Luanda is an Afro-Brazilian artist based in Norway and an alumni student at the international Master in Performance program at Norwegian Theatre Academy (NTA).
Application deadline is January 15, 2024. Read more about admission.
Why did you choose to apply for the study program Master in Performance
at NTA?
- I chose to apply for NTA because I was looking for an institution that could offer an artistic program based on an interdisciplinary and transnational perspective. As well a place where diverse cultural backgrounds are welcoming.
How did you learn about NTA in the first place?
- I had some friends doing the program that highly recommended me to apply. Many of them told me: This is a place for us! Meaning that, because we come from an experimental artistic background and a multicultural background.
"They treat us as co-creators of the program and from that we could experience guidance, empowerment and skills to be able to create our own journey during the program with freedom and compromise."
Luanda Carneiro Jacoel, NTA alumni Master in Performance
How did you experience being a student at NTA?
- Since the interview (admission interview) I felt very welcomed. It was the best experience of being interviewed for a program in my life. The board was extremely kind, generous and curious about me and my work. We had a beautiful conversation and exchange and yet I was already thankful to meet these people even though I was not sure if I would be chosen. Luckily, I was accepted!
Being a student, I experienced the concept of “radical hospitality” that was already offered to me in this interview and lately as a student I could understand the depth of it in the methodological approach of NTA. A safe space for learning, sharing practices and knowledge. The relation between the teachers and students was also based on a horizontal perspective. They treat us as co-creators of the program and from that we could experience guidance, empowerment and skills to be able to create our own journey during the program with freedom and compromise.
Can you describe the international profile of NTA – from a student perspective?
- I really enjoy being part of a range of students from all over the world both in the master programs and the bachelor programs. We had a privilege to be received by the bachelor's students who prepared nice gatherings for us to get to know each other and the school. We shared so many histories, languages, food, artistic experiences that facilitated an engagement between us in a community process. Also, many of us moved to Fredrikstad, which is a small town, so to have a community to reach out on an everyday basis was very helpful and important.
- This also created some relations with some spaces in the city, like St.Croix-huset that have a cultural agenda and also the nature around us, like Isegran fort, Gamlebyen (the old town). Another important aspect of it was also the transnational teachers, guest teachers and artists that are in the NTA curriculum offering for the students the possibility of connecting internationally with other programs, researchers, arenas, festivals and so on. I think it is very important this broad approach of NTA to reach and include knowledge from the south global and north global equally in the curriculum, with the compromise of searching for a decolonial perspective, positionally and action as an institution.
What is your work experience since graduating from NTA?
- I have been working as a freelance artist, participating in residencies, artistic collaborations and giving artistic talks with the support of the artist grant (kunstnerstipend) from the Arts Council Norway (Kulturrådet).
- Currently, I am artist in residence for the MANIFEST project: “New artistic perspectives on memories of the transatlantic trade of enslaved people aims to contribute to and enhance the re-imagination of Europe’s collective memory of the transatlantic trade of enslaved people”. Guest artist in the project SEA MATTERS a performance research pedagogy laboratory based on shared transatlantic narratives, artistic actions and listening practices between the Norwegian Theater Academy (NTA) and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. And also the board of directors at Casa Sueli Carneiro, in Brazil: a Black institution based on the activist and intellectual legacy of Sueli Carneiro, which is dedicated to welcoming Black production, activism, reflections, critique and artistic expressions in a mission of expanding the visibility and scope of Black activist – intellectual –political thinking in Brazil and beyond its borders in dialogue with other Afro-Diasporas.
As an alumni, how are the things you learned at NTA useful to you?
- I learned about how to talk about my work and how to host and engage the audience to witness your work. We had many different approaches concerning sharing, exchanging, reflecting, collaborating and experiencing how a work can be shared. How performativity can be experienced in a large spectrum. As well as critical thinking, reflection and “radical hospitality".
Why would you recommend others to apply for this study programme?
- I highly recommend this study programme because of the range of skills, methodology and practices that you can get from it allowing us to improve our work as an artist, build up autonomy, network, share knowledge, awareness and care about our practice relating it with society and the environment.
Relevant links:
Body (in) Transit
@map_luacaja
@casasuelicarneiro
*About the outdoor photo included in this intervkiew: Azul Filho de Luiz. Video - Performance: KLGA ENTTS. Kalunga Entities, a body in transit, that carries with it entities; traveling through temporalities, evoking archives and playing with the unknown. The artist explores bodily movement and visual elements to create install – actions in spaces.Concept//Performance by Luanda Carneiro Jacoel; Video//Music//Azul Filho de Luiz. It has been commissioned and presented at “Art Connects” curated by Vancouver Art Gallery, Canadá 2021//Norwegian Theater Academy (NTA). And presented at the exhibition “My Hair Loves BAD weather” by Kiyoshi Yamamoto at Trøndelag Center for Contemporary Art, Trondheim, Norway, 2021.