Co-creation and remote geographical locations:Interview with the spain-based Collective

Manon and Rebeca from the Spain-based collective present different views on how distance can or cannot create space for artistic collaboration.

The iCoDaCo project is based on virtual collaboration between ten collectives across Europe. Do you think it is possible to fully co-create live art without sharing a physical space?

Rebeca García Celderán: I think it is possible. It’s not a way of working that interests me the slightest, but I think the challenge it presents could be a great source of creative inspiration. Perhaps, if once this becomes a new normal, the real challenge will be to get back to creating whilst sharing a studio.

Manon Siv Duquesnay: I do not think so. I think that for the art to be live, there has to be a physical moment at some point. To start the idea, the motivation, or to nourish it or to finish it. It is like a long distance relationship, if there isn’t a physical meeting at some point, I think it fades out.

How do you evaluate the organization, communication, and tools that were used to bring the collectives closer together and give their artistic research a unified direction?

Rebeca and Manon: I found the organisation and communication to be impeccable. The way in which regular online meetings were scheduled, along with written summaries, links to documents and folders accessible to all participants, enabled us to build the project together.

The choice of tiers has been very inspiring: the emphasis on our personal and artistic desires, the tier that placed the audience at the centre, the talk of collective imagination and the body politics… It has all been very inspiring for me.

I’m not a fan of Google’s tools. I detest that company. I understand that, given the scale of the project, it was the only tool available. That’s why I prefer more local projects, where people and organisations can discover and learn about technology that is more human, transparent and less authoritarian.

What were the biggest challenges of collaborating remotely? Without the possibility of meeting in person, did you encounter moments of misunderstanding or differing interpretations?

Manon: The biggest challenge was to stay present and awake sharing 3 hours on a screen, the motivation and interest was there, just the screen tires me after a while. I think the encompassing collective did a great job in making the Saturday sharing more and more creative and live even though we were sharing remotely. I’m sure also there has been misunderstandings on the way, even if we might not even be aware of them still. 

On the other hand, did working separately as diverse collectives lead to any new or unexpected approaches or interpretations?

Manon: For sure it has been very interesting to see the materials that the other collectives have been sharing, and positively surprising how differently we interpreted the tiers sometimes, even if they were very clear. This shows us how dance is approached differently in the different countries, thus different interpretations. Of course also because of language (a.o. English and artistic language)

Do you see this model as the future of international artistic collaboration?

Rebeca: I find the model extremely interesting in terms of the personal connections it fosters amongst artists, who can share their resources with artists from other countries with a view to facilitating the circulation of artworks beyond art fairs, mass calls for entries or direct contacts with programme curators. This human network of artists is a fantastic tool for opening up new horizons beyond one’s own country and gaining access to them through direct contact with that country’s social fabric.