Workshop: Animating a Performing Archive

Workshop at Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde
Dates: 27 June from 3 pm – 30 June 5 pm, 2012
by Mary Coble and Judith Schwarzbart
The workshop is a joint venture between Performance Design, Funen Art Academy, and Museet for samtidskunst. Students from these studies have first priority.
Registration deadline: 1 May
The workshop will be held in English.

Factory of Found Clothes, Triumph of Fragility (Part Two of Trilogy), 2002

The workshop is held as part of re.act.feminism – a performing archive, which is an archive presenting feminist, gender-critical and queer performance art by 120 artists and artist collectives. The archive will be presented at Museum of Contemporary Art 16 June – 19 August 2012.

The aim of the workshop is to find ways of animating the archive through interventions in and presentations of material from the archive. We will experiment with actualization, re-enactment, embodiment, and other forms of engagement in, interpretation and presentation of selected material from the archive. We can consider an archive like this as a more or less dormant memory of artistic performative acts. Bringing works to life is not only an act of repetition and rememberance, it also means examining their (potential) meanings in our particular time and place. The workshop will hence research and bring to life works that the participants find relevant for our contemporary life and their own practices.

The workshop will take place within a theoretical horizon inspired by queer and performance theory where existing and conventional acts are seen as scripts to be performed but also critically examined, as every new performance is a chance for rethinking and change.

Programme (subject to change):
Wednesday 27th 3 – 8 PM: Introduction to the archive (Museum director Sanne Kofod) and participants, dinner in the garden (if the weather allows).
Thursday 28th 11 AM – 4 PM: Theoretical introduction to key concepts within performance theory and performativity (Mary Coble, Merete Jankowski, Judith Schwarzbart), continued research in the archive, discussion of formats of animation. 4pm: departure to Copenhagen. Mary Coble gives a public talk at Overgaden.
Friday 29th 11 AM – 5 PM: Rehearsals, production etc.
Saturday 30th 11 AM – 5 PM: Preparations, public presentations in the afternoon.

Registration and further information: Judiths@ruc.dk
http://www.reactfeminism.org/
The workshop has priority to students from Funen Art Academy and Performance Design, Roskilde University

Mary Coble is an artist and professor at the Funen Art Academy.
Website: marycoble.com/

Judith Schwarzbart is a curator and currently a PhD fellow at Performance Design, Roskilde University.