Open discussion during the festival. Photo: Monika Sobczak
Ducks don’t fly – Boys don’t cry
Thoughts on the 2nd PAO – Performance Art Oslo Festival, 14th – 16th November 2014 at Atelier Nord ANX, Oslo, Norway by BBB Johannes Deimling.
I cannot think of any other festival where the audience gets served a free, delicious soup and coffee or tea between the performances. This hospitable gesture of the PAO festival is not only a kind gesture, but more of a statement clearly showing the importance of the audience as an integral part of performative art practice. Performance Art is a social art form as it cannot be realized without the viewer- the witness. The audience has a distinct function in making the performative work holistic in its creation and perception. To acknowledge this function within a festival of Performance Art is stating the collective experience which Performance Art stands for. The dialogue between the artistic concept and its perception is a core element in performative practice which PAO tries to underline with this gesture.
For the second time the member organization PAO – Performance Art Oslo in Norway invited national and international artists to perform in Oslo at the Atelier Nord in order to create ephemeral art works based on the theme, "Visual Poetry". The curators Tanja Thorjussen and Franzisca Siegrist offered an interesting, diverse and distinguished Performance Art program with works by Maline Casta, Fernanda Branco, Lukasz Trusewicz, Tereza Buskova, Kurt Johannessen, Amelia Beavis-Harrison, Agnes Nedregård, Justyna Scheuring, Alvaro Terrones, Santiago Lopez, Anja Carr, Rita Marhaug and Bartolome Ferrando. Accompanied by an exhibition of photographs by Polish photographer, Monika Sobczak (who was also invited to be the official photographer of the festival) and a video program, the festival showed a variety of art works which extended the topic "Visual Poetry" and created again a vital platform for exchange and dialogue about Performance Art.
There is no such thing like the art scene which is made up of a patchwork of different "art villages"- each with its own direction and vision. Some of these villages are connected, some haven’t even heard about the existence of one another. Connecting these villages creates a dynamic network in which art can grow and flourish. PAO is such a village in Oslo and aims to connect its vision with other villages by inviting collaborators such as the prolific Galeria Raczej from Poznan, Poland to the festival. In doing so, the aim is for the villages to get stronger by exchanging their goods and the PAO Festival serves as a trading place where active participation and inclusion allows the visions and aims of these "art villages" to be dynamically influenced and strengthened.
Poetry is a powerful artistic tool which can be soft and fragile like a catkin but also brutal and destructive like a sledge hammer. Mainly the term ‘poetry’ is used within writing and is textually based. However, poetry is also used as a metaphor to describe the appearance of an art work. The term ‘visual poetry’ describes poetry or art which is dealing with text in an extended and visually extended manner. Similar to written or spoken poetry, ‘visual poetry’ creates spaces full of possibilities and playgrounds for thoughts. Therefore, all forms of poetry share the lack of not being applicable to reality as it has already transformed reality. Connecting the term ‘visual poetry’ with an ephemeral art form which is celebrating the ‘nowness’ of the moment in reality carries a huge potential towards the impossibility of creating poetry live. However, the term ‘visual poetry’ in connection with Performance Art is transformed into something different as live artistic actions can be poetic. This working method is anchored in the work of Performance Art pioneers such as DADA and Fluxus. In doing so, the body of the artist is the sheet of paper on which the action writes its text and creates poetic moments and we did witness many of these moments during the festival at Atelier Nord.
Thoughts on the 2nd PAO – Performance Art Oslo Festival, 14th – 16th November 2014 at Atelier Nord ANX, Oslo, Norway by BBB Johannes Deimling.
I cannot think of any other festival where the audience gets served a free, delicious soup and coffee or tea between the performances. This hospitable gesture of the PAO festival is not only a kind gesture, but more of a statement clearly showing the importance of the audience as an integral part of performative art practice. Performance Art is a social art form as it cannot be realized without the viewer- the witness. The audience has a distinct function in making the performative work holistic in its creation and perception. To acknowledge this function within a festival of Performance Art is stating the collective experience which Performance Art stands for. The dialogue between the artistic concept and its perception is a core element in performative practice which PAO tries to underline with this gesture.
