• Cycle
• The Sound of the Harbour
• Surprise Tours
• Story Symphony
• Shadows in The Wadden Sea
• Starlings Magic
• By the Sea
• Any Questions? - The Mandø Dialogues

Any Questions? - The Mandø Dialogues

"Any Questions? - The Mandø Dialogues"
Destination: Selected locations on Mandø
  

Any Questions? - The Mandø Dialogues" Is an art project at Mandø who will actively involve Mandø dwellers in the project phases. The artistic works will build Mandø natural and cultural heritage.

The Wadden Sea coast of Denmark from Tønder to Blaavand is a beautiful natural and rural area with three wadden islands Romø, Mandø and Fanø. For the third time, the biannual Wadden Sea Festival from 4th to 12 th September draws attention to this area with various forms of Contemporary Art at many different places. One of the art projects is organised by Foundation Waddenart on the island Mandø. This is a special island, very small and only accessible at low tide through a gravel road at the sea bottom.

Initial phase

The project Any Questions on Mandø is an interdisciplinary project, an experiment to integrate art and research in one project and at the same time embed the project in a local place. Embedding in a local place can only be done if that place is known and experienced. To get to know the place in terms of its nature, culture and society, Foundation WaddenArt started in collaboration with SDU to explore the question of quality of life for the inhabitants at Mandø in October 2009. During two weeks four researchers asked many inhabitants what it means for them to live on Mando. The results, in the form of bilingual anonymous quotes illustrating important views from the various interviews, were discussed at a meeting on the 16th of October with 14 inhabitants. Also the Vadehavsfestival organisation was present to explain the festival. We brainstormed together about what kind of project would fit into the physical and social environment of Mando resulting in practical criteria agreed with those present.

The research fed into the Call for Artists to attract Contemporary Art in Installation art, Performance art and Landart. To illustrate this: " ...To be able to sustain a livelihood on Mandø an intimate relation with nature is necessary, from a deeply embedded cultural understanding. Life on Mandø works as a pendula between outside and inside the dyke that surrounds the island. The difference between the two shows at the same time frictions and powerfull beauty in the dialogue between daily life and nature. This explains why Any Questions? aims at an intensive dialogue between inhabitants, artists and visitors.” (from call for artists, see website)

The call was online during March and April, closing the 21st of April. No less than 33 artists/groups responded to the call with an entry. Part of the selection procedure to select the final five entries for the Vadehavsfestival in September was to follow up our visit of October at Mando and to show the entries in an exhibition during June 2010. From 11th to 15th of June, Waddenart was on Mando to exhibit the entries and talk to inhabitants. On Monday the 14th of June, the entries were discussed in a meeting in the exhibition room with 8 inhabitants and summerhouse owners.

The preferences of the inhabitants have informed the final selection, further based on artistic and technical criteria. Five different artist (groups) were selected to work daily to create works of art during the festival in September. These are (in no particular order):

Artists

1. Dario Lo Cicero;
2. Liesbeth Takken;
3. Tomas Mach;
4. Sarah Fitzsimmons;
5. Tamara Erde

Read more about the artists on WaddenArt Website in English.

Event path

During the festival their works of art evolve from place to place every day during nine days. They may show traces from previous days, work in those traces, forecast the following days. The works of art will evolve along a time path or along a line. Performances may or may not result in objects, which in turn may last or vanish. Performances only last through registration; objects equally don't have the infinite life and if they are edible they may be gone before registration. All a matter of taste. Any Questions? invites the audience to witness in action.

There will also be space for three researchers to be involved in the project in September. The “Call for Writers” is currently online at the Waddenart website until the 20th of July with a possible extension. We ask researchers to reflect from a research background in the social sciences or art & humanities to what they observe during the festival. We ask them to observe and write a short story based on personal experience and empirical observation which can be performed during the closing event on Mandø. Stories could relate to questions such as; how does contemporary art relate to the cultural and social life of the community on Mando? How do the people on Mando relate to a festival that is not theirs? How is Mando expressed? What symbols the links between past, present and future? What are defining factors in change and stability?
At the present moment WaddenArt prepares the execution of AnyQuestions? Phase three; The Mandoe Dialogues. The aim is to create a team of artists, researchers and staff who will each take their role on Mandoe during the festival. The visual, musical and verbal dialogues will open new possibilities.

Idea and Arrangement: Stan Coenders, curator, artist, designer, and Petra Derkzen, rural sociologist, The Netherlands.
Organizer: Wadden Art Foundation in cooperation with the Secretariat of the Wadden Sea, Esbjerg, Denmark, Wadden Sea Festival 2010th

The project is supported by the Danish Small Islands Local Action Group