Access All Areas Public Programme

Friday 4 March from 19.00 and Saturday 5 March from 12.00, 2011

Club Row Gallery, Rochelle School, London E2 7ES

Access All Areas was a two-day public programme reflecting the ways in which the practices of artists who work with Live Art have engaged with, represented, and problematised issues of disability in innovative and radical ways.

The programme included new durational performance-installations by Noemi Lakmaier and Martin O’Brien, a new performance and retrospective screenings by The Disabled Avant-Garde, a landmark symposium, screenings of seminal documentation and works for camera, and a bibliotheque.

Live Art is truly the avant-garde forum for Disability Art and at the forefront of Disability Art practice, thinking and theory. Dr Paul Darke (DASh)

STOP PRESS: Access All Areas: Live Art and Disability (NYC edition), Saturday March 29, 2014

LADA has been invited to present a New York City version of the Access All Areas public programme to complement Abron Arts Center’s presentation of Mat Fraser and Julie Atlas Muz’s Beauty and the Beast, directed by Phelim McDermott, in March 2014.

Access All Areas (NYC edition) will be a free, day long event looking at some of the radical approaches to representations of disability being taken by contemporary performance artists, particularly in the UK. The programme will include the durational performances Undress/Redress by Noemi Lakmaier and Mucus Factory by Martin O’Brien, an artist-led symposium exploring the cultural impact of disabled artists, screenings of key works from recent decades, and a biblioteque. Full programme details to be announced here shortly.

Presented with the support of the British Council.

Friday 4 March 

Performances and Screenings from 19.00

From 19.00
Martin O’Brien 
Mucus Factory
A durational performance-installation which questions and subverts the common representations of people with severe illness as icons of bravery or eliciting sympathy by presenting a transgressive but more realistic image of what it means to have a severe chronic illness. A Live Art Development Agency commission. Read more

From 19.00
Noemi Lakmaier 
Undress/Redress
A durational performance-installation which aims to evoke, address and explore the ambiguities of intimate inter-human interaction between the female, disabled body and the able bodied male. A Live Art Development Agency commission. Read more

20.00
The Disabled Avant-Garde
Robots Destroy the Tower of Babble!
A performance inspired by the story of the Tower of Babel in which, dressed as robots, Aaron Williamson and Katherine Araniello of The Disabled Avant-Garde stage a symbolic attack upon their own rickety, improvised Tower and level it in an act of Art Destruction. Live performance followed by screenings of earlier DAG works.

From 19.00
Screening Programme
A small selection of influential performance documentation and works made for camera by artists including Raimund Hoghe, Mary Duffy, Mat Fraser, Aaron Williamson, Katherine Araniello, Pete Edwards, Alan McLean & Tony Mustoe, Juliet Robson, Bobby Baker, Back To Back Theatre, David Hoyle, Aine Phillips, and Extant.

From 19.00
Bibliotheque
A selection of key books and DVDs.

Saturday 5 March

Performances, Screenings and Symposium from 12.00

From 12.00
Martin O’Brien 
Mucus Factory
A durational performance-installation (see above).

At 21.00 
Martin O’Brien will perform a final action with very special guest, Sheree Rose, in her first ever UK performance.

Please note this action will contain very strong images that some may find challenging.

From 12.00
Noemi Lakmaier
Undress/Redress
A durational performance-installation (see above).

From 12.00
Screenings (see above).

From 12.00
Bibliotheque (see above).