For the second time the member organization PAO – Performance Art Oslo in Norway invited national and international artists to perform in Oslo at the Atelier Nord in order to create ephemeral art works based on the theme, "Visual Poetry". The curators Tanja Thorjussen and Franzisca Siegrist offered an interesting, diverse and distinguished Performance Art program with works by Maline Casta, Fernanda Branco, Lukasz Trusewicz, Tereza Buskova, Kurt Johannessen, Amelia Beavis-Harrison, Agnes Nedregård, Justyna Scheuring, Alvaro Terrones, Santiago Lopez, Anja Carr, Rita Marhaug and Bartolome Ferrando. Accompanied by an exhibition of photographs by Polish photographer, Monika Sobczak (who was also invited to be the official photographer of the festival) and a video program, the festival showed a variety of art works which extended the topic "Visual Poetry" and created again a vital platform for exchange and dialogue about Performance Art.
There is no such thing like the art scene which is made up of a patchwork of different "art villages"- each with its own direction and vision. Some of these villages are connected, some haven’t even heard about the existence of one another. Connecting these villages creates a dynamic network in which art can grow and flourish. PAO is such a village in Oslo and aims to connect its vision with other villages by inviting collaborators such as the prolific Galeria Raczej from Poznan, Poland to the festival. In doing so, the aim is for the villages to get stronger by exchanging their goods and the PAO Festival serves as a trading place where active participation and inclusion allows the visions and aims of these "art villages" to be dynamically influenced and strengthened.
Poetry is a powerful artistic tool which can be soft and fragile like a catkin but also brutal and destructive like a sledge hammer. Mainly the term ‘poetry’ is used within writing and is textually based. However, poetry is also used as a metaphor to describe the appearance of an art work. The term ‘visual poetry’ describes poetry or art which is dealing with text in an extended and visually extended manner. Similar to written or spoken poetry, ‘visual poetry’ creates spaces full of possibilities and playgrounds for thoughts. Therefore, all forms of poetry share the lack of not being applicable to reality as it has already transformed reality. Connecting the term ‘visual poetry’ with an ephemeral art form which is celebrating the ‘nowness’ of the moment in reality carries a huge potential towards the impossibility of creating poetry live. However, the term ‘visual poetry’ in connection with Performance Art is transformed into something different as live artistic actions can be poetic. This working method is anchored in the work of Performance Art pioneers such as DADA and Fluxus. In doing so, the body of the artist is the sheet of paper on which the action writes its text and creates poetic moments and we did witness many of these moments during the festival at Atelier Nord.
Galeria Raczej, Agnieszka Szablikowska & Łukasz Trusewicz. Photo: Monika Sobczak
Friday 14. November
How boring artist talks can be! Sitting in front of a projector and listening to someone who explains his or her universe. This is how I often perceive this format of artists talking about their works and I feel that nothing really gets transported through these kind of formats – unless the artist is able to turn this talk into something different or his/her subject is simply so extremely interesting. But the worst case is when artists try to turn their lectures into a kind of animated infotainment thingy which is more painful to listen to than a projection based talk. So, aiming to revitalize the artist's talk format, the curators of the PAO festival asked the invited artists to create a 10 minute "Performative Artist's Talk" or "Performance Lecture"- therefore not a classical talk, but "something different".
Agnieszka Szablikowska, the curator of Galeria Raczej, Amelia Beavis-Harrison, Bartolomé Ferrando, Rita Marhaug, Álvaro Terrones & Santiago López and Justyna Scheuring each presented a 10 minute Performance Lecture. Taking place the evening before the Festival's Performance Programme began, the lectures served as a light, precise, but delicious appetizer before the main meal was served.
The formats of the 10 minute presentations were as diverse as the backgrounds of the artists. Each single presentation was unique and contained a lot of information which in a conventional artist's talk could take around two hours to convey.
Agnieska Szabilkowa curator from Galeria Raczej in Poznan was sitting in front of a laptop screening pictures of performances which they have presented over the years in Poznan. It was a slide show in which no single performance was explained in depth, however the slide show conveyed how vivid and active Galeria Raczej is in presenting hundreds of performances and projects in Poland. The single images blurred into one image- one collage. While Agnieszka was showing the images, her husband and artist Lukasz Trusewicz outlined the ground plan of Galeria Raczej with marking tape on the floor of Atelier Nord ANX thereby demonstrating how small the Galeria Raczej is. Such a lot of dynamic, artistic energy in such a small space! Lukasz then invited the audience into the imaginary space of Galeria Raczej. As each person entered the marked space, Atelier Nord got more and more empty until finally all the present people were gathered in the small space. The projected images and the image of the people sitting in this small space thereby created an wider understanding of the work of Galeria Raczej.
