Sustainability of the Performing Arts Explored
in the 2020s with an Outlook for the 2040s
_Focused on the IETM Report

Jeon KangHee(performing arts critic and dramaturg)

In 2020, we suddenly faced a world we thought we would face only in 2040. Before 2020, a few performing arts companies, which were greatly interested in artistic experiments of radical forms and content, attempted certain new things. But those things became challenges for everyone to reflect on and to meet. For example, even in 2020, some artists seriously considered the accessibility and inclusiveness (e.g. barrier-free performance and relationship with the community) by asking this question: “Are theaters open to all?” Others questioned the gender ratio of the artists at festivals and public theaters every year. Others actively adopted technology as an artistic language. Others shared their ideas about addressing climate change. Others actively raised their voices to suggest the policy direction of public institutions. There were only a few artists making such attempts so they were often considered radical artists in the Korean performing arts scene. But as the coronavirus began to overwhelm the world in 2020, the challenges that only a few radical artists had explored became the ones for all artists.

Throughout the year 2020, different Korean and international forums took place online and residencies also focused on current challenges. Some performing arts companies shared performance videos on their social networking sites for a limited period of time, thus attempting paid online videos. Other companies shared their plays with a few sponsors in order to form a basis for sustainable creation and to maintain their relationship with the audience. Some of the Korean artists have always sought the sustainability of the performing arts since the period before the pandemic, thus trying to find their paths. What is regrettable is the fact that there is no space where they voices meet and that there is no channel where their voices resonate strategically.

In other countries, there is a case of gathering together artists for such challenges, doing workshops together, sharing their ideas and developing them into a report containing concrete strategies. That is the case of the International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts (IETM). IETM is a platform of global contemporary performing artists whose genres encompass the theater, dance, performances, multidisciplinary forms and new media. It has more than 500 members from different institutions and groups. Some of the network’s members work for festivals and theater companies. Others are producers, artists and researchers. And others belong to research centers, universities and education organizations. The title of the report is ‹Rewiring the Network (for the Twenties) - Resetting the agenda for IETM›. Why does IETM try to rewire the network and reset the agenda? To find answers to this question, we first need to understand how IETM has developed.
 

IETM 보고서 표지
@www.ietm.org

IETM was launched in 1981 as an “unofficial theater meeting in Europe.” Currently, over 50 countries participate in IETM. More than 80% of its programs take place in Europe but for the past few years, it also had programs involving Asia and the Middle East. They also began to accept members from North America and Australia and they have partnerships with Africa and South America. Reflecting such changes, IETM redefined its identity as an “international network for the performing arts.” In this way, IETM has expanded globally but the pandemic posed a threat of reducing the network. Under these circumstances, IETM came to explore today’s meaning of the network and it had several workshops and meetings to write a report on “rewiring the network.”

@www.ietm.org

At first, IETM highlighted the following factors for their goals:

- International mobility throughout Europe
- More and larger productions (production capacity)
- Sustainable career development for artists
- Creating public support
- Democratization of contemporary arts

Throughout the year 2020, these goals developed into five challenges. How to meet these challenges also concerns Korean artists today.

- Hypermobility and ecological impact vs. isolation
- Inflation of coproductions and fragmentation
- More artists living in precarious situation
- Budget cuts and instrumentalisation
- Creation of meaningful relationships with the local audience and arts scene

About 140 members of IETM participated in the online workshops and meetings. They concluded that the sustainability of the preforming arts ecosystem requires them to consider “human, social, economic, ecological and artistic values.” The members of the network came up with these five values in an attempt to transform the changes of the year 2020 into meaningful ones. Then they divided each of these values into four subcategories which are more specific, resulting in 20 “building blocks.” If artists make effort to transform the changes of the year 2020 into meaningful ones, they will be able to carry out a sustainable arts practice while applying the 20 building blocks in a new performing arts ecosystem by 2040. The 20 building blocks, which belong to the five values, are as follows:.

- The Human Value
1. Fair practice
2. A shared leadership that allows everyone to thrive
3. A better work-life balance
4. Fostering learning, growth and development for each
- The Social Value
5. Equal access and inclusion for diverse audiences
6. Demonstrable impact of the arts on society (and systems enabling this)
7. Collaboration is key. It requires inclusive practices and education.
8. Synergies beyond the arts to reach different sectors in society
- The Economic Value
9. New, alternative and sustainable business models
10. Fair pay and security as workers
11. Sharing spaces and resources
12. Diverse revenue streams for artists through broader local, regional and national funding schemes
- The Ecological Value
13. Reciprocity of humans and nature through ecological awareness
14. Ecological artistic production practices by slowing down the cycle of creation
15. Meaningful and green mobility
16. Rethinking internationalization. ‘Working internationally’ will mean not only artists’ traveling abroad but also the mobility of ideas.
- The Artistic Value
17. The artistic value is center stage. What is essential isn’t an artwork itself but the impact of art on someone’s life including society and economy.
18. Artists will have a major role not only in the studio but also in artistic institutions and policy processes.
19. An environment of concentrating on a long-term process rather than producing visible results rapidly
20. Create space for transformation while influencing other practices and domains

The report has led me to rethink international exchange. IETM elaborates not only on today’s world facing the pandemic but also on the international exchange that will continue to be valid in 2040. First and foremost, what caught my attention in the report was this: “When increasingly forced to work internationally at high speed, many artists find it difficult to come out of their international performing arts bubble...” It makes clear how artists are exposed to an environment where they cannot work slowly. As collaboration becomes important and as the production of a work is sponsored by multiple institutions and even multiple countries, the production process becomes fragmented. The report says that we need to question if such a process is helpful for a work-life balance in artists’ lives. Ultimately, this is also about questioning if the social system operates in a way that gives artists a sufficient amount of time to work. Korea is also making more and more attempts to create a work environment where artists have sufficient time to think. Examples of this would be and which were planned as a new artistic director came to the National Theater Company of Korea in 2020. Starting from artists’ real concerns, these projects provide them with concrete support so that they can experience different phases of production (i.e. research, workshops, showcases and production of the main performance) for an extended period of time.

Moreover, the report associates international exchange with “environmental issues.” It elaborates on the pollution that is generated by artists’ air travel when they go to overseas performance venues and come back after performing there. In this regard, it explains the need to reframe international exchange. That is, not only physical mobility but also the channel of moving, sharing and developing information (i.e. ideas) will also be an essential part of international exchange in the future. There is a great example of such international exchange that doesn’t involve the artist’s physical mobility. That’s Coldplay’s performance of their new song “Higher Power” at the BRIT Awards on May 11. On a floating stage on the River Thames in London, Korea’s Ambiguous Dance Company appeared as neon-colored holograms. The performance, which was broadcast live around the world, showed that artists could engage in international exchange without meeting each other in person.

Coldplay’s Performance at the BRIT Awards1)

The report says, “Create the urgency to stop doing unsustainable things”. This seems to summarize the pandemic year of 2020 we experienced. If we need to find a new path, we should keep it valuable by 2040. I thus look forward to having an occasion to discuss such a new path with many different performing artists and companies.

1) Coldplay BRIT Awards, Coldplay - Higher Power (Live at The BRIT Awards, London 2021), Youtube, 2021.5.12.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiqEEr7CK2g