As an introduction to the process of Performing Identity, a week to look through practice and discussion at Identity and Performance issues, as seen from different peripheric points of view, which are constitutive of our multi-layered identities: class, “race”, gender, sexuality, health, ability...
The one-day workshops favor each time one or more aspects, in relation with the identity of the workshop leader. They are completed by a lecture on the notions of performance, intersectionality, and identity, and by the viewing of artworks: the film System K dedicated to the urban performance art scene in Kinshasa, installations taking place at the festival Playground at Museum M, Leuven, and the performance (playing on the notion of fluidity of identities) of La Ribot, LaBOLA.
The programme took place during the Verão Azul - transdisciplinary Festival of Contemporary Arts curated by artists Ana Borralho, Joao Galante and Daniel Matos, which had for theme "the sound as a base for co-existence". The participants had a rich programme of performances and concerts to follow in the evenings. In the afternoons, a workshop of three days took place with Modus Operandi AND (Fernanda Eugenio and Ana Dinger), "Repairing the Irreparable".
Two collective conversations based on the performances seen at the festival were dedicated to the critical approach of performance, an in-depth dialogue moderated by choreographer João dos Santos Martins. The artists curating the festival, Ana Borralho and Joao Galante, also gave a masterclass about their practice on the morning of the last day. That final day also saw the students perform in the public space of Lagos centre. Their performance was followed by a feedback session with the team of the festival and the mentors of the project.
Body Place and Materiality was a 5 day workshop at Burren College of Art. This workshop centred on the importance and vitality of our located-ness in the world, the relationship between our human identities and the endangered natural environment. The Burren is a unique area of rugged wild beauty on the Atlantic coast and a Unesco world heritage site of ancient limestone uplands and pavements of fossils with rare wild flowers.
A deep connection with unspoiled nature can be happen in this special place thus enabling an ecologically conscious relationship to develop with with the environment. At the beginning of the week the students were were asked to prepare a short performance work about their relationship to this place using locally sourced natural environmental materials. This performance would be presented at the end, with feedback in a group critique context.
A lecture by Áine Phillips introduced the history of performance art in Ireland with a focus on place and materials in relation to the human body. Workshops with walking artist Ruby Wallis, guided bus tours of the area and local ‘shore rambler’ David Donoghue helped develop relationships for the students with place.
Kira O’Reilly’s workshop focused on located movement, Day Magee’s workshop engaged with transformed manifestations of identity and materiality.
Christophe Alix explored traces, rituals and alternative documentation processes. A strong emphasis of the week's events was on making meaningful connections between the group and The Burren, with its forms, atmospheres and materials.
Group meals and a final party aided the connectedness of the group and fostered relationships, dialogue and exchange.
New Performance Turku Biennale presented a week-long series of performance artists all over the city. Each performance was different: a collective experience in a museum, silent and each in his or her own bubble, running behind the artist in a park, or plunged into the abyss of their story.
Students from La Cambre, Burren College and Poznań wandered around the city and became spectators of the festival. Each morning, they took time together to discuss what they had seen the day before. This was also the time they needed to discuss their own work, to be presented at the (Pas si) Fragile! festival in Brussels in April 2024. An afternoon of Artists talks and two short workshops were also organized during the week.
"Why identity censorship ???
Poland is now one of the leading European union countries violating democratic principles, viewing culture through the prism of religion and cultural dependencies. What previous governments built up for 30 years after leaving communism has been systematically destroyed by a very right-wing government over the last eight years.
There has been no institutionalised censorship in Poland since april 1990. However, it still exists and has intensified in recent years, especially in arts and humanities education, where the imposition of certain 'correct' ideas is standard.
This is strongly reflected in the arts, as well as arts education. Institutions that promote culture are censored. The same applies to the public media. Human rights have been increasingly violated.
Artists have to face the problem of censorship more than once. This applies
To galleries, the lack of access to open festivals (which functioned until a few years ago).
Contemporary art, especially performance, is one of those areas that has disappeared from public institutions promoting art and culture.
Public institutions promoting arts and culture in the last eight years.
The main element of the mobility is a cycle of workshops led by artists/pedagogues/curators representing the three thematic blocks for censorship and identity:
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public space and the body
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politics and art
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censorship, gender, democracy
These 3 blocks , which are strongly interconnected and influence each other, will respond to the often ignored problem of freedom in art.
To the ignored problem of freedom of expression in societies where censorship is latent.
The workshop will be based on a provocative discussion about the scope of freedom and its limitations operating in many (no only european) countries....
I hope you find it interesting."
Marta bosowska
