Installation - Performance (MA)

Professor : Marialena Marouda

This atelier is interested in relational, research based and situated performance and installation practices. Inspired by feminist and new materialist pedagogies, it seeks to challenge the dominant presumption of individual human authorship within artistic practices, drawing attention to the work of more-than-human presences within them. What kinds of kinships to those more-than-humans do or can our practices propose? What kinds of collectives do they form? The notion of practice, as an evolving process of making that brings together human and more-than-human collaborators, is key to the atelier. During the atelier’s two year parcours, students are supported in developing performance and installation practices and to share them with their colleagues. What does one’s practice do and how does it do it? What are its needs? What questions does it bring up? How can those questions be addressed? We will collectively listen to, engage with, support and study each others practices in an environment that encourages collaboration and mutual contamination between working processes. In this context, the experimentation with in situ and site specific methodologies for developing work that can reach outside the more traditional spaces of artistic production and presentation is encouraged. What if a river, a forest or a city would become one’s studio? But also: what if the spaces of a museum, a black box or a white cube would become the more-than-humans one is collaborating with, their specific histories and contexts revealed? How does their performativity then change from an “abstract” or “neutral” space of presentation, to something much more historically specific?

Pedagogical Objectives:

Key competences that we’ll be working towards are the ability to communicate about and to share one’s practice, formulating its needs and goals. This includes the awareness about one’s more-than-human collaborators and their relevance for the practice. The sensitivity and perceptiveness towards the practices of others and the ability to give in depth feedback are equally important to the atelier. More specifically, the goal is to practice, on the one hand, different modes of opening up one’s practice to a small public and to test which formats are most suitable for the work: what are the specificities of a lecture-performance, a workshop, an immersive installation, a concert...? This also includes moments of sharing of what inspires and moves us in the form of texts, artists works, materials, competences... On the other hand, we will practice being each other’s public, witnessing what is presented, communicating about what we have experienced and giving feedback. Collaboration between the atelier participants is encouraged, so that students don’t only develop the ability to work autonomously but also experience contributing to the work of their peers. Critical thinking and the ability to situate one’s practice within a larger political framework, posing questions that can also challenge the maker(s) and further their practice are goals to work towards within the atelier’s two year parcours.

Course Structure:

The atelier starts with the students sharing their practice in the bigger group, as a collective point of departure. As part of their presentation, each student can formulate their needs and desires for their practices, so that we can collectively work towards fulfilling those. After that, and depending on the overall size of the group, we’ll form smaller groups, possibly organized by year, and together establish a rhythm for the regular sharing of the student’s work. This can happen in different formats, depending on the stage of the work’s development: introducing first ideas and presenting first materials, proposing a workshop for the group to inhabit their propositions, or organizing a performance/installation for an audience to witness.

Artists who’s work is relevant to the themes of the atelier will be invited to share their practice with the students throughout the year. A Book Club, taking place once a month, will be an opportunity to collectively read texts that are relevant to our practices and to the themes of the atelier. Who/what to include in those sessions will be decided in collaboration with the students.

Evaluation:

Evaluation is continuous and is based to a large extent on the student’s own goals and plans, as they formulate them in the beginning of the course. Those can of course be redefined, refocused or clarified throughout the year. The students’ progress in their artistic practice, their presence during the atelier and their engagement in the practices of their peers, are key for a positive evaluation. The students’ openness towards challenging questions and their ability to place their work within a larger political framework will also be evaluated positively, and expected, especially towards the end of the 2 year parcours.

Documentation:

As an important part of the evaluation, and in order to render it easier, students are encouraged to document their process throughout the atelier. Possible questions to explore here are which media are most (or least?) suitable for the specific practice, as well as the question of what produces what: the performance the documentation or maybe visa versa?