30pm
Dinner and Yarning Circle
Our BORDERS dinner will be an evening of sharing a delicious meal whilst adding layers of context to the story of place of the Millewa-Dhungala River through informal conversation.
We will be meeting the Borders creative team, and our Albury Wodonga hosts and supporters. We will be welcoming artists from across NSW and Victoria who are participating in the weekend Lab.

Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 June, 10am-4pm
Creative research Lab
A physically exploratory workshop in which we experience how our bodies and imagination meet and mingle with the myriad textures, shapes, energies, movements, temperatures of the river and surrounding environment. We will do a series of activities that tune our awareness of time, sharpen our senses, and bring our attention to the ecology that constitutes our body, and the ‘body’ that is the environment.
Much of workshop will take place outdoors by the Murray river. Please bring a light lunch (we won’t be near anywhere to buy it), water bottle, all weather clothing, good shoes, a hat, mozzie repellent, notebook and pen/pencil.

SOCIALLY ENGAGED PRACTICE WORKSHOP

Tuesday 27 June, 5-7pm
Join Borders project mentor Vic McEwan as we workshop the vision for the ‘flowback’ of the Borders project as we head down stream for a second series of Labs and performance development. Vic McEwan is the Artistic Director of the Cad Factory, an artist led organisation creating an international program of new, immersive and experimental work guided by authentic exchange, ethical principles, people and place.

OPEN STUDIOS

Wednesday 28 & Thursday 29 June, 4-7pm
An opportunity to bring along your ideas and current works in progress for feedback and development. Informal sharing, exploring collaborations and networking with fellow Borders artists. The Borders creative team will be available in the studio for discussion and support.
One on one sessions can also be booked with the Creative Producer during these days.

LAB 2

Saturday 1 July & Sunday 2 July 10am-4pm
Creative research Lab
Builds on the Lab 1 series from along the River. The Lab will further pursue our creative enquiry into Borders by refining our response, bringing together our materials, collaborations and collective of images from along the River. (it is recommended that you have attended a Borders Lab in Mildura, Swan Hill, Echuca Moama or Albury Wodonga)

Sunday 2nd July 3pm
Public sharing
Members of the public- friends, family, supporters and interested artists will be invited to a free event where we informally share some outcomes from the Labs.

The Lab facilitators

Linda Luke
Peter Fraser
Rach Kendrigan

Rach is a practicing artist, community development worker and regenerative practitioner from the Mallee. With fifteen years experience working in arts, culture and community development they bring systems thinking, creativity and collaboration to everything they do. Their creative practice explores the intersections between body and place, with a practice grounded in Body Weather. Using performance, video, drawing and installation their art serves as a process for understanding systems awareness.

Peter and Linda’s artistic practice is also grounded in performance and Body Weather. They both have danced and performed for De Quincey Co, Australia’s Body Weather dance company, as well as creating and choreographing their own performances.

Body Weather is an experiential, exploratory practice that investigates the intermingling of body, mind and nature. It was developed as a dance training, by the legendary Japanese butoh dancer Min Tanaka, but it is useful for anyone wanting to sharpen their embodied awareness of place and ecological entanglement.

Peter and Linda, each in their own way, have worked extensively with artists and communities beyond dance and performance. For the Borders project, Peter and Linda will share their respective processes. They will work physically, gently and playfully, often in partnered work where we share what we discover and how we discovered it.

The Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund is provided through Regional Arts Australia, administered in Victoria by Regional Arts Victoria.

This project is supported by Create NSW’s Country Arts Support Program, a devolved funding program administered by Murray Arts, one of the 15 regional arts development organisations in the NSW network, on behalf on the NSW Government.

The Borders Albury Wodonga Lab received development support through the GreenHouse National Artists Residency program, delivered by HotHouse Theatre in partnership with Albury City and Murray Arts.