Artus is an open and versatile creative art studio, the meeting point of different people, ideas, art forms and disciplines.
Artus denotes both the company of Gábor Goda and a 2000 m2 space for art creation – the Artus Studio – that was shaped from a former abandoned factory building – as well as the collective of 30 artists working here, and also the Association that provides the infrastructural background for our work.
Artus Company is an independent, contemporary, interdisciplinary art company, founded in 1985. We have created more than 100 performances since our establishment, and performed in more than 25 different countries around the world. We have been organizing international projects, residencies and co-productions since the very beginning.
Among the regular programs of the studio are the productions of Artus Company, guest performances, visual art exhibitions, musical and other cultural events, as well as self-awareness and movement workshops and trainings.
– The river itself is the natural border of Mexico and Guatemala. Back in 2006, when we worked here with the company, we were standing at its bank, and watched the strange boats for hours, dazzled and enchanted, pondering, as if we saw ourselves in them. The image was quite symbolic and emblematic. This is Artus. Stand-alone, colourful boats that all dropped anchor in the same place for a while. There is something common in them, and yet, they are all very unique. At present, they are there at the shore, all together, working on something. However, they can move on anytime. The river is by itself both a boundary and a bond between two different worlds. And at the same time, the river and the boats, in this sense, stand for freedom, the freedom of making decisions, as well as the freedom of human and artistic togetherness. Individually, each of us can decide where he or she drops the anchor, and when they will move on and sail away. This conscious decision is what creates the quality of our coexistence.
The most essential feature of Artus is the creative energy, that reaches beyond the production of performances, and requires a person who is in hold of creative power and is capable of directing – his/her own life in the first place – in a creative way. Creativity is, as a matter of fact, Life Energy itself.
Gábor Goda – The Founder of Artus
EPHEMER WORKS – the essence of Artus
Presenting our performances to public is usually preceded by nearly a year long preparation.
Ephemer Works is, however, a performance that is born within a single day. The performing artists of Artus create a unique, unrepeatable one-off performance-event during a single day of intensive rehearsal, centered around a specific theme for the night. Thus, each Ephemer Works is a premiere and a final appearance, a first and last show at the same time. Anything happening in the course of each event will never be seen in that very form ever again.
Each and every event of the Ephemer Works series is a unique, out-of-the-ordinary, unpredictable and exciting encounter for both the artists and the audience. No stage. No auditorium. While the public and the artists are chatting freely at the tables, just like in a café, different visual, musical, and theatre actions continually take place around them.
The most fitting term to describe this indescribable genre could be a „contemporary variety play” or „performance-pub series.”
Every single Ephemer Works is a full-length, individual, complete creation that nevertheless points beyond itself, as it is always thematically closely linked to the creation of the upcoming larger-scale production of Artus, which requires longer preparation. Hereby, the creativity and genuine, unconventional responses to the issues raised by the main theme of each Ephemer Works, inspire, ground and continuously build the next Artus production to be born. Among the latest productions that came to life this way belong Ulysses Living Room, 1+1=1, SUTRA, Drip Canon, Swarm, and The Gate of the Wind.
The Ephemer Works action series debuted in 2010, and had gone past its 50th edition by the end of 2018.
Artus studio often invites guest artists to take part in the creation of one of the Ephemer Works episodes. Besides the genres of theatre and dance, there are regularly visual artists, musicians, intermedia artists, filmmakers, programmers, and occasionally Hungarian or foreign companies joining the creative work process.
