Jardin Rouge is a polymorphous, nomadic and pluridisciplinary international festival.
Jardin Rouge
The objective of this ‘total’ festival is to create a space of freedom and creation, to provoke moments where a varied public meets new artistic forms, shaking up the known and the expected. Jardin Rouge develops in theaters or cultural spaces invested in a reflection on the accompaniment of the artists and wishing to give the performers a freedom of action and adaptation. Spaces ready to transform themselves to go and find the spectator and surprise them.
Based on the notions of experimentation, laboratory and quest for meaning, Jardin Rouge proposes to meet artists and cultural actors who come to question our society and our relationship with the strange and the dream, while seeking a solitary and social structuring, in a perspective of inclusiveness and sharing.
Inspired by the worlds of science fiction, surrealism, fairy tales and robotics, the Jardin Rouge proposes to immerse ourselves in different realities, to seek a universe far from our sterile lands, a space where imagination is the only real power.
JARDIN ROUGE 2023
Cyborg Experiments
Jardin Rouge will take the theme of Cyborg Experiments this year, and will explore it in three different countries.
Each edition of the festival becomes an opportunity to find new forms to dream supposed realities. Cyborg, because we want to explore ways to fight the feeling that we are stuck in a world that does not fit us and doesn’t allow us to grow. Cyborgs can be used as a tool to look into different ways of being ourselves, impact the world around us or ourselves, and research how to play with norms, constraints and reality. Topics may include: humanity and its limitations, social organization and disruptiveness, science and nature.
Experimentation, because it’s an active world. It represents the idea to try something new without knowing the outcome of it. After these years of crisis- sanitary, political and social- the artists need free and safe spaces to integrate what they saw, learned and felt and to be able to build new ways of expressing themselves and creating new worlds.
In the Beginning
Since 2019, Martijn Grootendorst, artistic director of Theater De Roode Bioscoop, has given Snowapple a month-long ‘carte blanche’ every year. Martijn is convinced that the Snowapple collective can play an important role in the cultural environment of the city of Amsterdam by breaking with convention and counterbalancing established venues.
The festival offers a new form, but at the same time has long-standing cultural roots. Snowapple, Moon Cabaret, Theater de Roode Bioscoop and a host of guest artists have joined forces every year to create this festival with workshops, performances, screenings, meetings and all kinds of art.
In March 2021, we succeeded in organising an underground edition in Amsterdam, adapted to the health constraints. We were delighted to see that the audience was there.
We then celebrated the opening of Casa Snowapple Mx in Mexico City, an inclusive cultural space, with an exceptional Jardin Rojo festival. For two days, the Moon family honored Mexican artists, especially women whose work is still too often invisible.
In 2022, the festival expanded and took place for a month in three mythical theaters in Amsterdam, around the theme ‘intergalactic’.
The Jardin Rouge family grows every year, from artists to thinkers, from researchers to poets, sometimes cousins from a mysterious land, forgotten brothers or sisters, or troubadours on their way to somewhere else. We believe in a nomadic festival, inspired by the places, encounters, languages and artists who call it home.
WHY JARDIN ROUGE?
The color red refers to the place where the festival was born: De Roode Bioscoop in Amsterdam. Red symbolises the social and anarchic atmosphere that prevailed in 1913 when the venue was founded. The mission of this theater is to be a haven of freedom where established and emerging talent can experiment freely.
A large garden: the aim is to create a playground, an organized and unorganized gathering of old and new friends from all over the world. To bring the color red back to the place, we called our festival Jardin Rouge. Our garden grows and appears in different places, cities and even countries.
FAQ – Frequently asked questions
WHICH ARTISTIC DISCIPLINES DOES JARDIN ROUGE FEATURE? | Jardin Rouge features ‘forgotten’ disciplines such as Object Theater, Puppetry, Clowning, Table shows, Mime, Music, Cabaret and Visual art. |
WHERE DOES THE FESTIVAL TAKE PLACE? | Jardin Rouge takes place in different locations across the globe. Jardin Rouge 2023 will take place in Amsterdam, Paris and Mexico City. |
WHEN WILL THE NEXT EDITION OF JARDIN ROUGE TAKE PLACE? | Jardin Rouge will take place 14-16 April in Amsterdam, 1, 11, 15, 17, 18 June in Paris and 1-3 December in Mexico City. |
I HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT ACCESSIBILITY AT THE FESTIVAL – WHERE CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION? | Access notes for the festival are available here. If your question is not answered there, you can contact us at info@snowapple.nl. |
HOW CAN I PURCHASE MY TICKETS? | Tickets for Amsterdam are available for purchase online or at the door. Tickets for Paris and Mexico City will be available for sale soon. |