venice

The eight edition of Venice Agendas will focus on Live Art for two sessions the first is a discussion on Live art, the second a speed dating performance where the idea of an audience is lost and everyone becomes active, and the third concentrating on art production and ways in which discussions and debates are becoming influential or at least prevalent in many art fairs and Biennales.

The Team in Venice include Tim Rawlins, Chantelle Purcell and students from CSM Ambra Gattiglia, Yifei Wu and Tabita Rezaire. Video films of the events were made by Marie Therese Shortt.

VENICE EVENTS: Breakfast events are held at CZ95 on the Giudecca 95, 30133 Venezia Vaporetto stop Zitelle on lines 2, 4.1 and 4.2

WEDNESDAY 29 MAY 2013: Live Art - Are you here? Were you there?

Breakfast: 9am Event: 10am -12pm

Chaired by Jean Wainwright, speakers include Kathy Battista, Tony Heaton, rAndom International, Lois Keidan, Lauren A Wright and artists Joan Jonas, Marcia Farquhar, Marta Jovanovic, Verena Stenke, and Andrea Pagnes.

As performance art becomes increasingly visible in the programmes and collections of major museums and galleries, this event aims to evaluate the current status of performance and live art. Through a series of brief presentations by artists and professionals, as well as performative interventions, it will ask whether this inclusion kills the element of risk that is often related to performance or if live practices enable institutions to challenge their audiences as never before. The session will also consider the unintended performer and raise issues that encompass disability and gender.

THURSDAY 30 MAY 2013: Speed Dating; Working the Room 

Breakfast: 8.30am Event: 9am -10am 

 Speed-date with Kathy Battista, Sacha Craddock, Tony Heaton, rAndom International, Beral Madra, Richard Mosse, Andrea Pagnes, Verena Stenke, Hilde Teerlinck, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jinny Yu and Brett Littman among others. 

Discussions and debates are important catalysts for action and often one-to-one conversations can be the most instrumental. This event plays with the idea of speed dating and the notion of working the room by removing the concept of an audience - every participant becomes an active part of the session. Students from Central St Martins, Tabita Rezaire, Ambra Gattiglia and Yifei Wu are helping to construct and design speed dating/working the room.

FRIDAY 31st MAY 2013: The Alternative Scene: International art production

Event: 9am-12pm with breakfast

Chaired by Vittorio Urbani with Elisa Genna, Francesco Ragazzi and Francesco Urbano.  

Panellists include: Kathrin Becker, Germany; Antonia Carver, UAE; Aaron Cezar, UK; Penelope Curtis, UK; Branko Franceschi, Croatia; Magda Guruli, Georgia; Maria Hlavajova, Netherlands; Stephanie James, UK; Nadira Laggoune, Algeria; Kalliopi Lemos, UK; Beral Madra, Turkey; Jonathan Watkins, UK and Jinny Yu, Italy among others.

In this session, international curators and artists will consider the status of biennials and art events as sites for the production of live artworks.  It will ask whether these events create enriched cultural landscapes through fringe events and co-operation among organisations, or whether their concentration of resources and audiences can be counterproductive. Are projects involving educational institutions and residencies alongside these ‘main events’ able to change the habits of a globalised art world, where values and formats are intended to be exportable and repeatable?

PERFORMANCES: 

As part of Venice Agendas workinprogress and Arts Pavilion Bournemouth have commissioned a series of performances respectively, to take place in different locations.

There are three strands to the performances. Jenni Cluskey will be making a three durational works throughout the morning events at CZ95, Aaron Williamson will be performing in different parts of Venice and The Girls, Marcia Farquhar and Tim Russell will be performing at Palazzo Zenobio.

workinprogress has invited artists Jennifer Cluskey and Aaron Williamson to respond to Venice in relation to its site, context and identity.  Cluskey’s new work explores the politicisation of culture through the action of ‘peaceful protest’ using the traditional art form origami.  For Williamson the letters ‘J, K, W, X, Y’ which only appear in the Italian alphabet through imported words, form the basis of his performance in the streets of Venice.  

Boîte-en-valise

Palazzo Zenobio, Fondamenta del Soccorso, Dorsoduro 2596, Venice, Italy

Wednesday 29 May - Sunday 2 June 2013 from 1pm each day

Arts Pavilion Bournemouth present Boîte-en-valise by The Girls (Zerelda Sinclair and Andrea Blood), Marcia Farquhar and Tim Russell.  Appropriating and transmuting Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise and responding to Venice Biennale Art Director Massimiliano Gioni’s theme of The Encyclopedic Palace, each of the selected artists has been asked to pack work in a suitcase and travel to Venice for presentation.  Boîte-en-valise is co curated by Carol Maund, Stephanie James and Mark Segal. 

Networking / twitter / facebook / YouTube

Social networking has become a means to communicate your lunch menu or a means to start revolutions and riots.

Venice Invasions is a new work by Aaron Williamson, where he explores the Biennale in relation to the cities own defenses against an international cultural invasion. The Biennale occupies Venice over a period of six months in order to promote a global culture of art led by national representatives. As the city that was built to withstand siege is taken over by more than 300,000 art-visitors into an area with under 50,000 residents, can this biennial event be considered an invasion of sorts? 

Williamson proposes to explore this notion through a series of public performances.  According to ‘Invasion Theory’ there are three stages for a successful invasion: infiltration, conflict and pacification. Williamson’s performances along the waterfront between the Venice Biennale at Giardini and the Columns at the Molo, will draw upon these three theoretical stages for material.  Each stage will be presented separately over three consecutive days.

Stage 1: Infiltration – This can be achieved more effectively through stealth rather than sudden aggression

Stage 2: Conflict – Conflict is often accompanied by the pitching of markers around the gained territory

Stage 3: Pacification – Having successfully taken over the territory the invaders’ chief aim is pacification of the local populace. The ideal is to reach a condition of stasis so that they may remain in the territory for as long as possible.

Jenni Cluskey’s work explores the politicisation of culture through the performative action of ‘peaceful protest’ using the traditional art form origami.  Over a period of three mornings, Cluskey proposes a series of exchanges as durational live art works.  Each event aims to open up a dialogue with the audience and invites them to take part or take away pieces of work made during the performance as tokens or an exchange.  

Wednesday 29th May: at CZ95: Symbol Exchange focuses on the value and economical exchange of symbols. Starting with a paper gun Cluskey transforms this heavily imbued symbol into two peace cranes.  The peace crane is handed out to guests – one peace crane to keep, the other to give away.

Thursday 30th May: at CZ95: Currency exchange sees Cluskey invite guests to exchange currency on a like for like value.  Approaching the artist in pairs the audience is invited to exchange €2.50 each, which in turn is exchanged for a €5 note that the artist cuts in half and turns into a lotus origami piece.  

Friday 31st May: at CZ95: Gifts is Cluskey’s final performance and will see the artist give away what she refers to as Gifts in handmade origami boxes. Each Gift is a box, which contains the lowest denomination of the euro currency, a 1cent coin; the gift is the coin, the box is just the packaging – the recipients can decide which is more valuable.