misunderstanding each other since 2003

Fence Archive

13. Guadeloupe, 2010

Curated by Alain Foix, in partnership with ETC Caraibe,

20 writers and cultural operators spent a week in Guadeloupe working with 20 Caribbean counterparts

Alain et sa tante

Notes from Anja Krans:

Minutes Fence meeting 20-11-2010, Guadeloupe

(Josette, Gaetane, Dieter, Travis, Ava, Neil, Philip, Alain, Fred, Andrei, Gabriel, Mohamed, Sarah D, Dipo, Kazem, Sarah C, Marilena, Ariel, Daniel, Larry, Denis, Evelyne, Yakoundi, Anja)

Status of the meeting: evaluation of what we’ve done, and the future. Of course everyone from ETC/Caraibes can be part of Fence. Fence is an open network, without hierarchy.

Report about last Fence meeting, October 2010 in Glasgow: Dipo Agboluaje was one of the few people there. The Fence meeting happened during IETM (International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts). The Fence meeting is often linked to festivals or existing network meetings, because it allows us to extend our network and get a new experience in different spaces and amongst different cultures. In Glasgow it was about meeting Scottish playwrights (Playwright's Studio Scotland) and their culture; the IETM (www.ietm.org) was also about different voices. The Scottish are still looking for different ways to explain the Scottish identity. The importance of Guadeloupe is, contrary to Scotland, that it opened up to the world, that you don't stick with the voices that you share in a historical way. What was also interesting for the Fence is that the Scottish Playwrights’ meeting didn't particularly integrate into the IETM meeting, but that there were two meetings side by side. Organizing the Fence within the framework of a festival or IETM structure has the advantage that people can watch performances as well.

Dipo suggests we should think of our position towards the IETM, the next time. In general the Glasgow Fence meeting went very well: we got to understand the practice and theatre in this country, in their own environment, which is one of the goals of Fence. Philip Le Moine (board member of IETM) explains that there's a misconception of the relation between Fence - IETM. You can use the umbrella of IETM and the fact that there are many performances; but you still do your own thing…

Dissemination of text produced in Guadeloupe/possible publishing: Alain explains that the idea exists of making an anthology of the texts. It should be released November 2011 in Paris, when the meeting Paris-Caribe will be organized, and all Caribbean playwrights will be invited to come to Paris. Alain has asked his publisher if we could publish the texts that have been produced here, and she’s willing to do so, even though she’s not a regular theatre books publisher. Ariel thinks it's important to realize that what’s been produced so far, is nothing more than a first draft. Shouldn’t we wait with publishing and keep on working on the text? Or we publish it saying it is the outcome of 8 hours of work? We need to explain the context as well. An editor might be needed. Alain says that the publisher is professional and she will not publish bad texts. And there's still 9 months to work on it. Which means it's an opportunity for us to collaborate and improve the texts. It's work in progress until November 2011. Alain offers to try to help this process and see if he can develop this at his company in France, by creating residencies.

Sarah C: it will be good to have a deadline. Alain will take the lead in the process from now on. He adds that it will be a bundling of texts, not only the ones written in Guadeloupe but others as well, referring to the Caribbean writing, manifests, contextual stories etc. They could all be part of the publication.

Who's collecting everything that's been written? Besides ETC others are also interested in reading what has been produced. Sarah D. and Anja will work something out to make all texts (drafts) available for the group (i.e. not public).