E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten
Reihe: Performing Urgency #2
Campenhout / Mestre Turn, Turtle!
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-3-89581-433-4
Verlag: Alexander
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
Reenacting The Institute
E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten
Reihe: Performing Urgency #2
ISBN: 978-3-89581-433-4
Verlag: Alexander
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
Performing Urgency #2 – Series Edited by Florian Malzacher.
'Turn Turtle, Turn! Reenacting The Institute' is a creative and intellectual analysis of the new turn in the perception and workings of the institutes in the performing arts.
What has become apparent in the last ten years or so is a move towards an engaged re-appropriation of the arts institute in artistic (performance) practices, and a more in-depth collaboration between institutes and artists in rethinking the functioning, the position, and the decision-taking structure of these organisations. Rather than the institutional critique in the field of the visual arts, in the performance sector the institute can often be considered as a focus point for the concerns of diverse players in the field (artists, producers, programmers, union structures), which helps them to address issues that otherwise could only be dealt with in fragmentary meetings and practices.
This book addresses the crisis of the institute within a context of severe economic, political and social crisis. In several contributions in this book, authors refer to the Occupy movement as a major source of inspiration for new 'instituent practices', as art theorist Gerald Raunig calls them. His essay deals with a pretty well-known example of such a radical takeover, the Teatro Valle Occupato in Rome.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Weitere Infos & Material
Introduction When we think of institutional critique, as the term has been coined in the visual arts, not so many examples come to mind within the performing arts field. What has become apparent in the last ten years or so, though, is a move towards an engaged re-appropriation of the arts institute in artistic (performance) practices, and a more in-depth collaboration between institutes and artists in rethinking the functioning, position, and decision-taking structure of the organisations. If we look at the history of institutionalisation within the performing arts, it is clear that the institutes can be perceived as crystallisations of artistic and creative practices that preceded them, rather than as governing monoliths that dictate the field. In that sense the move towards ‘reclaiming the institute’ is not so much an act of de-masking, than it is an attempt to re-politicise the institutional field, an attempt to make the institute matter again as a centre for intensification to address common concerns. The institute helps to focus the concerns of diverse players in the field (artists, producers, programmers, union structures), and helps them to address issues that otherwise could only be dealt with in fragmentary meetings and practices. In that sense the renewed interest in artistic practices as well as in institutional collaborations with artists, seems to be driven by a positive vibe, an interest in changing the governing structures from within, rather than a critical denouncement of their power structures. It’s no coincidence that ‘the new spirit of the institute’ manifests itself at a time when Europe is suffering from multiple institutional crises. Confidence in the political and economic structures is at an all-time low, and the public funding of social, educational, scientific, and cultural institutions is under pressure due to state cuts and privatisations. Some institutional entities wield power without the necessary authority; others possess a residual form of authority, but not enough power to be able to set things in motion. In southern Europe, where the economic crisis hit hardest, a new generation takes matters into its own hands. In several contributions in this book, authors refer to the Occupy movement as a major source of inspiration for new ‘instituent practices’, as art theorist Gerald Raunig calls them. His essay deals with a pretty well-known example of such a radical takeover, the Teatro Valle Occupato in Rome. The story of Jan Goossens, the former artistic director of the Brussels city theatre kvs, proves how a fundamental re-politicisation can also occur within a relatively large, and (still) structurally subsidised art institution. His artistic policy aimed to rebuild an exclusively Flemish repertory theatre into a multidisciplinary and culturally more diverse theatre that could address a wide range of different inhabitants of the small world city, Brussels. His recollections show how difficult the process of instituting can be. There are many practical obstacles in the way between dream and reality. For artists who are enthusiastic about ‘the new spirit of the institute’, to resort to fiction opens up a field of possibilities. Daniel Blanga-Gubbay and Livia Andrea Piazza analyse some imaginary organisations created by artists. Art reveals itself here as a site for radical imagination, relatively free from practical constraints, which can help us to re-think artistic and non-artistic institutions. When reflecting on these fictional organisations, Blanga-Gubbay and Piazza distinguish between different degrees of separation between fiction and reality, which characterise each of them. Artistic projects in