| NGO Teine Tants / Kanuti Gildi SAAL | Tallinn 2011- European Capital of Culture |
Performing Arts Festival of Tallinn - POT Festival is organised by NGO Teine Tants / Kanuti Gildi SAAL (with the partners Von Krahl Theatre and Rakvere Theatre) and took place from 20th of April to 7th of May 2011 as a part of the program of Tallinn 2011- European Capital of Culture.
Festival is dedicated to new creations, artists who have their own vision of the world and audiences who dare to call their vision of the world into question. It is a cosmopolitan, urban festival turning the spotlight on the many facets of the performing arts. Especially they try to show the works where theatre and visual arts and technologies are combined, and consist of performances, concerts and different interdisciplinary projects created for the festival.
From Japan, chelfitsch participated in this festival. Their participation was a great chance to introduce the status of the Japanese contemporary performing arts to the local as well as international audiences.
chelfitsch Theater Company was founded in 1997 by Toshiki Okada, who writes and directs all of the company’s productions. The name “chelfitsch” comes from a baby’s mispronunciation of the English word "selfish." It first defined its radical aesthetic philosophy by using an extremely colloquial Japanese in Surprised by Their Hopes premiered in March of 2001. With Five Days in March [Sangatsu no Itsukakan] (2004), which won the prestigious Kunio Kishida Award for Best Script, and Apartment [Mansion] (2002), chelfitsch began to refine its aesthetics by juxtaposing words with a peculiarly noisy choreography derived from everyday gestures. The company's international debut was in 2007, when Five Days in March was invited to KUNSTENFESTIVALDESART in Brussels. The works of chelfitsch have been enthusiastically received at prominent international theater festivals and venues throughout Europe and Asia, including Brussels, Paris, Cardiff, Salzburg and Singapore.
In October 2009, “Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech” premiered in Berlin, in co-production with Hebbel Am Ufer (Berlin).
Company’s WEB SITE http://chelfitsch.net/
