Leefeh (Lebanese Arabic for luffa) is the fruit of a hanging plant that grows naturally throughout Asia and the Arab region. Once fully developed, the fruit is the source of a sponge mesh of fibres that has been used for thousands of years as the traditional body scrub and general household cleaning sponge. Today, combined with other vegetative matter and recycled plastic, the leefeh also serves as a base for panels, used to create furniture and construct houses.

"Performance Skins and Fiber Spaces created out of Luffa" is a two-day workshop that took place on 22 & 23 June 2015 in the AMU Theatre Faculty. Conducted by Cornelia Krafft, the ten workshop participants explored the leefeh, the versatile organic and semi-permeable fibre material, as a base for performance skins, installations, and action spaces that are sensitive to weather conditions and are 100% biodegradable. The participants conceptualised a group performance that uses and assembles the material on their bodies and in a large scale, and then presented them in a public space, on the shore of the Vltava river.
 

Workshop Conductor: Cornelia Krafft
Workshop Participants & Performers: Eider Ibarrondo (ES); Gerda Katrina Samm (EST); Andrea Carr (UK); Dalia Khalife (LB); Tatiana Vintu (US); Jutta Schneider (CA); Audrey Villeneuve (CA); Darah McCarthy (CA); Nefeli Myrtidi (GR) and Christiana Garvie (AU).
Workshop Venue: AMU Theatre Faculty
Date & Time: Monday 22 June 2015, from 10 am to 6 pm / Tuesday 23 June 2015, from 10 am to 7 pm
Performance: Tuesday 23 June 2015, at 8 pm / Vltava River
Photography: Ad Achkar



Performance Skins and Fibre Spaces Created Out of Luffa workshop is part of SpaceLab, the educational component of the Prague Quadrennial 2015 and the SharedSpace: Music Weather Politics 2013 – 2016 multi annual European project. SpaceLab is handled by the PQ organisers and entries are subject to curatorial review by its artistic director. The SpaceLab workshops provide opportunities to explore theatre as a place where living people meet and create certain social relationships (politics), a living place of accident and ephemeral (weather), and the place of aesthetics and composition (music).

SpaceLab Workshops include making costume for dance, working with voice and text, wig making, etc. As well as workshops in/with other fields, materials, technologies and strategies that are not usually taught at scenography departments and that normally do not qualify as one of the usual theatre design fields - like immersive theatre, wearable technology, architecture of everyday objects, etc. SpaceLab workshops create opportunities for theatre/performance students and young professionals to meet directly with top professionals in the performance design field.