the Phillip Project is a multimedia artistic collaboration project based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
In August 2001 choreographer Michael Jahoda and Finnish video artist Pasi Granqvist embarked on an unruly and unfunded research project in search of a new form of artistic expression that could seamlessly fuse the visual arts and the performing arts and erase the boundary between the performer and the public. They focused their research on questions of freedom and collaboration, and in the first phase of their research they created Phillip.
Phillip is the leitmotif of the Phillip Project. He is a multifaceted fictitious character – part everyday man / part super hero – who comes to life in a variety of media forms in a series of multi-media Episodes that document his endless quest to find the answer to the big question: “What is freedom”?.
Throughout the series Phillip has been portrayed in pure dance, spoken word, video images, broken glass, saturated film, a one man disco, electronic sounds, whispering voices, a tap dancing swimmer, throbbing light, endless loops and repetitions, bombastic drums, as a pig, as a child, as a prince, as a super hero, as a martyr…
the Phillip Project has created 17 unique, site-specific Episodes. Each Episode is created by a select group of collaborators and focuses on a specific aspect of Phillip’s endless quest to define and defend his own sense of freedom, and redefine his life, death and resurrection. The Episodes have ranged from a simple film installation, to an intimate site-specific film and sound installation, to a one-hour performance installation, to a club lounge, to a dance party, to a five-hour performance event, to a solo mono-media performance, to an acoustic performance-installation event, to “proper” stage performance.
the Phillip Series has been supported by various Dutch, Swedish, Finnish and American foundations, organizations and theaters including the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Fonds voor the Podium Kunsten, Dans Ateliers Rotterdam, Dans Werkplaats / Dansmakers Amsterdam, Frascati Theater Amsterdam, Lantaren/Venster Rotterdam, Zodiak Center for new dance, Helsinki, Internationella Dansprogrammets Residens i MALMÖ, Green Street Studios, Cambridge, Conny Janssen Danst, Rotterdam and LeineRoebana, Amsterdam.