Álvaro Terrones & Santiago López from Spain introduced their talk as a ‘conservative artists' talk’ which already created smiles on the faces of the audience. The set up - a table, laptop and projector, two chairs – gave the impression of a classical artist talk. From the start, their talk was heading in this direction as they showed works from their website and talked about aspects of their collaboration. Gradually, the whole presentation turned into an absurd, hilarious and adorable confusion. While Santiago was explaining some aspects of the work, Alvaro was pointing out something else. More and more taps were opened and both spoke at the same time, interrupting each other, but always in a serious manner. Suddenly they turned on Ska music, because they liked it, but kept on talking about their work so that no one could understand the words of the two Spanish artists. This comedic, but never slapstick presentation offered an insight into one of the major tools of their collaboration: humor.
How boring artist talks can be! Sitting in front of a projector and listening to someone who explains his or her universe. This is how I often perceive this format of artists talking about their works and I feel that nothing really gets transported through these kind of formats – unless the artist is able to turn this talk into something different or his/her subject is simply so extremely interesting. But the worst case is when artists try to turn their lectures into a kind of animated infotainment thingy which is more painful to listen to than a projection based talk. So, aiming to revitalize the artist's talk format, the curators of the PAO festival asked the invited artists to create a 10 minute "Performative Artist's Talk" or "Performance Lecture"- therefore not a classical talk, but "something different".
Agnieszka Szablikowska, the curator of Galeria Raczej, Amelia Beavis-Harrison, Bartolomé Ferrando, Rita Marhaug, Álvaro Terrones & Santiago López and Justyna Scheuring each presented a 10 minute Performance Lecture. Taking place the evening before the Festival's Performance Programme began, the lectures served as a light, precise, but delicious appetizer before the main meal was served.
The formats of the 10 minute presentations were as diverse as the backgrounds of the artists. Each single presentation was unique and contained a lot of information which in a conventional artist's talk could take around two hours to convey.
Agnieska Szabilkowa curator from Galeria Raczej in Poznan was sitting in front of a laptop screening pictures of performances which they have presented over the years in Poznan. It was a slide show in which no single performance was explained in depth, however the slide show conveyed how vivid and active Galeria Raczej is in presenting hundreds of performances and projects in Poland. The single images blurred into one image- one collage. While Agnieszka was showing the images, her husband and artist Lukasz Trusewicz outlined the ground plan of Galeria Raczej with marking tape on the floor of Atelier Nord ANX thereby demonstrating how small the Galeria Raczej is. Such a lot of dynamic, artistic energy in such a small space! Lukasz then invited the audience into the imaginary space of Galeria Raczej. As each person entered the marked space, Atelier Nord got more and more empty until finally all the present people were gathered in the small space. The projected images and the image of the people sitting in this small space thereby created an wider understanding of the work of Galeria Raczej.
Álvaro Terrones & Santiago López from Spain introduced their talk as a ‘conservative artists' talk’ which already created smiles on the faces of the audience. The set up - a table, laptop and projector, two chairs – gave the impression of a classical artist talk. From the start, their talk was heading in this direction as they showed works from their website and talked about aspects of their collaboration. Gradually, the whole presentation turned into an absurd, hilarious and adorable confusion. While Santiago was explaining some aspects of the work, Alvaro was pointing out something else. More and more taps were opened and both spoke at the same time, interrupting each other, but always in a serious manner. Suddenly they turned on Ska music, because they liked it, but kept on talking about their work so that no one could understand the words of the two Spanish artists. This comedic, but never slapstick presentation offered an insight into one of the major tools of their collaboration: humor.
