The 2084 Project

EN

BACKGROUND
Climate change is a global issue that goes beyond individual, regional, cultural, and national borders. However, despite international efforts, society’s collective grasp of climate change remains fragmented, leading to challenges in dealing with it with joint efforts across cultures and countries. The 2084 project aims to harness the transformative power of arts to drive societal change by envisioning Europe in the year 2084, radically affected by climate change and related threats.
The 2084 project aims to foster sustainable creation in the field of performing arts through an international collaboration involving partners from Hungary, France, and Poland. Our main objective is to lay the groundwork for sustainable performing art practices, focusing on creating productions, with climate change as a subject, that is environmentally responsible and can serve as a model for future creators committed to sustainability.

WORK PROCESS
The project will include a series of three-week-long intensive artistic residencies, hosted in each partner country. During these residencies, the project’s core artistic team will collaborate with local artists to create the 2084 performance and exhibition in each locale. These residencies are designed to foster local engagement and integrate the global themes of the project with the environmental challenges and stories unique to each area. During the artistic creation, we will ensure that our creative processes and presentations are conducted in an environmentally friendly manner. The culmination of each residency will be a local theatre performance and exhibition. After the premiere of the performances, the work developed on stage will be able to stand on its own within the local contexts, without the direct involvement of the original creators. This independence allows the production to continue addressing climate change issues and promoting sustainable production practices, making a lasting impact in the community and beyond. In addition to the performances, the core artistic team of the project will work with local fine artists to create an exhibition during each residency. The exhibition will present the 2084 Project as well as reflect on environmental consciousness in a local context. Scheduled to be set up and opened by the end of each residency, these exhibitions aim to leave a lasting impression within the local community, staying in place after the residency concludes, continuing to inspire and engage audiences with the projects themes and messages.

CONCEPT OF THE PERFORMANCE
2084 is visioned as a nonverbal, movement-based, physical, and visual theater performance. Referring to George Orwell’s novel (1984). It explores the likely consequences of social and environmental change in the 21st century and tells a fictional, utopistic, and symbolic story of humanity in 2084. It strives to react to the current challenges of climate change demonstrating how global warming and related threats affect our present and near future. It mirrors how we enlarge disagreements and segregation of humankind in times of difficulties, while we need peace and unity to resolve the threats we have caused.
The story of the performance is inspired by a Polish drama, Out at Sea (Na pełnym morzu) by Sławomir Mrożek. As in the biblical story of the Arc of Noah, a group of archetypal animals as refugees from various problems caused by climate change are traveling on a raft of plastic rubbish at the open sea in the year 2084. They symbolize humans from different countries forced to be together defenselessly. They carry their memories, sorrow, and frustration of the past. Despite their differences, they are in great need of each other to find a new home.