PORTEFEUILLE

Beyond X is an organization dedicated to inspiring new thinking and ideas through the creative entanglement of science, the arts, people and places. We use our hearts, minds, bodies and imagination to their full potential to create moments in time which are designed to inspire, to delight and provoke. In every moment we aim to make the best of our lives. Heart Basel is an expression of our beliefs ... that exponential creativity can be done when people from all walks of life and many disciplines get together and get inspired. It is an expression of our belief in you.

At Beyond X, our first major event was HeartBasel’17. It was held in Basel, Switzerland during the months of June, August and September 2017. The main event was a 7 day 'festival', occurring between 28th August and 2nd September 2017.

Heart Basel is an interdisciplinary multimedia project centered on deepening our understanding of how the heart contributes to human being and wellbeing. Combining the sciences, culture and the arts with people to experiment, experience and express. In our program there was a series of performances, installations and activities. HeartBasel’17 brought together world class dancers, musicians, artists, medical bio-feedback specialists and technologists to collaborate and connect with performances, installations and art works related to the heart. Using live feedback from hearts and movement, we formed a continuous loop of action and reaction, creating unique connections between the heart, the mind, the body and the soul.

BeyondX also linked with the education department and JuAr to provide workshops around Basel as well as during the festival, with performers from HeartBasel. Children could connect their own hearts to experience some of the performances and have a behind- the-scenes look.

This project combines a diversity of partners in the arts, science, technology and communication. The outcome is interesting and innovative performances, installations and artworks which is a product of engaging collaborations.

Performances
Four brand new performances were produced for the HeartBasel Festival. Each festival was a collaboration between artists, many who had never met before the project. Artists were challenged to think outside their normal performance methods to come up with an interactive and communicative piece. The artists were picked to provide a good cross-section of well known personalities across a variety of Basel entertainment groups. The performances were well received, with the audience appreciative of the Heart theme and variety of performances.

Installation
The HeartLand installation was a two-room interactive installation which was intended to allow the visitors to experience some of the topics of the performances. Up to 6 visitors could attach to heart sensors to affect an audio-visual installation; motion cameras on a stage enabled movement to affect the music; finally a light installation was affected by the music generated by the hearts and motion.

Preview Performances
A series of teaser performances at HolzPark Klybeck during the ArtBasel week allowed the audience to see early performances and rehearsals of works-in-progress for the festival. We felt it important that people see and understand that we were all coming together to create new performances together.

Workshops with Jugendarbeit
These were well received and allowed us insights into how to engage young children in the topics of HeartBasel.

School Workshop Performances
These were a highlight of the event. Very well attended, with over 160 children attending the two sessions.

Promotion
HeartBasel received good coverage in the media (BZ, TagesWoche, RadioX) as well as on Social Media and print media through KulturBox. Each artist also promoted in their own social media channels to increase the demographics of the people reached.