Rita Marhaug. Photo: Monika Sobczak
“It’s not easy to talk and do things at the same time”. These were the opening words of Rita Marhaug’s presentation which offered an informative and deep insight into her work, research and philosophy. Short actions combined with spoken fragments of her research made her work accessible. The sculptural aspect and her interest in Surrealism were clearly visible. Simple actions like standing blindfolded on a pile of white sheets of paper, changing into the outfits which she uses in other performance works and finally sitting on a table and blowing white powder into a match box- all creative replacements for words. The visuals transformed from words in which meaning was open to different interpretations for the observers. As art is not made to be understood, but rather to create a dialogue between image and perception, Rita Marhaug’s ‘artist's talk’ offered an interesting conversation which translated the complex universe of her work into an approachable dictionary.
Yes, we were all hungry after this first day. We wanted to see and experience more of the artists' work and presence. The successful start of the festival ended with discussions and conversations between the artists and the audience present.
Yes, we were all hungry after this first day. We wanted to see and experience more of the artists' work and presence. The successful start of the festival ended with discussions and conversations between the artists and the audience present.
Live performance: Maline Casta. Photo: Monika Sobczak
Saturday, 15. November 2014
Entering Atelier Nord ANX around 1pm, one could witness a busy but nevertheless relaxed atmosphere of preparation. The artists who were presenting their work were testing out materials, placing things into the space and checking their props. Gestures of thoughts and thoughtful made gestures were filling the space in which a fish was dancing on a fishing rod through the space, sounds and words were flying around. One could feel the tension of the raised concentration and this special kind of ‘nervousness’ which is needed to produce performative art works.
Maline Casta
The overture of the PAO festival was presented by Maline Casta from Sweden. The beauty of Maline Casta’s work lies in a secure knowledge of aesthetics. This knowledge is visible in most of her works and flies like a bird through space. She creates a lightness in the space with her background in scenography and uses action as a trigger to bridge space and time as well the artist and audience. Her neutral appearance is pulling out these precise and aesthetic gestures which touch the viewer’s presence.
Her specific knowledge of space was obvious in the beginning of her performance in which she stood dressed in black before a round rug which was neatly covered with breadcrumbs. Holding three big loaves of bread in her arms, she appeared rather small in stature. Looking at the audience, she dug a hole into the bread and in doing so bread crumbs and black licorice letters fell out of the bread and onto the round rug. It seemed as though the bread became a puppet which could also talk as Maline Casta continued to arrange the letters on the round rug into the sentence, ‘Everything that is conceivable will eventually happen’. She changed the meaning of the sentence while eating slowly one word after the other: ‘Everything that is will eventually happen’, ‘Everything will eventually happen’, ‘Everything will happen’, ‘Everything happen’, ‘Everything’. Eating and digesting the philosophical meaning of this sentence is a nourishment which tries to encompass ‘Everything’ and perhaps in the end leaves nothing. For the next two and half hours, Casta sat with her loaves of bread on a brown chair at the side of the space where she continued to repetitively crumble the bread into pieces. Space is time and the duration of this simple action created mental spaces and questions in which provocation and beauty met. Breadcrumbs were constantly falling on the floor, it seemed as if Casta was knitting a time-space garment of reflection. After three hours, Maline Casta finished her performance, leaving‘Everything’ behind.
Entering Atelier Nord ANX around 1pm, one could witness a busy but nevertheless relaxed atmosphere of preparation. The artists who were presenting their work were testing out materials, placing things into the space and checking their props. Gestures of thoughts and thoughtful made gestures were filling the space in which a fish was dancing on a fishing rod through the space, sounds and words were flying around. One could feel the tension of the raised concentration and this special kind of ‘nervousness’ which is needed to produce performative art works.
Maline Casta
The overture of the PAO festival was presented by Maline Casta from Sweden. The beauty of Maline Casta’s work lies in a secure knowledge of aesthetics. This knowledge is visible in most of her works and flies like a bird through space. She creates a lightness in the space with her background in scenography and uses action as a trigger to bridge space and time as well the artist and audience. Her neutral appearance is pulling out these precise and aesthetic gestures which touch the viewer’s presence.
