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Featured: Hotel Pro Forma (Copenhagen, Denmark)

ABOUT HOTEL PRO FORMA

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Hotel Pro Forma displaces the notion of theatre into new territories that lie between art and non-art, theatre and non-theatre, between the physical and the metaphysical expression. Performances occupy a space between construction and sensation, consciousness and intuition, concrete and abstract. Hotel Pro Forma moves across the genres of theatre, opera, visual arts and concert. Every production is a new experiment and contains a double staging: partly of its contents and the space, and partly of the notion of theatre itself. With every production a new examination is taken up:

It is intrinsic to the concept of the performances that the architecture and the traditions of the venue become part of the performance. Space is a co-player.

Each production is the result of a close collaboration between artists from many disciplines: architecture, the visual arts, music, film, language, dance, the natural sciences and digital media
Performers are carefully selected with a view to the qualities and qualifications required by the concept and the nature of the performance.

Because space, concept, collaborators and performers vary from one production to the next, all Hotel Pro Forma’s performances are distinct and unique. As a “nomadic theatre” Hotel Pro Forma is in constant motion and always approaching reality from an other angle. Reality is staged.

Hotel Pro Forma has created performances for museums, town halls and public buildings of special architectural significance and for theatre venues in Europe, Mexico, Japan, Australia and USA.

PRODUCTIONS:

PROSCENIUM THEATRE

Chinese Compass
57 performers. Aarhus Concert Hall, Aarhus and Kanonhallen, Copenhagen, Denmark. 1998-99

Monkey Business Class
12 performers. Malmö Music Theatre, Sweden. Albertslund Music Theatre, Copenhagen, Denmark. Festival Octobre en Normandie, Rouen, France. 1996

Operation : Orfeo
15 performers. Aarhus Concert Hall, Aarhus and The Royal Theatre, Copenhagen, Denmark. International tours a.o. Adelaide Festival, Melbourne International Festival of Arts, Sydney Opera House, Australia. Expo ’98, Lisboa, Portugal. Festival Exit, Creteil, France. Next Wave 99, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, USA. 1993-01

Yes the Salt of Passion
20 performers. International Theatre Festival, Toga Mura, Japan. 1987

BLACKBOX THEATRE

relief
1 performer. Kaleidoskop K1, Copenhagen. International turné: Odessa, Ukraine. Varna, Bulgaria. Istanbul, Turkey. Damascus, Syria. 2008

I only appear to be dead
17 performers. Schauspiel Köln, Cologne, Germany. Christiansborg Ridehus, Copenhagen, Denmark. La Biennale di Venezia, Italy. Spielzeiteuropa, Berlinerfestspiele, Berlin, Germany. BITEF, Belgrade, Serbia Montenegro. 2005-06

Theremin
8 performers. Danish Radio Broadcasting Corp., Copenhagen, Denmark. International tour, Europe, Singapore. 2004-06

Calling Clavigo
6 performers. Kanonhallen, Copenhagen, Denmark. National and international tour, Europe. 2002-04

20 Minutes for Clavigo
3 performers. Dansescenen, Copenhagen, Denmark. 1999

House of the Double Axe / XX
13 performers. Kanonhallen, Copenhagen, Denmark. National and international tour, Europe. 1998

The picture of Snow White
14 performers. Kanonhallen, Copenhagen, Denmark. National and international tour, Europe. 1994-96

1+2+3+4+5+6
21 performers. Kanonhallen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark. 1991

Carpe Carpe Carpe
8 performers. B&Factory Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark. Nieuwpoort Theatre, Gent, Belgium. 1988-90

Seen songs
14 performers. Bergens International Theatre, Norway. 1986

MUSEUM

jesus_c_odd_size
51 performers. Malmö University, Art & Communication, Sweden; Nikolaj Exhibition Hall, Copenhagen. 2000-02

Navigare
52 performers. Opening performance for Arken, Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Denmark. 1996

Der Die Das
7 performers. Festival Dance 93, Munich Kunstverein, Germany. 1993

Snow White
10 performers. Nikolaj Exhibition Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark. 1993

Enigma of the late afternoon
7 performers. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark. 1992

Fact-arte-fact
14 performers. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark. 1991

Argentum
11 performers. International Cervantino Festival, Museo Iconographico, Guanojuato, Mexico. 1988

Ether
5 performers. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark. 1987

Nine if one is sick
9 performers. Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik, Odense, Denmark. 1987

A sight
11 performers. The National Museum. 1987

OMNIMAX THEATRE / PLANETARIUM

Dust WOW! Dust
3 performers. Tycho Brahe Planetarium, Copenhagen, Denmark. 1995

TOWN HALL / VENUES WITH BALCONIES

Algebra of Place
2 performers. Axelborg, Copenhagen, Denmark. International tour, Europe. 2006

The ladder of Babylon
20 performers. Copenhagen Town Hall, Denmark. 1995

The Shadow’s Quadrat
17 performers. Gentofte Town Hall, Denmark. International tour, Europe. 1991-93

Why does night come mother
6 performers. Aarhus Town Hall, Denmark. Edinburgh International Festival, UK. International tour, Europe. 1989-90

Terra Australis Incognita
13 performers. Culturehouse Almássy Tér, Budapest, Hungary. 1986

OPEN SPACE

Tall Storeys High
70 performers. Opening performance for Art Center ARC, Stockton-on-Tees, UK. 1999

Jarmers Plads
36 performers. Opening performance for outdoor space, Jarmers Plads, Copenhagen, Denmark. 1997

The Ship Called Bridge
700 performers. One-week long performance. Parking ground/roof of supermarket, Holstebro, Denmark. 1991

A sound
150 performers. School yard, Frederikssund, Denmark. 1991

Radio for the Village
150 performers. School yard, Frederikssund, Denmark. 1991

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Caden Manson is a director, media artist, and teacher. He is co-founder of the media ensemble bigartgroup.com and network, blog, and publisher, contemporaryperformance.com. He has co-created, directed, video- and set designed 18 Big Art Group productions. Manson has shown video installations in Austria, Germany, NYC, and Portland; performed PAIN KILLER in Berlin, Singapore and Vietnam; Taught in Berlin, Rome, Paris, Montreal, NYC, and Bern; the ensemble has been co-produced by the Vienna Festival, Festival d’Automne a Paris, Hebbel Am Ufer, Rome’s La Vie de Festival, PS122, and Wexner Center for The Arts. Caden is a 2001 Foundation For Contemporary Art Fellow, is a 2002 Pew Fellow and a 2011 MacDowell Fellow. Writing has been published in PAJ, Theater Magazine, and Theater der Zeit. Caden is currently an associate professor and graduate directing option coordinator of The John Wells Directing Program at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama.

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