Live Art Unpacked Geneva Programme

Gary Stevens
Slow Life
 – a video installation
Wednesday 5  – Saturday 8 March
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 14.00 – 18.00
Saturday 11.00 – 18.00

Slow Life is a five-screen video installation with sound, that has developed from Stevens' live work, and in particular from his performance/ installation And, a group work where ordinary actions are repeated and fragmented.

In Slow Life, everyday domestic scenes are played very, very slowly in real time. The concentration, awkwardness, control and isolation of the performers heighten the sense of consciousness, while the relentless, constancy of the movement creates a contrasting somnambulistic effect. There is horror and wonder in this acute awareness. Elements within the picture, such as a fire or running water, are reminders that it is not time that has slowed down. Comparison with the still and fixed images of painting and photography lays emphasis on these moments inexorably slipping by. Sounds belonging to each video image combine in the gallery space to create a sense of unease and instability.

Slow Life was originally commissioned by Matt’s Gallery, London in association with Artsadmin (2003).
 

Gary Stevens
A Game of Consequences
– a workshop (in English)
Wednesday 5 – Friday 7
10.00 – 14.00 daily

Gary Stevens will lead an open workshop for anyone who is interested in contemporary performance and interdisciplinary practices – no skills are needed and the only requirement is a commitment to attending all three days of the workshop.  The workshops will take a simple starting point and develop the idea with the group with participants working together. The workshop will touch on:

1. Evoking a space by mapping it.
2. Moving as a single entity.
3. Speaking for someone else.
4. Naming actions, rather than persons.
5. A game of consequences.
 

Gary Stevens
Not Tony
– a solo performance (in English)
and
Thought Bubble
– an illustrated lecture (in English)
Friday 7
From 19.00

In Not Tony a single performer plays multiple personalities within a family. They all speak with the same voice – except the dog! The family members are each distinguished by stick-on beards, hats, wigs and hairclips, while domestic objects are slapped down or swiped off a table to represent different rooms in the house. A conflict emerges between them as the performer tries to keep up with the complex system reminiscent of a quick-change hat routine. Not Tony was commissioned by Home, London as part of the Performing Kitchen (2004).

In his illustrated lectureGary Stevens will focus on his current live works, such as Ape, Flock and Thought Bubble together with the interactive video installation Wake Up and Hide, with a brief look at some antecedents. He will consider how a radical approach to work, where the artist prefers to be seen in a broad cultural context, relates to media-specific disciplines. The talk will touch on problems of speech in performance seen in a visual arts context. It will also address problems of structure, duration and narrative. There is a plea for a development through practical research and a critical, radical, broad-based approach to work that benefits from a relationship with other disciplines.

 
Live Art Development Agency
Live Art on Screen
Tuesday 11 – Friday 14
11.00 – 18.00
Saturday 15
11.00 – 14.00

A screening programme of UK Live Art reflecting the diversity of practices and approaches artists are working with – from street interventions, through gallery installations, and theatrical presentations, to documents of research, reinterpretations of performance works for camera, and works made especially for the screen. Featured artists include Oreet Ashery, Franko B, Blast Theory, Anne Bean, Robin Deacon, Yara El-Sherbini, Jem Finer and Ansuman Biswas, Forced Entertainment, FrenchMottershead, Gob Squad, Silke Mansholt, Howard Matthew, Kira O’Reilly, Rajni Shah, Joshua Sofaer, Station House Opera, Grace Surman, The Vacuum Cleaner, Aaron Williamson.

The screening programme will also include photographs by Manuel Vason from Encounters, a collection of images created in collaboration with British artists working with their body in performance.
 

Joshua Sofaer
A Performance of The Performance Pack (in English with French texts available)
Saturday 15
14.00

The Performance Pack is a ready-made kit containing audio-visual material, historical information, key term definitions and props for a lecture-based performance explaining and exploring the relationship between fine art and performance, and that draws on works which have been informed by performance in Tate Modern permanent collection and beyond. The Performance Pack features the work of Matthew Barney, Joseph Beuys, George Chakravarthi, Robin Deacon, Forced Entertainment, Franko B, Ronald Fraser Monro, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Rebecca Horn, Tehching Hsieh, Zhang Huan, Oleg Kulik, La Ribot, Richard Layzell, Stacy Makishi & Vic Ryder, Piero Manzoni, Howard Matthew, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman, Hayley Newman, Carolee Schneemann, Cindy Sherman.

Conceived and created by Joshua Sofaer in collaboration with the Live Art Development Agency, and Tate Interpretation and Education, The Performance Pack is a signed and numbered limited edition artwork, a performance enabler, and an educational resource.
 

Everything You Wanted To Know About Live Art But Were Afraid To Ask
– guidance and advice for artists by artists (in English)
Saturday 15
16.00

Everything You Wanted To Know About Live Art But Were Afraid To Ask is an afternoon of information and advice about Live Art and interdisciplinary practices aimed at students, graduates, younger artists, and anybody who is interested in finding out more about experimental contemporary performance. Everything willinclude an introduction to the concept and practice of Live Art, a sense of how things work in Switzerland and beyond, practical information, and opportunities to access advice and expertise from experienced artists.

Contributors include Lois Keidan and Daniel Brine of the Live Art Development Agency, and the artists Lois Weaver, Joshua Sofaer, La Ribot, Yan Duyvendak, Oskar Gomez Mata, and Andrea Saemann Bale.