Living Testimony CPH Stage (day 1)

Performing arts archive: From documentation to action

NOTE: This workshop takes place at the Black Diamond in Copenhagen

You can also participate in day 2 of the workshop here, or you can participate in just one day.

Take part in two workshops about archiving. We highlight how performing arts archives can be utilised as a creative resource, with a hands-on guide about what is important to know if you want to establish or improve your (digital) archive. The project Living Testimony was started by Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium – Odin Teatret. Collaborators include Danish Performing Arts, the Royal Danish Library, the Local Archives, and Aarhus Theatre. The project is funded by the Danish Arts Foundation and Holstebro Municipality.

The archive as a creative resource

Day 1 asks the question: Why is the archive valuable? If a theatre has to use its resources to establish an archive, it is important to know why and for whom the archive is made. Get to know lots of great possibilities and be inspired by real-life experience with how an archive can add value in various phases of work in relation to running a theatre.

Programme for May 26th, 2025

1.45 pm              Drop in

2 pm                    Short welcome and introduction

2.05 pm              Part 1: A life with Babel

2.50 pm              Break

3 pm                    Part 2: Knowledge in motion: Dance, Body, Archive at Karen Vedel, Andrea Deres, and

                             Carolina Bäckmann.

4.30 pm              Rounding off

Part 1:

"A life with Babel" - The actor as a living archive and the performative biography of the character.

Through more than two decades, actress Søs Banke has breathed life into the character of Babylon – a fictitious creature related to the story of the fall of the Tower of Babel.

Babylon, the character, came about in the 1980s as an artistic protest against conformity of all kinds. Since then, for over 30 years, the character has reflected contemporary times, as of late, even taking on the digital space in an attempt to explore our modern times, where it seems to unfold for many of us.

Part 2:

Lector Karen Vedel presents the new methods that have been developed through the research project Knowledge in Motion: Dance, Body, which the archive has developed to explore bodily and physical archives in creative processes. Dancers Andrea Deres and Carolina Bäckmann work with workshop participants to demonstrate how to work practically with the archive through the foundation that has been developed in the research project.

Everybody is welcome. The is a limited number of places which can be reserved on a first-come-first-served basis by emailing billet@ntl.dk no later than May 20th. Make sure to add "Living Testimony" (DA: "Levende vidnesbyrd") in the subject line.