Performance making is a mode of enquiring about culture and a strategy to respond to societal emergencies. Collective acts of thought and expression are an existential urgency as they broaden our understanding of who we are. As the world grappled with lockdowns, fear has permeated our very beings. Notes from Isolation embodies an investigative journey wherein Andrea Pagnes —who, with Verena Stenke, forms the artist duo VestAndPage— explores the essence of existence during the COVID-19 pandemic. He then shares his notes in distant encounters with artists, poets and philosophers friends who navigate the non-linear realms: Marilyn Arsem, Lois Keidan, Joseph Morgan Schofield, Franko B, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Stelarc, Timothy Morton, Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, and eventually Ron Athey revisiting a conversation they had a while ago. At last, performance matters: politics and science to dissect, recurring patterns of suffering and pain to surpass, religion, colonialism, and gender fluidity found a voice within the societal crises that COVID-19 accentuated. Multiple remote visions and divergent creative thinking are pooled to inspect reality while caring for humanity, as to perhaps find a way out.

‘They close the glass door behind me and say I cannot leave this area. They gave me a blue protective mask and said I must wear it whenever I exit the room or someone enters it. The mask I have to wear closes my mouth but not my eyes. The border is a transparent glass door. We can look to the other side but not cross over. I let go a quiet steeping in being. Time makes me the process.’ — Verena Stenke.

Documentation of the evening which featured a screening of short films and performance documentation by artists working around ritual, performance and queer futurity.

Nine minute video of the performance.

The first major survey of the artist’s interdisciplinary practices. Bringing together newly commissioned and other writings by major thinkers in and beyond visual and performance studies, and extensive documentation of the artist’s work from two decades of practice, it navigates through and between performance, biotechnical practices, image-making, and writing.

Draws strength from conversations with the performance artist Ron Athey and readings from Illness as Metaphor, by Susan Sontag.

Please note that Queen Mary University of London holds the entire archive of the late artist.

A romantic exploration performance about love and human relationships.

Please note that Queen Mary University of London holds the entire archive of the late artist.

A rough cut of the first ever documentary about the life and work of Franko B. Part of LADA Screens 16.

A specially filmed conversation between Ron Athey and writer Jennifer Doyle. Filmed in LA for LADA Screens by Brittany Neimeth.

Part of LADA Screens 6.

Super 8 film was made at the Festival de l’Etrange, Vidéotheque de Paris. Produced by Homemade FIlms.

Part of LADA Screens 6.

Examines the embodiment of pain in Máiréad Delaney’s performance.

Part of The Library of Performing Rights (P3041).