Sandra Umathum: “The Art of making a Performance – Xavier Le Roy’s Product of Other Circumstances“
22.10.2013 I 11 am-1:00 pm keynote and discussion
In his performance Product of Other Circumstances Xavier Le Roy not only presents the result of a working process. Instead, the working process itself becomes the subject of presentation and reflection. Le Roy gives insight into the particular circumstances he was confronted with and, in doing so, he also addresses general conditions of contemporary artistic production. In my lecture I will, on the one hand, focus on the way this performance deals with the challenges of performance making. On the other hand, I would like to bring into discussion nowadays artistic labour with respect to questions of research, professionalism/dilettantism, economics of time, etc.
By: Sandra Umathum
Read the full paper online (click here)
By: Sandra Umathum
Read the full paper online (click here)
Video documentation of the lecture (in three parts):
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Reports&Reflections
October 22, 2013 / Erasmus IP 2013, HZT Berlin
Summary / small group colloquium on Sandra Umathum's lecture: The Art of Making a Performance – Xavier Le Roy's Product of other Circumstances
We started our colloquium based on a comment in Sandra Umathum's lecture discussion, which pointed to the fact that since approximately ten years rehearsals and elements of performance making processes become more and more represented, produced and sold by art institutions. We questioned the notion of rehearsal: What does it mean? Where does it start? Where does it stop? Is a rehearsal still a rehearsal if a spectator is invited to observe it? We asked ourselves if the classic linear succession of a longer process and a compact demonstrable product in the end is still valid for current artistic practice.
Furthermore, it seems that performance art has to position itself amongst three options: opposing, dealing with or escaping capitalist modes of production. Dealing with those can be seen as a political action in the perspective that as political beings all our actions are political. On the other hand, through the intermingling of a political stance with aesthetic forms, the latter risks to soften the politics. Le Roy's aesthetic performance tools discussing modes of production could run this risk.
It seems impossible to show an artistic process without using modes of production. Following this train of thought, we found the metaphor of the Trojan horse applicable to Le Roy's practice as well as to Andrea Fraser's, who is criticising institutions while operating within these. With the crucial difference, that their practice doesn't eradicate the modes of productions they attack, but merely draw attention to the interdependence between current modes of production and individual artistic practice.
We are wondering if an explicit use of representation in performance can question the former discussed modes of production more than a public outlaying of the process. We would like to further investigate the notion of representation in a performative frame as we perceive that breaking representation is sometimes dogmatically aspired by contemporary educational institutions.
By: David Pollmann & Catherine Elsen
Summary / small group colloquium on Sandra Umathum's lecture: The Art of Making a Performance – Xavier Le Roy's Product of other Circumstances
We started our colloquium based on a comment in Sandra Umathum's lecture discussion, which pointed to the fact that since approximately ten years rehearsals and elements of performance making processes become more and more represented, produced and sold by art institutions. We questioned the notion of rehearsal: What does it mean? Where does it start? Where does it stop? Is a rehearsal still a rehearsal if a spectator is invited to observe it? We asked ourselves if the classic linear succession of a longer process and a compact demonstrable product in the end is still valid for current artistic practice.
Furthermore, it seems that performance art has to position itself amongst three options: opposing, dealing with or escaping capitalist modes of production. Dealing with those can be seen as a political action in the perspective that as political beings all our actions are political. On the other hand, through the intermingling of a political stance with aesthetic forms, the latter risks to soften the politics. Le Roy's aesthetic performance tools discussing modes of production could run this risk.
It seems impossible to show an artistic process without using modes of production. Following this train of thought, we found the metaphor of the Trojan horse applicable to Le Roy's practice as well as to Andrea Fraser's, who is criticising institutions while operating within these. With the crucial difference, that their practice doesn't eradicate the modes of productions they attack, but merely draw attention to the interdependence between current modes of production and individual artistic practice.
We are wondering if an explicit use of representation in performance can question the former discussed modes of production more than a public outlaying of the process. We would like to further investigate the notion of representation in a performative frame as we perceive that breaking representation is sometimes dogmatically aspired by contemporary educational institutions.
By: David Pollmann & Catherine Elsen
Ooctober 22
A small map of thinkings, created in the afternoon discusions about Xabier Le Roy`s work: a product of another circunstances. By: Ibon Salvador |