Open Space 2023Open Space 2023

She focuses in particular on disappearing ways of living, such as squatting, refuges and social housing. Narrators and listeners together rebuild spaces that have been lost with the help of storytelling. Drawing on collective memory, they can visit places that now exist only in the experience that storytellers transmit to their audience. In this first act of the project, Bryan, Brooklyn and Jaleesa take visitors to places like the Rotterdam sanctuary Pension Almonde, which from 2019 to 2021 offered a home to modern city nomads, adventurous travellers and orphaned neighborhood initiatives.

With a particular focus on the disappearing alternative ways of living – like squatting, social housing and free spaces – Wish I Were Here aims to add onto the standard archival photos, text and films that tend to objectify homes in terms of materials and economics. This project seeks a way to create an archive of memories, emotions and experiences that are transmitted from one body to another.

In Act 1 of Wish I Were Here, three storytellers invite visitors into the Almondestraat. In 2019, City in the Making provided a free space here in the north of Rotterdam: Pension Almonde. In this experiment, 53 soon-to-be-demolished houses became a temporary home for modern city nomads, adventurous boarders and orphaned neighbourhood initiatives. It grew into an open and loving community where everything was possible. In April 2021 the inhabitants needed to leave: the street was about to be demolished. Yet as of now the abandoned buildings are still there, while the street stands empty and broken. Physically, this street is no longer what it used to be, but mentally it is still alive. In Wish I Were Here you get a chance to wander through the street as it is in the memory of Bryan, Brooklyn and Jaleesa and beome part of this community, even if just for a moment.

The methodologies used in Wish I Were Here are built on a legacy of participatory theatre that facilitates social, psychological and political growth through empowering performer and audience. The storytellers of Wish I Were Here undergo coaching sessions to help them find their own story and distinct way of storytelling. Through the material developed in these coaching sessions, a visualisation of the space is made to express their memory and associations. The abstract visualisation forms the basis of the theatrical set and an audience is invited to step into an immersive storytelling experience. In the exhibition you will find a translation of these storytelling performances in an audio-visual installation that you can wander through.

The Almondestraat has an extensive and still-growing archive with photos, videos and texts, yet the aim of Wish I Were Here is to counter the objectifying nature of these and to offer an experience of the place by immersing visitors in the environment, giving them a glimpse of what it feels like to be there. Wish I Were Here provides a way to access the lost place – if only a storyteller takes us there.

Thyrza Coenraad is a Rotterdam-based theatrical and social designer with an MA in social design from the Design Academy Eindhoven. Her practice is based on discovering how we can use theatre techniques as a methodology to design for grounded social change. With her company puntCO she is developing her own theatre experiences, as well as freelancing for local theatres as a hands-on designer while at the same time successfully applying these methods to more unconventional environments like the Municipality of Rotterdam.