 Images
of Asia
About Images of Asia
In August and September 2003, the festival
Images of Asia is virtually hitting the streets of Denmark. An
Asia on the Road caravan will tour the country, setting up
billboards in the landscape, showing videos, giving theatre
performances, and in various other ways presenting images, sounds,
smells, and tastes of Asia to a Danish public. Furthermore,
activities such as school projects, dialogue programmes, and media
cooperation will be initiated as part of the festival.
Images of Asia aims at making Danes reflect on their conception
of Asia and at fostering a dialogue between Danes and Asians about
the values on which the interaction between Denmark and Asia
should be based. Furthermore, the festival seeks to increase the
Danish understanding of contemporary Asia as well as to establish
mutual cooperation between Danes and Asians in a number of areas
such as arts, teaching, organisation, research etc.
MS Nepal and Images of Asia
MS Nepal is part of the Images of Asia through participation in
two projects: the project Hopes and Dreams and a joint
theatre project carried out by three theatre groups from Nepal,
the Philippines, and India.
Furthermore, MS-Nepal supports the Black Box project.
Project Hopes and Dreams
The project Hopes and Dreams is an interactive photo exhibition
about the hopes and dreams of young Nepalese girls and boys. The
main target group of the exhibition is school children in Denmark,
but hopefully it will also reach a broader audience. On the basis
of a folder and an exhibition showing photos of young Nepalese
girls and boys along with their statements concerning their hopes
and dreams for the future, Danish youth is encouraged to reflect
on the similarities and differences between their own future and
that of young Nepalese girls and boys. Furthermore, the Danish
students are stimulated to reflect on where their own dreams come
from and which factors - such as media images, economic
possibilities, and family expectations - control their dreams.
The Hopes and Dreams exhibition will be touring Denmark during the
month of September 2003.
Aarohan Theatre
As part of the Images of Asia programme Asia on the Road,
MS Nepal is cooperating with Aarohan Theatre Group in Kathmandu.
Together with one Philippine and one Indian theatre group, Aarohan
will bring Asian street theatre tradition to the Danish
pavements.
In
cooperation with several of MS Nepal’s partner organisations,
Aarohan has adapted the Brazilian dramatist Augusto Boal’s ideas
of Forum Theatre to a Nepalese context. The main aim of forum
theatre is to inspire dialogue, reflection, and participation
among the audience. Initially, a group of actors will spend a
period of time in a local community, observing and discussing with
locals which conflicts, problems, and joys they experience in
their everyday life. Based on this, the actors will then make up a
story that somehow embodies one or several of the themes that are
of central importance to the community. When giving their
performance, the actors only present the first half of a story.
After this, they ask the audience to decide on its continuance. In
ever which way the audience wants the story to continue, the
actors will play it. Various suggestions and their consequences
are being explored and solutions may be found. In this way, the
audience is made to reflect on the themes of the play and to take
a stance in this regard. By thus giving people an opportunity to
explore ways of response to various real-life challenges in a
non-real setting, forum theatre becomes a kind of ‘rehearsal for
life’. The stage is no longer a platform only for showing a
play, but becomes an interactive forum where a dialogue
between various members of the community can take place.
Similarly, the audience no longer merely consists of spectators,
but of people who participate actively in the play as well as – at
a symbolic level - in their own life.
In its Nepalese version, forum theatre is called Kachahari.
The word ‘Kachahari’ means a village gathering or a local instance
of justice. Thus, in a Nepalese context, the forum theatre method
refers to a traditional kind of people’s court where villagers
gather to discuss and resolve conflicts in their own community.
For further reading about Aarohan and the theatre project
The Black Box project
The Black Box project aims at making Danish school children
reflect on their images of Asia and at creating exchange between
students and teachers in Denmark and Asia. With the guidance of
their teachers, Danish students in grades 7 to 9 will at first
explore their present conception of Asia. On this basis, each
student will create a sort of artistic installation or collage in
a small black box. Next, photos of this box along with personal
letters will be sent to an Asian partner school and will
concurrently be exposed on the Internet, making it possible for
students in Asia to provide comments and engage in discussions
with their Danish student counterparts. During the summer, the
Danish students will make the final amendments to their black
boxes, and these will be exhibited in Denmark from September.
From Nepal, one children’s self-help group of Children-Nepal in
Pokhara will participate in the Black Box project. At the MS Nepal
web pages, you will be able to follow the development of the Black
Box activities during the months of May throughout September.
For more information and links on Theatre of the Oppressed see:
 LINKS
Children-Nepal:
http://literacy.org/sltp2/people/paudel/nepalcase.html
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