13.00 to 19.00
Symposium 
– polemics, presentations and discussions

 “Sick”* 
A panel on the ways in which artists are breaking taboos, and subverting and challenging popular expectations of disabled artists, and ideas of disability itself.
With Rita Marcalo, Bobby Baker, Kim Noble, The Disabled Avant-Garde (Aaron Williamson & Katherine Araniello), and Brian Lobel (Chair)

 “My Body Did Everything I Asked it”* 
A panel on the ways in which artists are testing the possibilities of performance, and the interactions and tensions between political and artistic identities.
With Raimund Hoghe (on film), Catherine Long, Tonny A, Pete Edwards, Jenny Sealey, and Tomislav Medak (Chair)

“Throwing The Body Into The Fight”* 
A panel on the ways in which artists are working between artistic and cultural boundaries, and across contexts from the mainstream to the radical edges of activism.
With Mat Fraser (on film), Sean Burn, Maria Oshodi, Luke Pell & Caroline Bowditch, and Jon Adams (Chair)

“Pull Yourself Together”* 
Creative responses to Access All Areas and discussion of issues and ideas raised in the symposium panels.
With Rajni Shah, Tony Heaton, Brian Lobel, Tomislav Medak, and Jon Adams.

Biographies of all Access All Areas symposium and performance contributors can be found here .

Plus – Access All Areas Related Events –

Jon Adams
Dysarticulate 2
An ongoing participatory project in which flags created from the recycled pages of donated books form a temporary installation reflecting on disability, fragility and public art. Everyone is invited to bring along a book that means something to them to donate to this project.
Saturday 5 March, from 12.00, Club Row Gallery surrounds.

Rita Marcalo 
She’s Lost Control
The second in a challenging trilogy of works looking at the relationship between dance, epilepsy and anti-convulsant medication, and the experience of waiting for, and having, an epileptic seizure.
Thursday 3 March at 19.00 and 21.00, at Rich Mix

Tickets and Bookings:

– Friday 4 March, from 19.00 – Noemi Lakmaier, Martin O’Brien, The Disabled Avant-Garde, screenings – £12/£10 concessions (including booking fee)
– Saturday 5 March, from 12.00 – Symposium, Noemi Lakmaier, Martin O’Brien, Jon Adams, screenings – £17/£14 concessions (including booking fee)
– Saturday 5 March, from 19.00 – Noemi Lakmaier, Martin O’Brien (including action with special guest at 21.00), Jon Adams, screenings – £5 (only available on the door – no advance bookings)

!! Combination ticket – access all areas of Access All Areas with unlimited entry to all Club Row events for only £25/£20 concessions (including booking fee). Limited availability and must be booked in advance!!

Bookings – Open 12noon Friday 11th February

1. online – through the Events Shelf on Unbound
2. on the phone +44 (0)207 033 0275

Access:

Club Row is wheelchair accessible. The performances and symposium will be BSL interpreted. Audio-descriptions will be available. Screenings will be subtitled. The Live Art Development Agency has a policy of reasonable adjustment and will endeavor to meet any access requirements where possible. Please contact the Agency in advance if you have specific access requirements.

Access All Areas has been developed with the support of an artists’ advisory group – Tonny A, Katherine Araniello, Bobby Baker, Pete Edwards, Mat Fraser, Catherine Long, Maria Oshodi, Jenny Sealey and Aaron Williamson.

Access All Areas is part of Restock, Rethink, Reflect, a series of initiatives the Live Art Development Agency instigated in 2006 for, and about, artists who are exploring issues of identity politics and cultural diversity in radical and innovative ways. The series aims to map and mark the often-neglected contributions of art and artists to these debates, and to invest in artists’ futures through specialized professional development, resources, programmes and publications.

Building on the achievements and findings of the first series, Restock Rethink Reflect Two: Live Art and Disability is made up of a number of initiatives including the Access All Areas programme and a significant new publication planned for 2012.

* Artworks referenced in symposium panel titles:
*“Sick, The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan” by Kirby Dick (1997)
*“My Body Did Everything I Asked it” by Tony Mustoe and Alan McLean (1990)
*“Throwing The Body Into The Fight” by Raimund Hoghe (2000)
*“Pull Yourself Together” by Bobby Baker (2000)

Access All Areas is financially assisted by Arts Council England, with additional support from Tower Hamlets Council and British Council, Croatia.