From the project description (2008)
Introduction
möte09 (meeting09) is a choreographic project with the overall objective to generate movement, engagement, contact and to facilitate the development of live art, in Sweden and abroad. Another goal is to strengthen the relationships between art practitioners and theorists from different fields.
We develop a framework and a "toolbox" that focuses on meeting. The participants are invited to use this as a breeding ground for creation. The entire project includes a series of events, tasks and activities, which combined form a platform for communication (participant-participant, participants-art, art-location, location-city, proposal-audience, project-structure etc). One of the fundamental ideas behind the project concerns the relationship between process and product, as well as the relationship between the artist, her approach, her art production and the structures of distribution:
When is art "ready" to be shared, and how do we apply concepts such as quality to process-based and relational work? How can we find alternative formats for meetings between the artistic proposal and the audience? How does the format affect what kind of discussion the proposal produces? When does the spectator/user feel that s/he is essential for the existance of the proposal? When do we feel involved, engaged in dialogue?
In möte09 we invite approx. 35 participants; artists and theorists who will take part in one of four meetings: Stockholm (March 23-31), Gothenburg (April 15-22), Umeå (May 18-31) and Malmö (June 8-14).
Platform for dialogue
Each individual and/or group has its specific way of thinking and creating dependent on experience, education/training, generation, discipline, culture etc. Which methods, tools, vocabulary and approach are used, and in what way?
The idea of möte09 is that - in Sweden - for a short period of time "concentrate knowledges" in order to underpin a platform for dialogue and exchange. We want to explore the fluid border between theory, practice, practitioner's theory and theorist's practice. Therefore, we invite individuals with a wide range of artistic and theoretical approaches.
To choreograph the meeting
möte 09 is based on a choreographic way of thinking in which guidelines and construction will guide the process and form a common language. The framework we propose invite the participant to comment on and modify the meeting's existence. The meeting is the opposite of inactivity, stillness. We see the meeting - and the project - as something full of motion: geographic, spatial directions, physical languages, thoughts and ideas.
A key discussion in the forming of the project's framework circles around investigating different formats of presenting art in relation to the meeting with an audience/user - how to expand and diversify notions of participation, engagement, dialogue, collaborative authorship and knowledge production. The meetings last between one and two weeks, involves 7-10 participants, and the group is asked to share one or several "proposals" with the audience. We have chosen to work with the word "proposal" since we want to avoid more directive concepts such as performance, piece, installation, showing, exhibition etc. When, how many times, for how long and in what form the proposal will happen - is up to the participants.
