an uninterrupted day-and-night performance lasting eighteen months
as a campaign to become Mayor of Holstebro for the newly founded ART PARTY
1 January 2016 – 30 June 2017
“BEAUTY ABOVE ALL”
conceived and directed by
Giuseppe L. Bonifati
with
Giuseppe L. Bonifati (IT), Linda Sugataghy (HU), Alberto M. Guinaldo (SP)
The purpose is an artistic and esthetic interaction between the citizens and Mayor Jeppe and First Lady. After devoting 2015 to learning the Danish language and culture, the project started with Jeppe performing a theatrical ‘official speech’ to the people of the town. They visited families and institutions in different parts of the town. Each month the two artists concentrated on a specific theme, for example economy, education, health, environment, public works or housing. The project culminated and ended during Holstebro Festuge in June 2017, which title was THE WILD WEST. ROOTS AND SHOOTS: RE/THINK.
During the artistic residency, Giuseppe L. Bonifati and Linda Sugataghy, visited door-by-door the citizens of Holstebro, offering their FREE services. At the end of each month, there was a collective performance related to the actual topic, involving local associations and institutions. The Spanish performer ALBERTO M. GUINALDO was permanent collaborator and he participated in these monthly events.
The motivation behind this interactive project was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the HOLSTEBRO CULTURAL PROJECT, initiated in 1966 by the Mayor KAI K. NIELSEN and the Municipal Director JENS JOHANSEN, the same year that Maren and Odin Teatret settled in town and the Art Museum and Music School started their activities. This motivation was presented in a Mandatory Letter from Kai K. Nielsen and Jens Johansen and sent to Jeppe, encouraging him to realize this new project.
“Mayor Jeppe’s” party is KUNSTPARTIET, addressing Danes and non-Danes, artists and non-artists, residents and non-residents. The aim of Kunstpartiet is THE PURSUIT OF BEAUTY THROUGH ART.
Kunstpartiet is an artistic project. It aims to show the hidden side of politics and expose the transformative power of imagination when realized through an audacious artistic policy.
Kunstpartiet’s candidate for Mayor is JEPPE. During Kunstpartiet’s launching project, M.I.R, Linda and JEPPE lived in a house which combined the artistic (the superfluous which illuminates daily life) and the social (the worries of daily life). JEPPE and Linda made there visible their life as a couple and, at the same time, interacted with the town’s citizens according to the conventions of art and fantasy. The citizens were able to spy, physically or through a camera, visit or play in the Bomhuset and experience what is normally hidden in politics. The House as a symbol was an integral part of the artistic project which included monthly performances, daily activities in schools and institutions, and door-to-door contact with the town’s inhabitants.
Bomhuset should not be considered the hideout of the Party, but “the alcove of Anthony and Cleopatra”, the home of a man and a woman, Jeppe and Linda, two foreigners striving to be integrated into Danish society. The dream of becoming Mayor and First Lady is a pretext to come into contact with people from different milieus and, through an artistic interaction, reflect on otherness, a condition which Holstebro shares with the rest of Europe.
under the supervision of
Eugenio Barba, Julia Varley
partnership
DOO performing arts group / Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium
supported by
Statens Kunstfond / Holstebro Kommune
with the inclusive participation of schools, associations, cultural institutions as
Holstebro Bibliotek, Balletskolen Holstebro, Orkester Efterskolen, Aarhus Produktionsskole, Seniorhus, Asylcentret Holstebro, Kunstmuseet, Holstebro Museum, Fortaelle Galleriet, Marens Vennelaug, Odin Teatret, Kulturdivisionen Slagteriet, Santhi Yoga m.fl.
sponsored by
Tang Biler A/S / ARRIVA Denmark A/S
KUNSTPARTIET 