Her specific knowledge of space was obvious in the beginning of her performance in which she stood dressed in black before a round rug which was neatly covered with breadcrumbs. Holding three big loaves of bread in her arms, she appeared rather small in stature. Looking at the audience, she dug a hole into the bread and in doing so bread crumbs and black licorice letters fell out of the bread and onto the round rug. It seemed as though the bread became a puppet which could also talk as Maline Casta continued to arrange the letters on the round rug into the sentence, ‘Everything that is conceivable will eventually happen’. She changed the meaning of the sentence while eating slowly one word after the other: ‘Everything that is will eventually happen’, ‘Everything will eventually happen’, ‘Everything will happen’, ‘Everything happen’, ‘Everything’. Eating and digesting the philosophical meaning of this sentence is a nourishment which tries to encompass ‘Everything’ and perhaps in the end leaves nothing. For the next two and half hours, Casta sat with her loaves of bread on a brown chair at the side of the space where she continued to repetitively crumble the bread into pieces. Space is time and the duration of this simple action created mental spaces and questions in which provocation and beauty met. Breadcrumbs were constantly falling on the floor, it seemed as if Casta was knitting a time-space garment of reflection. After three hours, Maline Casta finished her performance, leaving‘Everything’ behind.
Live performance: Fernanda Branco. Photo: Monika Sobczak
Fernanda Branco
To describe in words Fernanda Branco’s performance is simply not possible as it's complexity of possibilities shines beyond a logical way of understanding. The use of organic materials, such as blossoms, bark, different sorts of grass and leaves took the viewer on a journey through the forest or to a land where nature is still in control. One could hear the sound of the leaves when her feet hit the ground. Her voice articulated words which we couldn’t understand, but supported this feeling of understanding on an emotional level. With thin threads she was pulling different natural objects from one place to another place. Constantly having contact with the audience she shifted different natural elements which felt more like a leaf falling from a tree and landing in a new place. Her sureness of singing and her subtle actions as well as the aroma of natural materials created a beautiful atmosphere reminiscent of a morning in late autumn. During her performance she transformed into a troll-like sculpture by dressing up in a dress of birch leaves, a jacket constructed from birch bark and a headdress made from a variety of grass and plants. In many ways, Branco became a natural spectacle, similar to a thunder storm or a sunset. At the end of the performance, these images from the woods were contrasted with Branco's action of binding an IPad onto her face and offering the audience the option to click on the videos provided on screen. The audience could choose several videos showing short clips from her home and family. This final action created a portrait of a whole year involving images from spring, summer, fall and winter.
Lukasz Trusewicz
Polish Performance Art has a long tradition and has influenced and formed much of contemporary performative practice today. Many important artists have marked the importance of Polish Performance Art over a long period of time and influenced and inspired a new generation of Polish artists who are extending the traditional roots. Lukasz Trusewicz is such a young artist and unlike Branco or Casta he creates a specific form of poetry in his work which is not obviously influenced by the use of aesthetics, but more by the use of attitude or behaviour towards the actions he does. Poetry is in his work as the beauty or the brutality of poetic action triggers the question and not the answer. The question ‘How?’ is much more important than the question ‘What?’. The description of his work will not mirror the experience of the live event and even more it will create a gap between perception and intention. However, it offers an inspiring insight towards the poetics of being. The Blue of a projector fills the wall at the end of Atelier Nord ANX which was actually previously a prayers house. In front of the Blue lies a fish attached to a string which belongs to a fishing rod that Trusewicz is holding in his hands. Slowly he pushes the fish through the space until the length of the line is short enough, so the fish starts somehow flying through the space. As soon he reaches the entrance door of Atelier Nord ANX his wife Agnieszka unrolled a ribbon made of commercial banners thus creating a line which led the performer, the fish and the audience outside of Atelier Nord and into a public park and finally into a circle formation around a fountain in the middle of the park over the road from Atelier Nord ANX. Lukasz then walked along the outlines of the fountain, struggling to balance the rod causing the fish to dance in the pool of the fountain which contained no water as it was late Autumn. Lukasz then retraced his steps back into Atelier Nord and read the word fragments on the banner. The polish word fragments got translated for the audience into Norwegian and English. Audience and artist are back in the warm space, while the fish is left behind alone in the fountain. I don’t know if it was the intention of the artist to use the fish as a metaphor for religion in which the discarded fish could mean a rejection of religion.
On the second day of the festival, the audience witnessed performances by Teresa Buskova, Kurt Johannessen and Amelia Beavis-Harrison which continued to expand the view of poetics in Performance Art.
