Collabs with European Projects
Masako has been part of several EU funded projects working with a wide range of organisations, cultural practitioners and audience across borders, genders and age groups.
* 2018 - 2021 Dancing Museums - the democracy of beings
Dancing Museums is an action-research project designed to foster and sustain long-term collaborations between dance and museums. The project shifts perceptions of what dance and the body can be in a museum. It discusses and challenges what a museum is – no longer a place where knowledge about others is produced, but rather a social learning space.
Masako was invited to take part of the second edition of Dancing Museums - the democracy of beings.
Dancing Museums second edition was an action research project involving 11 partners: 6 dance organisations, 2 museums, 1 university and 1 research centre, plus a multitude of other associated museums. Seven dance artists provided the creative engine for the journey. The aim of the project was to look at how the presence of dance can offer new ways of experiencing art and heritage.
Each artist had 10 weeks of residency in their local context to work with the museum and dance organisations. Artists would then come together through a series of international workshops to share and exchange.
Project coordinator: La Briqueterie – Centre de Développement Chorégraphique du Val-de-Marne (FR). Partners: Conseil General du Val-de-Marne – MAC VAL Musée d’art contemporain (FR), Comune di Bassano del Grappa (IT), Arte Sella (IT), Fondazione Fitzcarraldo (IT), Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia (IT), Tanec Praha (CZ), Dance 4 (UK), Stichting Dansateliers (NL), Mercat de les Flors (ES), Bundeskunsthalle (DE). In collaboration with: Musei Civici di Bassano del Grappa (IT), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen – Rotterdam (NL), Nottingham Museum Service (UK) – ( Nottingham Castle, Wollaton Hall, Newstead Abbey), The Prague City Gallery – Prague (CZ), Fundació Joan Miró- Barcelona (ES) ed esperti da The National Gallery -London (UK) e Musée du Louvre-Paris (FR).
The project has been funded with the support of the Creative Europe programme of the European Union
* 2020 - 2022 VIBES
VIBES - distant bodies in the same vibration - is a choreographic and audio collective experience allowing participants to meet and share a moment of dancing, in a given place – a park for example - or in different cities or countries at the same time.
VIBES was born in 2018 on the initiative of the French digital creation company ORBE and developed in 2020 as a European project within the Creative Europe program.
VIBES is a constantly evolving performance made of individual PROTOCOLS, each born from the interconnection of distinct artistic and performative practices. All together they form the VIBES project, while becoming chapters of a single global choreography, transcending cultures, languages and geographical borders.
Currently VIBES has been developed in #6 protocols, each of one distinguished by the collaboration with a choreographer who shapes the performance according to his/her artistic research, such as Jonathan Burrow, Jesus de Vega, Angelin Preljocaj and Masako Matsushita who choreographed the VIBES#3 protocolo together with sound and taiko artist Mugen Yahiro.
VIBES is also in the process of being translated into the 24 languages of the European Union.
A project by: Orbe Digital Production (FR), CSC Centro per la Scena Contemporanea / Comune di Bassano del Grappa (IT); ICK (NL); HOLONIC SYSTEMS (FI); C-DaRe, Centre for Dance Research della Coventry University (UK).
The project has been funded with the support of the Creative Europe programme of the European Union
* 2021 - 2022 SHAPE IT
Shape It is an international project which supports artists to reimagine their existing work for young audiences. Through labs, residencies and touring, Shape It broadens the audience for contemporary dance across Europe.
As cultural education is increasingly sidelined across Europe, it is more important than ever to consider how we engage young audiences. Shape It provides opportunities for both artists and audiences alike, filling the gap in school provisions and creating meaningful dialogue with audiences of the future.
Artists involved in the Shape It project have been engaged in different steps such as:
Labs: Over two days of talks, discussions and activities, Shape It artists explore the context for dance for young audiences with ten local artists. Residency: Shape It artists are hosted for a week by one of the partners to consider how their performance can communicate most effectively with a young audience. Touring: The shows will tour in each of the four countries to arts venues, schools & community centres.
Masako, along with French digital creators Orbe, have been invited to adapt their performance of Vibes#3 for an audience of 12-15 years. The work has been hosted in residency and as a performance in Italy, Finland, Czech Republic and UK from May untill July 2022.
Project coordinator: The Place (UK) Partners: CSC – Comune di Bassano del Grappa (IT), Annantalo – City of Helsinki (FI) and Tanec Praha (CZ), ed è sostenuto dal programma Creative Europe dell’Unione Europea.
The project has been funded with the support of the Creative Europe programme of the European Union
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