What is this? What do I do? What do you do? What does anyone do?
Here is what we imagine.
We feel the urge to reclaim and open the city for any form of performance arts to come to life. We dream of a city where art and political acts would burst out of any corner of the streets! We wish BANGS to become a moment for collective and artistic experimentations, political struggles and solidarities, to celebrate alternatives and make space to taste freedom!
Does this sound like too much? Don’t stress yourself out if you think you’re not an artist. Everyone and no one is. Do what you wish to do.
For BANGS, anyone is able to propose a show or a workshop. Use the form provided on this website to tell us about how you want to organise your event. Let us know what your needs are, and how we can help you facilitate this. We want the entry bar to be as low as possible. None of us are snobby art critics with fancy diplomas. We are people, activists and performers, here to help you out. And if you want to help others out – we will need plenty more hands on deck, just shoot us an email. And if you feel like you’ve got everything covered – amazing. Just go ahead, we will put it online with the other events once the calendar is set up. You do not need our approval or permission.
I don’t know where to do my show!
Don’t worry – anywhere can be good. Think BIG and small. Use your own home, invite people in. Or your garden. Or the streets. Or in a squat. Or a boat. Or in your supermarket. Or the bank next door. Or the mayor’s office. If you want to propose a riskier show, we are here to help you with legal issues.
We do wish to combine activism and art. But what that means and the way that’s done is up to you. But we are here to help.
What is the point in all this?
Make up your own. Don’t let us dictate what it is. Play in the city. Feel free! Or just go about your business.
Here is something we did think about. The city is a bore, the city is unjust, and the city conceals its truths and makes you blind in the whirlwind of its speed. And in this monotonous rush, we want to take a break, we want to celebrate, and we want to take what’s made private ours again. We need to carve out spaces for all stories to unfold, and open up imaginative and political perspectives! These new alternatives shape our future approaches to how to live, dream, fight and stand up together! We believe in arts free from profit-based systems, and we say that art carries its own radical potential.
We call for a new BANG to shake our city, from all around and from within!