The main idea for the eARTh project is conceived when one tries to answer the following question: “What is it like to get on a bus that does not follow a regular route but sets artistic destinations around Europe and when reaches them remains still and turns into an artistic work space?”
Following the formalism of modernist and avant-garde theatre in the wake of the 1950s and 1960s experiments that moved performances out of traditional theatre buildings into real, social spaces (in the form of happenings, documentary theatre, living theatre, café théâtre, fringe theatre etc.), eARTh project consortium team members chose to set artistic events outside theatres. The bus-workshop/performance is meant to travel around EU countries – an allusion to the booth stages of medieval and renaissance theatre and some of their later, adapted forms, like the Greek traveling theatre groups of the 19th and early 20th centuries (the so-called “bouloukia”).
The idea of “roving artists” or the aforementioned Greek “bouloukia” strengthens the concept of being an artist in a changing world and society and helps bring together diverse background experiences, breaking down borders and dividing lines.
