Just got back from this symposium performance series in Plymouth, headed my Marina Abramović, who unfortunately didn't show up but was there via a Skype video chat feed. Though the event was fairly disorganised and revealed how insular the world of Live Art can be there were still some great highlights, including of course meeting interesting people.
The Royal William Yard was a stunning venue, housing most of the events and performances. There were six artist performing at the Slaugherhouse
Davide Balliano: sharpening a knife slowly and repeatedly while facing a corner where two large mirrors created a grouping of 4 identicals. A single lightbuld illuminated the space adn the sound was quite evocative. The piece was a bit cliche, in that its use of a man in black in a black cap in a dark corner became a certain character type that would immediately be evocative.
Snezana Golubović: who stood on a stage stepping into a series of shoes...
Eva and Franco Mattes: who recreated performances in Second Life. This was mostly interesting because I had never seen Second Life in action before.
Francesca Steele: created one of the more engaging and evocative works, a one to one piece where you stood on a stage with her while she took the gestures of professional body building next to you. As a body builder herself she has transformed her body and the work made me think of gaze, obsession and body image as well as nearness and personal space.
Bill Wroath: who was slated to perform at the Market in the centre of Plymouth was moved here due to an issue with the council and his work. He sewed a full pig corpse back together dressed as a butcher/medic while behind hime the numbers of pigs slaughtered in each country per year was projected across the wall. I enjoyed this work as I've been feeling that the ecological situation on this planet has been turning my vegetarianism into something more political which it never has been. Unfortunately most people absorbed the information and the proceeded to think it was funny to order pork at the pub, I suppose this is why the world isn't going to change any time soon....
The Market in Plymouth is an incredible space, looks like you are inside a giant pool. There is a unique culture there as well between the traders and buyers and I definitely sensed that the performances were generally an intrusion. One person working the event told me the last day "They hate us by now and can't wait for us to leave". This lack of integration with the general public was something that was a bit disappointing about the event in general but then again I suppose performance art may be one of the less accessible works as it is.
One exception was Ania Bas who performed as a working vendor, selling a variety of media information and possible instructions taped up and down her jacket. The last day I chose 'Chewing gum and people watching". She took me to her favourite spot and we talked about the market and the event, we easily picked out the skinny jean black clad art goers and the overweight, pasty shoppers. She told me about the shopkeepers and how engaging them brought varied responses. Though some were not interested, some where. I felt very happy that at least someone was bringing the work towards dialogue and integrating the actual existing culture of the site. One vendor bought one of her instructions for another, while a third was going to serve as witness...
For a full list of performers click here: Pigs
Seeing Marina on Skype in bed, blowing her nose and coughing was rather humanising. She said two interesting things, she explained the title. Performance artists are the pigs of today and their work in many ways needs to die in order to be consumed as ham. This gave the entire symposium a lens towards archiving and the issues surrounding performance documentation... She also said students always ask her about entering the art market and how to succeed, she explained that she spent 30 of her 40 years making performances unpaid. Though she recognised this wasn't fair she recommended to young artists to stay true to their work and to stay true to the context...
But by far the highlight of the weekend was Tehching Hsieh... That gets a post of its own...
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