Rood|Noot is both a farm and a theatre company formed by Wout de Boer, Peter Kolpa and Kirsten Roosendaal. It started being a stud farm in 1880 but now, it is really difficult to distinguish
one of the essences of Rood|Noot as a farm from the other as a theatre company
and a space for the arts. It is a dynamic entity, a flowing space. It is
continuously being a farm while it is also being a theatre company, and also a
space for artistic residencies, performances and educative projects. Animals,
artists and visitors share the space and activities overlap: creative processes,
lambs being born, performances, the song of a rooster at dawn, talks, children
taking care of ponies, people having lunch around a big table… The dynamic
character of Rood|Noot has also to do with its location. It is placed at the
edge of Leidsche Rijn, a new district of Utrecht that is being built as part of
the biggest housing and industrial expansion project in the Netherlands, which
will be completed around 2025. The project includes not only the development of
a new urban area, but also the construction of big infrastructures, such as a series
of tunnels that are expected to cover the A2 motorway with the aim of
incorporating it to the new district. This expansion of Utrecht challenged the agreements made in the VINEX-report of 1990/1991 that established the conditions for the urban expansion in the Netherlands, which was based on the concept of "compact cities". This concept implied that urban expansion could only happen within certain limits with the aim of preserving the countryside and produce a minimal impact on the already existing urban structure and public infrastructures. Maxwan Architects, a collective of architects and urbanists that designed part of the plan for the Liedsche Rijn development, nevertheless, did not accept these lesgislative restrictions impossed by the Government and they decided to build the new district of Leidsche Rijn as a new urban space "based on opporunities instead of on obligations".
Rood|Noot’s surrounding landscape is being affected by this expansion of Utrecht based on "opportunities". Now there is a continuous flow of trucks passing by the door of Rood|Noot, trees are being uprooted and new buildings are filling the horizon. The farm is literally being enclosed by the city of Utrecht. It seems as if urban civilization wanted to pull the last refuge for wildness and rural life out. Rood|Noot is becoming smaller and smaller in comparison with the big architectural structures and machines that are conquering the space.
Rood|Noot’s surrounding landscape is being affected by this expansion of Utrecht based on "opportunities". Now there is a continuous flow of trucks passing by the door of Rood|Noot, trees are being uprooted and new buildings are filling the horizon. The farm is literally being enclosed by the city of Utrecht. It seems as if urban civilization wanted to pull the last refuge for wildness and rural life out. Rood|Noot is becoming smaller and smaller in comparison with the big architectural structures and machines that are conquering the space.
The year is 50 BC. Gaul is entirely occupied by
the Romans. Well, not entirely... One small village of indomitable Gauls still
holds out against the invaders. And life is not easy for the Roman legionaries
who garrison the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and
Compendium.....
 |
| The fists page of every Asterix comic |
The year is 2015 AC. The Netherlands is
entirely occupied by urban civilization. Well, not entirely... One small farm of
indomitable farmers and artists still holds out against the invaders. And life
is not easy for the trucks that bring construction materials for the building
of Leidsche Rijn…
 |
| Google maps. Area of Leidsche Rijn and the location of Rood Noot |
This internship consists of both a theoretical and an artistic research. The theoretical reserach focuses on space and its performative character by looking not only at scholars' discourses on this topic, but also at the way Rood|Noot functions as a space and how it can be characterized in terms of performativity. On the other hand, the artistic research will consist of developing a dramaturgical proposal for a performance based on the theopretical research.
12th week: Rediscovering Rood|Noot: Ecology experiment.
DESCRIPTION OF THE THEORETICAL RESEARCH
I will research the historical background, the spatial structure, the inhabitants and the possibilities of Rood|Noot. A fully description of this theoretical research can be found here below:
1st week: Rood|Noot roots. The first week is dedicated to discovering Rood|Noot’s history. The main question to answer is: How was Rood|Noot originally used?
2nd week: Describing Rood|Noot. On the second week, the focus is on description. The main goal is to describe the different spaces of Rood|Noot in the most accurate, precise, exhaustive and ‘objective’ way. The reason why spatial description is addressed is that it is a dramaturgical tool that can be very useful in order to develop future site-specific projects.
3rd week: Contact people who is now working at Rood|Noot. The objective is to know how people that are related to Rood|Noot (but not in an artistic way) look at this space.
4th week: Contacting artists who worked in Rood|Noot. The main goal is to contact at least five artist that have been working on a performing arts project at Rood|Noot in order to compare their different uses of space.
5th week: Talking to artists who are developing a project at Rood|Noot. The focus in on discussing the work-in-progress of artist that are reflecting on Rood|Noot spaces.
6th week: Animals in Rood|Noot: The aim is to analyze the role of animals within the space. What differs from human uses of space?
7th week: Surroundings and soundscape. Space at Rood|Noot has not only changed because of the different activities that have been taking place during its history, but also because of how the surrounding area has developed. The main goal of the seventh week is to reflect on the impact of the surroundings’ changes on Rood|Noot. It is also a focus on sounds and the relationship between natural and artificial sounds, sounds that come from outside Rood|Noot and sounds that come from inside Rood|Noot.
8th week: Time and space. Is Rood|Noot the same place in the morning, at night or in the afternoon? How does time change space? How does duration have an impact on space?
9th week: Weather and space. Is Rood|Noot the same place when it is sunny, when it is raining or when it is hot? How does weather change space?
10th week: the role of food in Rood|Noot. Food is a very important element in Rood|Noot’s events and activities. It is very much related to the process of creating communities. Then, the question is: How does space depend on food activities?
11th week: Rediscovering Rood|Noot: Feminism experiment. The eleventh week and the twelfth week are dedicated to two different experiments which are approached from two different perspectives: Feminism and Ecology. The aim is to analyze two different ways of looking at space. These two weeks consist on researching feminism and ecology and designing two artistic strategies to approach space from these two different perspectives. These last two weeks will include space laboratories. A laboratory will consist in some performative activities / exercises that will take place in some spaces. Laboratories might include takin photographs, making drawings, etc.
Taking into account the spatial characteristics, the process of enclosing
imposed to Rood|Noot, and the similarities with the Asterix's 'barbarian and
savage' village and its resistance to the 'civilized' Roman empire I would like
to research to what extent Rood|Noot can be considered as the last wild,
barbarian, savage and free space in the area between what used to be Utrecht
and the new district of Leidsche Rijn. Also, I want to work on how this process
of enclosing is also applicable to describe the way humans learn how to become
humans and forget any remembrance of a previous animal stage in their lives. So
the research question for this creative process would be: How is wildness,
pureness, freedom and animality violently set aside and replaced for
civilization? The name of the project will be
Encapsulated Wildness and it will be based on researching Rood|Noot's space and also on four main sources: The Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons from the Wild on Love, Death and Happiness by Mark Rowlands, Walden or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau, Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse and the series of Astërix comics by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. A final performance will be created, as well as a final Internship Report that will include references to these materials and also to the experience of having been working here, at Rood|Noot.
All the materials concerning the artistic research will be posted on the Home page of this blog. The theoretical research materials will be posted on all the other pages of this blog.