Ark

Ark is a major public project that is being delivered in seven cities across Europe in 2020-21.  Proposed by Quarantine and commissioned by ‘Moving Borders’, the project is led by a consortium of theatres, festivals and public bodies with funding from the European Union’s Creative Europe programme.

Ark will be delivered collaboratively by Quarantine, the Moving Borders consortium, local partners and local people in Strasbourg, France; Athens, Greece; Utrecht, the Netherlands; Dresden and Mülheim, Germany; Porto, Portugal; and Warsaw, Poland.

In each of the seven cities, we’ll invite local people – artists, activists, experts (of many kinds) and others  – to create the ark they want to make. Each ark will take a different form and become a site for encounters, the exchange of knowledge and ideas, and conversation…

Through Ark, we hope to bring people together who would not usually meet and find a methodology for dissent. As we face deepening political divisions across Europe, heated debate around migration and rights of belonging, and the accelerating climate crisis, Ark will configure the circumstances for a progressive democratic space. The kind that political theorist Chantal Mouffe describes as agonistic pluralism.

Each iteration of Ark will respond to its local context, but they will be united by an interest in the notion of ‘borders’ and how they manifest in our cities and in our lives – in both productive and unproductive ways.  The current pandemic will inevitably affect the way we relate to one another and to public space, and we’re challenged and fascinated to see how this filters into and influences Ark.

The development of Ark has begun through online conversations between Quarantine and each of the local partners.  Moving Borders will continue with laboratories and workshops in autumn 2020. Ark will be delivered across Europe in spring and summer 2021. Find out more and follow the progress of the project, here: movingborders.org