About ZID
ZID – City Arts & Performance Centre, is a cultural organisation located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. ZID produces performances and festivals and realises projects together with art professionals, local residents and target groups. ZID operates locally, nationally and internationally.
Who and why
The organisation was founded and is led by theatre makers Karolina Spaic and Sebo Bakker. Since 2015, theatre maker Daan Bosch has joined the artistic core team.
In the Balkans, ZID means ‘the wall’. For ZID, it stands for breaking through and taking down walls between people by means of theatre.
Diverse, artistic, socially involved
Art has the power to amaze, to bring out the best in people, and to connect with each other.
An inclusive approach is ZID’s drive to connect art and social issues. This is the framework in which ZID produces not only performances, but also projects with various target groups that address urgent social issues like poverty and/or solitude.
The theatre makers use the ZID-methodology, which emphasizes a co-creation between various theatre makers and participants, using their talents, stories and experiences.
ZID uses stories from theatre makers and citizens, which you normally wouldn’t come across with in theatre. ZID wants art to be accessible for everyone and often reaches out to a new, diverse audience that doesn’t often go to the theatre.
This working method transforms current social issues into artistic processes with a broad group of participants from different target groups, which, in a joint process with the artists, lead to successful results and beautiful productions. The multidisciplinary performances and projects from ZID bring the world around us on the stage.
Methodology and Training
The ZID-method has two pillars, co-creation and training. This ensures the artistic team and all participants have the necessary tools to commence the artistic process. The training is deeply rooted in the tradition of ZID and has its origins in physical theatre, anthropological theatre and the stimulation of creativity. This joint training ensures a profitable start of the co-creation between the entire artistic team, theatre makers and citizens. ZID often asks international experts from ZID’s wide network for to play a role in the trainings.
www.zidacademy.nl
International
Because of international stages, conferences and platforms, there is a lot of demand for ZID’s method and its productions.
ZID attaches great importance to working on an international level and exchanging experiences. ZID has toured with productions, taught classes and participated in conferences in various European countries, South America, the United States and Morocco.
ZID is the Dutch representative in the European project Caravan NEXT, a large-scale partnership of 16 partners from 14 EU countries. Caravan NEXT started in 2016 and runs until the end of 2019.
Within this network of international partners, knowledge and experiences about participatory art forms are exchanged. ZID has organised the international ExploreZ festival four times, three in Amsterdam and The Hague, and one in Belgrade, Serbia.
www.explorez.nl
Audience engagement
Many people are involved with ZID on a yearly basis; either as participant and/or as member of the audience. 10.000 in 2015. 15.000 in 2016 because of two editions of the international festival ExploreZ. And 25.000 in 2018.
