Welcome to the international performing arts festival 2025
Festival of Ecology, Stage & Transformation in southern Sweden - The F.E.S.T!
What
During the summer of 2025 we are happy to invite you to the vibrant, international Festival of Stage Art in the south of Sweden, Skillinge Theatre.
The Stage Art Festival is divided into 4 different segments.
Three amazing international guest performances
And the F.E.S.T
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A four-day Stage Art F.E.S.T - a meeting point for professionals and semi-professionals from the arena of physical stage art.
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Tuesday 29 july 15.00 - Friday 1 august 15.00
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At Skillinge Theatre • Skillinge village • The region of Scania (Skåne) • Sweden
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The focus of the festival is physical theatre
Stage, art, puppet, masque, choreography, performances, circus and object based stage art.
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Four days of inspiration
Masterclasses, performances, seminars, dance, singing, walking meditation, sound bath performance and breathwork through physical theater, object theater, circus, puppets, mask and dance.
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Togetherness is the key
Together with our extended network we grow from communication, playfulness, and outreach. In order to instigate hope, strength, knowledge and inspiration – we all need to reach, hear and see each other.
International guest performances
The F.E.S.T 29 july - 1 august
Professional stage art artists, and pedagogues from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Spain, France, USA, Argentina, Venezuela and more are gathering at Skillinge Theatre in the picturesque fishing village of Skillinge in the region of Scania (Skåne) in Southern Sweden.
Why
Stage art and society
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How can we increase our impact on the societal challenges?
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Is there a role for stage art in today’s societal crisis?
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What are engaging formats for political stage art today?
Stage art and people
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How do we engage and inspire our audiences to act and create change?
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Methodologies for dialogue and audience participation.
Stage art and us artists
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How to collaborate and support each other as artists?
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How can we collaborate around resources, people and finances?
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How to eco-educate future generations of artists?
Expert's submission of workshops, master classes and performances has closed.
The final program will be presented on this web site in early June.
How
As an expert you automatically get a free Festival Pass.
Get accredited and attend - the Festival Pass cost is a mere SEK 1200!
Festival Pass
The Festival Pass includes:
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Access to the festival - all 4 days
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Free access to all seminars, workshops and open stage events (15 min examples of performances).
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Food - Breakfast, lunch, dinner (veg) during the entire festival timespan!
For master classes and staged performances you buy special tickets where the surplus goes to the experts / artists.
Sleeping (how to)
All experts will be hosted in one of the three apartments of the theatre or they will be hosted at private houses of local friends of the theatre.
Accredited attendees and/or anyone else that find it acceptable will have access to free sleeping spaces (indoors) albeit lacking some privacy and comfort.
If you prefer to stay at a hotel just inform us and we will help you connect to suitable options no great distance from the theatre.
Do not forget to bring
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Clothes for physical Workshops.
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Swimming gear & towel.
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Something warm and cozy to wear in the evenings.
More practical questions?
Mail us at info@skillingeteater.se or give us a call; Karin Johansson-Mex +46 761-640864 or Royne Levin +46 721-979411
Who
his festival is being jointly organized by the European Sw/ Fr theatre company Theater In-Balance curated by Mariana Araoz and by Skillinge Theater, curated by Karin Johansson-Mex. It is part of a series of theatre festivals initiated in Skillinge by Mariana Araoz and Barbara Wilczek Ekholm, in collaboration with Stefan Ridell & Harald Leander, on the theme of Performing Art, Peace and Gender.
Our language is Performing Arts and our focal point is to move towards a more balanced reality, to inspire communication, idea development and innovative approaches. Thus, enhancing the creator’s possibility to meet the audience while making a difference, addressing a variety of these complex societal challenges. We seek different formats to communicate freely, using our bodies, our consciousness, our diverse forms of semantics and our creativity.
The aim of the festival is to bridge the geographical and practical distance between practitioners and between the performers and their audience. Through this Festival we hope to create new collaborations and to learn from each other and inspire each other in the quest for a sustainable future.
Where
The festival takes place in the adorable fishing village of Skillinge where you will find Skillinge Theatre, a beautiful culture center situated 200 meters from the sea.
Adress: Möllevångsgatan 9, 276 60 Skillinge.
Using public transportation
Take the train from Copenhagen airport via Malmö Central, Malmö Hyllie or Malmö Triangeln to Simrishamn station and then bus 577 to Skillinge Bryggmästaregatan.
The bus station is 3 minutes walk from Skillinge Theater.
The "Skånetrafiken" webpage is only in Swedish or Danish but the "Skånetrafiken App for Mobile" works very well in English.
The Restaurant
During the festival the restaurant of Skillinge Theatre will be open with coffee, snacks, food and wine.
The Gin Bar
The Gin Bar of Skillinge Theatre opens every evening at 17.00.
Curators of the festival
Mariana Araoz
Director, pedagogue and designer of the In Balance Method© Professor of Mask and puppets in Malmö Theater school of the University of Lund.
Holds a BA in Biology from Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, a Master in Ecology and environmental management from the University of Rennes and a BA in Theater Studies from Sorbonne-Nouvelle University, Paris. She has directed more than forty mask performances in France, Sweden and in the United States. Nominated in 2014 for the Thalia Prize in Sweden and award-winner of the Festival Off d’Avignon Support Fund in 2017.
Mariana is the manager of Theatre-in Balance (Former Trans Mission Research) a result of 15 years of research and social theater engagement. Developed as a fusion between traditional and modern puppet-mask theater such as Theatre du Soleil, Butto, Bunraku, Kabuki, and Theatre Noh.
Araoz has created The In-Balance method©, a collaborative physical acting system, using puppet, masque and object theatre as a creative tool. The method is based on the concept of balance on stage, and thus balanced power distribution, as well as the transmission of knowledge from one participant to another. Ecology and Gender are the main subjects and philosophy of this practice.
Karin Johansson-Mex
Director and Artistic Manager of Skillinge Theatre, a cultural arena of performing Arts in the South of Sweden.
Karin studied film and digital media at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where she also worked for Tim Burton. Back in Sweden Karin started her own production company managing larger events such as the inauguration of Dunkers Cultural House with over 65.000 visitors. Karin was later hired to develop the film and digital media development in southern Sweden, thus initiating the industry cluster Media Evolution and two professional educations, one in Film and Theater Production and the other one in Post Production for digital art.
For three years she headed the Nordic film organization Filmkontakt Nord (Nordisk Panorama) funded by the 5 Nordic film institutes and the Nordic Minister Council.
She then worked as the managing director of the research institute Medea at Malmö University. After this she became head of the Malmö University Department of Innovation & Development.
At Lund University she became key account manager of ICT related research leading to sustainable innovations of importance to the civil society. Initiating the 1000 square meters lab arena Pro Lab of LU OPEN, addressing student innovation and open innovation.
