STO Union/Nadia Ross

STO Union is considered one of the most artistically innovative groups in Canada and presents its works around the world. So far, STO Union has always worked in metropolises and artistic strongholds. It shifted from the centre to the periphery just about ten years ago. In Canada they work particularly in Wakefield, a community of 1000 residents in Québec. This is a context that has not been loaded in advance with self-referential artistic allusions and in which artists do not permanently work to outdo themselves. In this context the collective rather enters into a direct artistic working process with the small village’s inhabitants. In Vienna, working together with the people living in the Wohnpark Alt-Erlaa, the group developed an evening about experiences at the limits that have more or less radically changed life, either through personal or social crises. These found stories combine to form a common evening which will only be shown once and presents a very personal portrait of the social housing estate. STO Union thus also very concretely asks which role theatres can and should play for the public and the audience, in which form participation really adds value, and how art can generally remain fully functional outside of its own universe. www.stounion.com

“For the last decade, STO Union has been located in the village of Wakefield, Quebec. It’s a community of about 1000 people and they influence much of our work. Some here see community as the way out of the current mess we’ve made of the world we live in. Here there are power hierarchies, corruption and delusion, there is also a feeling of safety, love and support. I was out for a walk in the woods with my friend and we ran into the Village Poet. I asked him what he thinks about community. He answered: ‘Community is everything. Without community, there is nothing. All else is E-lusion’ (his spelling, by which he means Electronic Reality Illusion). ‘It takes a village to make a village!’ he called out as he biked away.” Nadia Ross/STO Union

Creative team Nadia Ross, Sarah Conn, Michael Schiesser Technical direction Rob Scott Tour manager/agent Sarah Rogers Associate artist George Acheson Design/pictures/video The Wakefield Art Collective

A co-production of STO Union and brut Wien in cooperation with Wohnpark Alt-Erlaa. With the kind support of the Canada Council of the Arts and Forum 23.

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