To describe in words Fernanda Branco’s performance is simply not possible as it's complexity of possibilities shines beyond a logical way of understanding. The use of organic materials, such as blossoms, bark, different sorts of grass and leaves took the viewer on a journey through the forest or to a land where nature is still in control. One could hear the sound of the leaves when her feet hit the ground. Her voice articulated words which we couldn’t understand, but supported this feeling of understanding on an emotional level. With thin threads she was pulling different natural objects from one place to another place. Constantly having contact with the audience she shifted different natural elements which felt more like a leaf falling from a tree and landing in a new place. Her sureness of singing and her subtle actions as well as the aroma of natural materials created a beautiful atmosphere reminiscent of a morning in late autumn. During her performance she transformed into a troll-like sculpture by dressing up in a dress of birch leaves, a jacket constructed from birch bark and a headdress made from a variety of grass and plants. In many ways, Branco became a natural spectacle, similar to a thunder storm or a sunset. At the end of the performance, these images from the woods were contrasted with Branco's action of binding an IPad onto her face and offering the audience the option to click on the videos provided on screen. The audience could choose several videos showing short clips from her home and family. This final action created a portrait of a whole year involving images from spring, summer, fall and winter.
Lukasz Trusewicz
Polish Performance Art has a long tradition and has influenced and formed much of contemporary performative practice today. Many important artists have marked the importance of Polish Performance Art over a long period of time and influenced and inspired a new generation of Polish artists who are extending the traditional roots. Lukasz Trusewicz is such a young artist and unlike Branco or Casta he creates a specific form of poetry in his work which is not obviously influenced by the use of aesthetics, but more by the use of attitude or behaviour towards the actions he does. Poetry is in his work as the beauty or the brutality of poetic action triggers the question and not the answer. The question ‘How?’ is much more important than the question ‘What?’. The description of his work will not mirror the experience of the live event and even more it will create a gap between perception and intention. However, it offers an inspiring insight towards the poetics of being. The Blue of a projector fills the wall at the end of Atelier Nord ANX which was actually previously a prayers house. In front of the Blue lies a fish attached to a string which belongs to a fishing rod that Trusewicz is holding in his hands. Slowly he pushes the fish through the space until the length of the line is short enough, so the fish starts somehow flying through the space. As soon he reaches the entrance door of Atelier Nord ANX his wife Agnieszka unrolled a ribbon made of commercial banners thus creating a line which led the performer, the fish and the audience outside of Atelier Nord and into a public park and finally into a circle formation around a fountain in the middle of the park over the road from Atelier Nord ANX. Lukasz then walked along the outlines of the fountain, struggling to balance the rod causing the fish to dance in the pool of the fountain which contained no water as it was late Autumn. Lukasz then retraced his steps back into Atelier Nord and read the word fragments on the banner. The polish word fragments got translated for the audience into Norwegian and English. Audience and artist are back in the warm space, while the fish is left behind alone in the fountain. I don’t know if it was the intention of the artist to use the fish as a metaphor for religion in which the discarded fish could mean a rejection of religion.
On the second day of the festival, the audience witnessed performances by Teresa Buskova, Kurt Johannessen and Amelia Beavis-Harrison which continued to expand the view of poetics in Performance Art.
Live performance: Agnes Nedregård. Photo: Monika Sobczak
Sunday, 16. November 2014
The Atelier Nord was filled with people, curious waiting for the first performance of the day.
Agnes Nedregård
The Norwegian artist Agnes Nedregård brought back what I miss so often in today’s Performance Art practice. It is taking the risk, but also knowing how to deal with openness and directness during a Performance. It is the rough beauty of an artistic thought and its transformation into an image. It is this certain unpretentiousness which makes Performance Art so interesting and valuable. It is the pureness of doing things and opening doors to imagination with this attitude. The beginning of the piece was very energetic. A bit like a trespasser, Agnes suddenly entered the space, jumping and crawling around in a green dress which she then undressed and brown leaves fell out of her dress onto the floor. She fixed wooden sticks onto her fingers like extensions perhaps to grasp more things. With the extended fingers she dressed her dress upside down and created sounds with her wooden fingers. Her attitude towards her actions reminded me of a child playing in a heap of leaves during autumn and the joy that comes from such play. However, the performance was never childish, but it transported light memories to one’s own childhood through her seductive way of doing and creating. In front of the viewer, a world unfolded in which we could witness a pure action opening doors to forgotten places. In different versions of coming towards the audience and correcting herself with saying ‘Nei’ (No) and trying it again and again in a different way the playfulness reached its climax. The action itself was the main transporter and it offered a lot of room for individual interpretations of the work. Finally, releasing the limitations or extensions of her fingers and turning the dress on the right side, Agnes finally placed some of the brown leaves in silver white shoes, put them on and left the space.
