ethos and creativity

independence – freedom

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.

The theatre work in our company is a creative process for all of the participants, which leads through the personal experiences and individual manifestations up to the construction of one unified whole.

Every action of art is a manifestation that is an analogy to life, or maybe, even to the Order that determines the nature of life. As creative human beings, we wish to find the  laws encoded in the human soul and actions, in stones and stars.

All of the creators and artists working here at Artus, decided from their own free will to spend most of their time in an unheated factory building with broken windows. The freedom of choice is a keystone of freedom, by itself.

However, real freedom does not mean that we can do anything that we imagine, nor does it mean that we can do whatever we want to. Instead, it helps us understand what our task is in this world, what we need to do, and supports us in willing to do that and carry out the necessary steps and take action.

the creator and the spectator

contemporary and alternative

Our creations mirror our existence – who we are and where we live. However, a real piece of art is not about us, not about the creator. It only becomes a true value if it reaches out to the members of the audience, it speaks to them, touches them, makes them realize their own presence. Discovering themselves, remembering  their true self upon encountering a piece of art: this is the common magic of the artist and the audience.

While perceiving a work of art, we repaint the picture with our gaze, we rewrite the story. Attention and remembrance peels the artificial layers off the artwork and what remains is a personal icon, a sign pointing to us – in a work of art there lies the promise of harmony between the individual self and the world.

The contemporary-alternative thinking man is not fond of rigid conventions, but simultaneously draws inspiration from tradition, and also strives to be actively open to change.

Alternativity is not an institutional or qualifying definition, but a credo, a philosophy, lifestyle and a method of work.

Contemporary-alternative performances, creations have their own, internal language. The tool kit, style and internal logic is formed by the creative process itself and not by some predefined directorial or professional rules, habits or expectations.

The question is, whether the emotion, the concept itself can arouse in the spectator him/herself, can what he/she sees be based on a wholistic and clear inner structure, a unique language, or not. In order to find this “unique language”, there is need for an open, experimenting work process. In such a creation process, participants often discover unknown realms where numerous, seemingly definate rules loose their validity. This is unbelievably interesting and inspiring, and at the same time, infinitely risky, too, because it is not guaranteed that  the performance in process will be compatible with the usual professional expectations or expectations of the audience. At all.

These words all have the same word stem in Hungarian, the mother tongue of most Artus artists.
The world of phenomena is a metaphysical reality. The substance of the phenomena is the sign: a vision unfolding itself through the course of our lives – momentary, yet of great expanse. Visions are veiled by the superficial happenings of life, which are visible only to those who are attentive enough at the right moment. Who are present.

In an artistic sense of meaning, Phenomena is created by the performers and the audience together. The sign and the seeing of the sign – this encounter creates the phenomena, which is formed given that this meeting is intense enough to condense the inner time of the moment and distorts it. This is when the moment becomes eternity. This is when the segregated individual connects to the other individual, to the world, to the universe. Separation is eliminated. The dream of eternal return becomes the absolute reality for that moment. For me, this is the essence of theatre, the moment of catharsis. With each performance, we seek for a new possibility for such an encounter.

Such a meeting is not an instant decoding and analysis, but  falls into the realm of emotions and intuitions. Looking at life with such intensity, we get to the metaphysical reality where we are convinced that in the given moment we finally see reality.

For me, the essence of theatre is not the piece itself, but the quality of the situation (the encounter) in which the people (artists and the audience) take part. In a theatrical situation – which once used to be called celebration, rite, ceremony – leads its participants to a dimension where the chasm between the segregated, lonely individuum and the community disappears. Ritual theatre swings the community, all participants of the encounter to a mythical world, where the individual can finally become his/her true self, because the personal existence does not strain against the community in which they have to live. The matter and the tool of theatre is the performer, the performance, the dance, the word, the space. The essence of theatre is not even the artistic product itself. These all are but tools to make a transcendental and trans-substantiative situation happen.