"Feel the Heat" is a theatrical performance informed by climate change and the potential consequences of global warming onto the future of "cultural" borders. The project definitely puts the theory of "civilisation clashes" in the oubliettes- une fois n'est pas coutume; and proposes to take the consequences of climate CHANGE as a platform to start re-thinking identities. If some have decided to lead a "war on climate change" (and often more on change full stop, than anything else), the project team believes there are positive lessons to learn from this climatic worlwide phenomenon.
Climate change is forcing borders to undergo a process of change- borders as physical/territorial and social/cultural. Through this, not only economical, demograhical and climatological factors are in the balance, but cultural interactions and collective identity formats are to be challenged, questioned and reformulated.
e.g. what if Denmark were to be submerged? Could Danish people, having to emigrate to other places, still claim to be Danish? Would they then be recognised as Danish? Do national borders define identity?
e.g. what if the temperature of Oslo became that of Barcelona? Would that make Oslo a ”Southern” European city?
Climate change is challenging the artificial notion of territory + culture = identity; therefore opening new doors to perception, and challenging old clivages, representations and stereotypes.
The "Feel the Heat" project team not only comes from diverse professional backgrounds: history, political science, architecture, design, performing arts. They also come from diverse places in the world: Norway, Finland, Denmark, Germany, France, Australia. Their aim: " Make full sense of this interdiscplinary and multicultural community to reinforce the idea that our physical, intellectual and cultural borders should be challenged to create new opportunities- borders becoming bridges of understanding".
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