2026 Periphery Theatre and analogue film workshop

Landscape Theatre – Art in the Wild

Our Landscape Theatre project began in 2022 with Women’s Nature. Since then, we have been developing a distinctive format that brings experimental theatre directly into the landscape.

Our performances take the form of theatre hikes. Instead of sitting in a conventional theatre, the audience walks through forests, fields, villages and other natural environments. Along the way, they encounter performances, installations, sounds, rituals and unexpected situations. The landscape is not simply a backdrop or stage: it is one of the performers.

The aim is to create an immersive experience in which contemporary art and the experience of being in wild nature become inseparable.

Women’s Nature — 2022

Our first landscape theatre project, Women’s Nature, established the format we continue to explore today. The audience travelled through the landscape while encountering experimental performances along the way. The project asked what happens when theatre leaves the stage and enters an environment that cannot be completely controlled.

Periphery — 2024

Our next large-scale production, Periphery, became part of the main programme of Tartu 2024 – European Capital of Culture.

The basic idea remained the same: to give the audience a strong experience of wild nature while simultaneously immersing them in contemporary and experimental theatre. The journey itself became part of the dramaturgy. Distance, landscape, weather, sounds and encounters shaped each person's experience of the performance.

Natural Things — 2025

In Natural Things, we moved towards deeper questions about the human condition. What does it mean to be human? Where does human suffering come from? What separates us from one another, and what allows us to come together?

Nature created a space in which these questions could be experienced rather than simply discussed. Away from the routines and structures of everyday life, the landscape offered a temporary place where people could meet, observe, listen and simply be together.

Feel Free to Be Lost — 2026

In 2026, Landscape Theatre moved to Obinitsa with Feel Free to Be Lost.

This performance explored the relationship between the ecosystem and the egosystem. How can humans live within nature rather than treating it as something outside ourselves? How can we coexist without constantly causing harm—to the environment, to other species and to one another?

The performance also reflected on old and contemporary ways of living. How has our relationship with time changed? How did people spend and experience time in the past, and how do we consume it today? What have we gained through modern life, and what might we have lost?

As the title suggests, the audience was also invited to experience being lost as something positive: to temporarily leave behind familiar routes, expectations and the need to know exactly where we are going.

What comes next

Landscape Theatre continues to evolve through collaboration between artists from different countries and disciplines. Theatre, performance, film, sound, visual art and the landscape itself can all become part of the work.

We are currently developing a new international production focusing on light pollution. The project will explore darkness as an increasingly rare experience and examine how artificial light transforms ecosystems, human behaviour and our relationship with the night.

At the heart of Landscape Theatre remains a simple idea: nature is not a venue to which we bring art. Nature is part of the artwork itself.

Piusa Ürgoru Maastikuteater presents:
10–17 AUGUST 2026, OBINITSAS

Landscape Theatre & Analogue Film Camp – Landscapes and Scenes

What will we do?

We gather in the landscape — and in the village — to create together.

This is a site-specific theatre and analogue film camp, where performance and film emerge from the same shared process, rooted in both nature and local cultural life.

Led by Csaba Formanek (HU) — actor, choreographer, and theatre-maker — we will develop a landscape theatre piece shaped by the body, the environment, and the presence of others. The work unfolds in direct relation to the place: forest paths, open spaces, water, village spaces, and silence.

At the same time, guided by Peter Kollanyi (HU), we will create an experimental short film on 8mm and 16mm analogue film.

The film does not document the theatre.
It listens to it, follows it, transforms it.

It grows from the same gestures, atmospheres, and encounters — yet becomes its own autonomous work, with its own rhythm and visual language.

The theatre exists only once, in time and space.
The film remains as a trace — fragile, material, and alive.

All film material will be developed by hand in Obinitsa, allowing participants to experience the full tactile process of analogue filmmaking.

Artistic approach

We work at the intersection of body, landscape, and analogue image — but also within a living cultural environment.

The landscape is not a backdrop — it is a collaborator.
The village is not a setting — it is a presence.
The body is not performing — it is responding.
The film is not recording — it is remembering.

Through slowness, attention, and collective creation, we explore how ephemeral experiences can be held, transformed, and reimagined.

Where?

Obinitsa, South Estonia — a unique cultural village in Setomaa, where landscape, traditions, and community life are closely connected.

The camp takes place in collaboration with local hosts and cultural practitioners, offering insight into a living rural environment shaped by strong cultural identity and creative activity.

Living together

We live as a temporary community.
Participants stay in tents — please bring your own sleeping bag and camping equipment.

Washing takes place in a traditional sauna, as there are no separate shower facilities.
Meals are prepared and shared together.

Participation

Participation fee: 100 EUR
Includes materials, workshops, and food.

Participation is open to everyone.
Places are allocated on a first come, first served basis upon payment.
Final deadline for payment: 15 July.

The working language of the camp is English (with Estonian support where needed).

Join us

Open to all who are curious about film, theatre, and experimental creation.
No prior experience is required.

Come to be part of a process where
landscape becomes stage,
village becomes context,
time becomes material,
and film becomes memory.

The event is supported by the Estonian Cultural Endowment.

PREVIOUS SHOWs

https://youtu.be/pMgXiELifP8?is=MpYs4ZYzKADHMDEo

Sara.kisari@gmail.com
Tel. +37258877144
https://www.eikellegimaa.ee/en