Contained (2017)

Contained is a project connecting experience, research, and creative learning to provoke thoughts and contribute to dialogues and greater understanding about migration. The project began in 2016 as a collaboration between researcher Marieke van Houte and Anja Meinhardt of physical theatre company Justice in Motion, together with storyteller and teacher Remco Heijmans. They developed a trilogy of immersive, physical and participatory performances and creative learning tools.

In 2017, Justice in Motion will take one part of the trilogy – CONTAINED: Pecking Order – on tour. Marieke van Houte is further developing another part – The Extraordinary Queuing Experience – both as a performance and as an experimental research method. Marieke will also develop CONTAINED Project further and is keen to create more creative connections that trigger dialogues on migration.

CONTAINED Project does not have a moral message on what we should think or do about migration and it is not designed to simply evoke sympathy for migrants and refugees. We want instead to create a dialogue based on better understanding of migration and what it means to be a migrant.

CONTAINED refers to shipping containers, which provides a metaphor for what this project is about: The courage it takes of migrants and refugees to use risky means of transport on their journeys to Europe. The entrepreneurship and the global economy that lies behind the migration industry. And, more abstractly, the frames and boxes that define our views and lifestyles. CONTAINED Project is about opening up dialogue by challenging ourselves to look beyond the confines of our own container!