Interactive art forms, such as theatre, performing arts and music, have the ability to create exceptional connections between people. In a theatre, a concert hall, or the public space, a relationship between performer and spectator ‘naturally’ comes to life. Would it be possible to integrate more of this quality into our daily life? Can we infiltrate ‘normal’ living with an artistic experience? Can we do this on a daily basis? And will art be able to improve our lives structurally, without losing its intrinsic quality and value?

The idea for Reinventing Daily Life started with the observation that the gap between common life and the performing and other arts has become bigger in the last few decades. This raises questions about the romantic idea of the artist as the autonomous and only starting point of a work, focusing on the aesthetic result and not on the capacity that is needed for creating connections with the community in which they live.

Reinventing Daily Life investigates the connections between performing arts and daily life, between people and art, between society and the artist. During this Temporary Programme we will dive into the role of the artist and integrate the process of connecting as a new part of the artistic process; taking it as a point of departure. Students are on a quest for pressing questions and issues that people are struggling with and to make a connection between the autonomous power of their work and the audience. Reinventing Daily Life functions as a laboratory where we find ways to improve the quality of life with the result of integrated fantasy and creativity. Starting from the world of music and theatre, but with a multidisciplinary group of artists, we offer alternatives for what is common and normalised in order to eventually attribute to a new status quo.

The participants, guests, tutors and head of Reinventing Daily Life work predominantly as a collective, but there will be a lot of focus on the personal creative process as well. Guest tutors from theatre, music, visual arts, philosophy and other relevant fields propose assignments that are inspired by their experiences. Each course includes many joint and solo presentations in an organised communal space, always embedded in environments outside the academic structure. In addition, there are lectures and the viewing of theatre productions, installations, performances and exhibitions through a critical lens.

Read the interview with Reinventing Daily Life's course director Thomas Spijkerman here.

Tutors

Matthijs Bosman, Lucas de Man (Stichting Nieuwe Helden), Martijn de Rijk, Paul Koek (T.I.M.E), Anneke Jansen (VondelCS), Nastaran Razawi Khorasani & Davy Pieters (KOBE Collectief), Maarten Gulickx, Henriette Olland, Tess Broekmans (Urhahn)