which these two poles seem to coincide, often reveal the fictional basis of real existing institution we have come to regard as ‘natural’. The dramaturg Sébastien Hendrickx also examines the power of the ‘as-if’. In a number of projects by young Belgian artists, he detects a potential to think radically differently about the institutional futures of various social sectors. At the same time he warns against the instrumentalisation of artistic imagination, which can be triggered by the demand for explicit social engagement in the arts. The artist duo Herbordt / Mohren discuss in turn their participatory art work The Institute, a fictitious entity that relates to site-specific situations. Some contributions for this book tackle the relationship between artistic practices and existing institutional frameworks. They propose diverse strategies of implication and engagement, opening up possible futures and alternative exchanges between parties that are too often still seen as adversaries. Projects by deufert&plischke reposition the audience as a political agent by inviting it to partake in the work itself. In Vera Sofia Mota’s interview, the so-called artistwin explains how it uses the theatre as a construction site for temporary micro-societies. In conversation with Victoria Perez Royo, Juan Dominguez discusses how in his past artistic and curatorial work, he related to the art institution in three predominant ways: by leaving or ignoring it; being in-between (neither totally inside nor outside of an institution); and resisting the institution. Royo and Dominguez also reflect upon the divide between the current needs of artists and art works and the bureaucratisation which characterises the big cultural institutions in their native country, Spain. With Ana Bigotte Vieira’s essay, we turn to the situation of the Portuguese art field and more specifically to Lisbon, from 1986 to present times. ‘Lack’ appears in Vieira’s text as a mode of curatorship that brings to the fore what is needed for an artistic practice that is not yet accommodated by the institution. It’s a motivation for intervention. In an interview with Elke Van Campenhout, the artist, scenographer, and researcher Vladimir Miller explains how he regards the institute as an architectural entity: a spatial organisation of people and things, communications and power relations. In his work, the notion of the ‘gap’ questions the stability paradigm and the role it plays in shaping institutional environments and workspace politics. The institutional forms explored in this book include the theatre institution and the pedagogical institute, which seem to have complementary temporalities. Where the theatre is the place of production and presentation, the school or research environment provides the context for a longer period of investment of development and reflection. In ‘Strange Love: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Institute’, Van Campenhout proposes the concept of the ‘tender institute’ where she proposes critical love and radical embrace of the different other as a pedagogical tool. She developed this concept pragmatically as the founder and general coordinator of the post-master in artistic research a.pass in Brussels. Various Artists contributes to this publication with three models created within this context. The Silent University, a project by Ahmet Ögüt focuses on bridging the divide between art and institutionalised pedagogy by suggesting a new structure as a parallel knowledge transfer platform. It is specifically geared towards refugees and asylum seekers. The Silent University stands as an example for the recent trend of artist organisations: organisations founded by artists not to support their own work, but organisations as the (artistic) work itself. At the end of the book, the focus shifts towards the institute of the commons. Nowadays, more and more art institutions seem to open up a renewed investment in the common, the transformational power of the coming-together of an ‘interest community’. A re-ordering in order to be able to transform what comes to the surface in this move towards transparency of the power and decision making organisation of subsidies, and ‘matters of concern’. Institutional discussions in that sense go far beyond the limits of disciplinary issues, and open up a common field of discussion around societal, ecological, and political questions that cannot always be addressed exhaustively in particular artists’ practices. Valeria Graziano proposes the concept of ‘prefiguration’ as a promising conceptual candidate for undertaking an alternative reflection on the contemporary politics of arts. Through his own research project, Nicolas Galeazzi articulates on the commons discourse and the option of commoning principles in the making of institutional frameworks in relation to the propositions of American political economist Elinor Ostrom. The book ends with the case of paf (Performing Arts Forum) a privately owned initiative in St. Erme, France which has proposed a radical form of common management of space, ideas, and practices since 2006. It’s a project initiated and run by artists, theoreticians, and practitioners themselves. Its autonomy is constantly contaminated, corrupted, and deviated by the currents of people and interests that keep circulating within the space. Turn, Turtle! Reenacting the Institute is the second part of the publication series Performing Urgency, commissioned by European theatre network House on Fire, which will continue half-yearly. Performing Urgency...
