Goossun Art-illery

HamletZar: Dissection

A Theatre Research Conference at the Barbican Centre

Goossun Art-illery organizes a two-day conference in connection with the theatre and research project HamletZar.

Speakers will include celebrated theatre practitioners Eugenio Barba and Julia Varley (Odin Teatret) Julian Boal, philosopher Daryoush Ashouri, Prof. Ioan Lewis and the Iranian musician Madjid Khaladj as well as Vahid, the director of Goossun Art-illey. In addition to individual talks, there will be panel discussions moderated by Prof. Robert Gordon of Goldsmiths College, work demonstrations by members of Goossun Art-illery and Odin Teatret, video footage of HamletZar training, film screenings of authentic Zar ceremonies, and a live demonstration of Zar music.

This conference will be of interest to students, scholars and practitioners of theatre, performance, sociology and cultural studies, as well as those concerned with the place occupied by art in an increasingly complex and globalized world.

INTRODUCTION

The first phase of the HamletZar project (August 2008 through February 2010) focused on developing the structure of the project, training the associate artists and setting the initial framework for research, shaping the principal ideas of HamletZar. To conclude the first phase we are now organising a two-day conference, HamletZar: Dissection at the Barbican Centre that brings with it a period of reflection. In this conference three major aspects of HamletZar will be discussed: Training, Zar ceremony and the Encounter of two Worlds.

In order to illustrate the point of departure of the HamletZar project, its artistic, cultural and socio-political roots, we have invited thinkers, theatre practitioners and academics whose longstanding practice and theories have hugely influenced the ethos of and thoughts behind the HamletZar project.

The HamletZar project was formed around the idea that theatre for us is not restricted to performance-making. We are interested in theatre as a progressive cultural vocation, as a way of life. The activities of the HamletZar project such as residencies, research, exchange and seminars are not extra luxurious events about theatre. Together with training and performance-making, they are what we consider theatre to be:  a constellation of various cultural activities that creates a milieu where art can become a tool to render actual social changes, rather than being a mere decorative objects.   

Vahid (director)

Lene Bang (producer)

Goossun Art-illery