Aaron Williamson, Flings himself at the Gallery Wall, 2008. Performance. Photo: Gavin Renwick. Courtesy the artist.
Workinprogress
Venice Agendas during the 55th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia
29–31 May 2013, 9am–12pm
Breakfast events held at CZ95
Giudecca 95, 30133 Venezia
Vaporetto stop Zitelle on lines 2, 4.1 and 4.2
Boîte-en-valise
29 May–2 June 2013, from 1pm
Palazzo Zenobio, Fondamenta del Soccorso
Dorsoduro 2596, Venezia
www.veniceagendas.eu
Venice Agendas is a series of breakfast events and performances during the preview week of the 55th Venice Biennale. This is the eighth in the Agendas series, which since 1999 has examined different aspects of contemporary art practice. This year’s event focuses on performance art and the alternative scene: its history, legacy and future.
Events at CZ95
Wednesday 29 May: 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 Marcia Farquhar, Joan Jonas, Marta Jovanovic, Andrea Pagnes and Verena Stenke.
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. A series of brief presentations will ask whether this inclusion kills the element of risk often related to performance or if live practices enable institutions to challenge their audiences. The session will also consider the unintended performer and raise issues that encompass disability and gender.
Thursday 30 May: Speed Dating—Working the Room
Breakfast: 8:30am Event: 9am–10am
Speed date with Kathy Battista, Sacha Craddock, Tony Heaton, rAndom International, Marta Jovanovic, Brett Littman, Beral Madra, Richard Mosse, Andrea Pagnes, Verena Stenke, Hilde Teerlinck, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Jinny Yu, 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.
Friday 31 May: The Alternative Scene: International Art Production
Event: 9am–12pm, with breakfast
Chaired by Vittorio Urbani with Elisa Genna, Francesco Ragazzi and Francesco Urbano. Panelists include Kathrin Becker, Antonia Carver, Aaron Cezar, Penelope Curtis, Branko Franceschi, Magda Guruli, Maria Hlavajova, Stephanie James, Nadira Laggoune, Kalliopi Lemos, Beral Madra, Jonathan Watkins, among others.
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 create enriched cultural landscapes through fringe events and cooperation 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.
workinprogress has invited artists Jenni 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 artform 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 through the streets of Venice.
Arts Pavilion Bournemouth presents Boîte-en-valise: The Girls (Zerelda Sinclair and Andrea Blood), Marcia Farquhar and Tim Russell, co-curated by Carol Maund, Stephanie James and Mark Segal. Appropriating and transmuting Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise and responding to 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.
Venice Agendas is curated and presented by Terry Smith, Clare Fitzpatrick and Helen Rawlins from workinprogress, in partnership with FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais; Nuova Icona; SHAPE London; Turner Contemporary; Arts University Bournemouth; Arts Bournemouth; Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London and University for the Creative Arts. With the support of Audio Arts; Associazione E; CZ95; Municipalità di Venezia; Live Art Development Agency and supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Events are free but availability is limited. To book a place or for further information please contact Helen Rawlins helen@workinprogressuk.com.