About the festival school ‘Wrong Families’
Using core themes from their performance Western Society which they will perform as part of the “Homo Novus” festival, Gob Squad will run a 5-day workshop, approaching each day, sharing different strategies for co-creation, guiding participants through social tasks; walking, cooking, karaoke, rituals, slideshows and storytelling, all framed by the concept of ‘wrong families’ and notions of collectivity, to queer the images of the hetro-normative family and celebrate the families we choose.

About Gob Squad
Gob Squad is a group of UK and German artists who make performances and videos which search for beauty in the everyday, and look for words of wisdom from a passing stranger. It’s an artists collective consisting of seven core members working collaboratively on the concept, direction and performance of their work. Other artists, performers and technicians are invited to collaborate on particular projects.
Gob Squad tries to explore the point where theatre meets art, media and real life. As well as theatres and galleries, they place their work at the heart of urban life – in houses, shops, underground stations, car parks, hotels or directly on the street. Everyday life and magic, banality and utopia, reality and entertainment are all set on a collision course and the audience are often asked to step beyond their traditional role as passive spectators and bear witness to the results.
The company was started in Nottingham in 1994 but are now more or less based in Berlin, although they regularly make and present work in the UK, organised through their Nottingham office. They have toured all the continents apart from Antarctica. Their work is regularly shown throughout Europe and they have visited Latvia several times before – for the first time in 2004 leading a workshop fo young Baltic artists in Aizpute, in 2006 their performance “Super Night Shot” was part of “Homo Alibi” festival and in their performance “The Room Service” was part of “Homo Novus” festival in 2007.
www.gobsquad.com
www.homonovus.lv/eng/programme?s=WESen

Participants
The call is reserved for performing arts professionals in various fields of performing arts ( theatre, performance, scenography, choreography, dance, video, sound art etc.).
It’s important that participants are available to participate daily from September 4 – 9 (4.09. – all day, other days 13:00 – 19:00) and also available to visit performance “Western Society” on August 31st or September 1 (complimentary tickets will be provided).
Good knowledge of English is required as all the festival school activities are in English.

Deadline for application: August 13 (23:59), 2023. Selection results will be informed to all applicants by August 16, 2023

Application:https://forms.gle/4yHvcB7nxYgLCUNp7

Festival school is implemented as part of the international project “BE PART”. Supported by EU programme Creative Europe.