The Atelier Nord was filled with people, curious waiting for the first performance of the day.
Agnes Nedregård
The Norwegian artist Agnes Nedregård brought back what I miss so often in today’s Performance Art practice. It is taking the risk, but also knowing how to deal with openness and directness during a Performance. It is the rough beauty of an artistic thought and its transformation into an image. It is this certain unpretentiousness which makes Performance Art so interesting and valuable. It is the pureness of doing things and opening doors to imagination with this attitude. The beginning of the piece was very energetic. A bit like a trespasser, Agnes suddenly entered the space, jumping and crawling around in a green dress which she then undressed and brown leaves fell out of her dress onto the floor. She fixed wooden sticks onto her fingers like extensions perhaps to grasp more things. With the extended fingers she dressed her dress upside down and created sounds with her wooden fingers. Her attitude towards her actions reminded me of a child playing in a heap of leaves during autumn and the joy that comes from such play. However, the performance was never childish, but it transported light memories to one’s own childhood through her seductive way of doing and creating. In front of the viewer, a world unfolded in which we could witness a pure action opening doors to forgotten places. In different versions of coming towards the audience and correcting herself with saying ‘Nei’ (No) and trying it again and again in a different way the playfulness reached its climax. The action itself was the main transporter and it offered a lot of room for individual interpretations of the work. Finally, releasing the limitations or extensions of her fingers and turning the dress on the right side, Agnes finally placed some of the brown leaves in silver white shoes, put them on and left the space.
Live performance: Álvaro Terrones & Santiago López. Photo: Monika Sobczak
Alvaro Terrones & Santiago Lopez
Are you OK? Or are you KO? Is your country OK? Or is it KO? Simply the appearance of the two Spanish artists in front of the audience was already a sensation. With their humble look and their behaviour they are able to draw the attention of the audience. The duo visualized for all very clearly that humor is a weapon and the performance was a logical extension of their ‘conservative artist talk’ on Friday. It was tempting to see how with little materials they were able to create this piece in which poetics were set free, underlining a deeper meaning behind this seemingly light presentation. To use humor in performative art practice is not easy and often shifts into slapstick comedy or a funny joke. It needs great attention from the performer to be able to transport the entire performance from start to finish into a safe harbor. Even though the audience was able to detect a lot of failures in the presented choreography, the professionalism of the pair was still clear. Both holding plastic sketch boards for children, they drew arrows pointing in different directions: Left, right and up and down. Moving in the directions the arrows were showing, they established a funny, sometimes absurd repertoire of movements which created laughter from the audience ranging from awkwardness to joy. Placing the sketch boards on the floor, they then used their clothes to continue the somewhat synchronized movements. OK and KO were marked on white underwear which they showed to the audience. More and more possibilities appeared and we were fascinated by the amount of possibilities which were shown to us, playing with OK and KO as a kind of Yin and Yang of everyday life. At the end, musical notes appeared and were connected with these simple movements creating a hilarious dramaturgy. But of course this action was not a joke when placed in the context of the current economic situation in Spain. In doing so, Terrones and Lopez created a caricature of the Spanish situation which may best be approached with humor.
Are you OK? Or are you KO? Is your country OK? Or is it KO? Simply the appearance of the two Spanish artists in front of the audience was already a sensation. With their humble look and their behaviour they are able to draw the attention of the audience. The duo visualized for all very clearly that humor is a weapon and the performance was a logical extension of their ‘conservative artist talk’ on Friday. It was tempting to see how with little materials they were able to create this piece in which poetics were set free, underlining a deeper meaning behind this seemingly light presentation. To use humor in performative art practice is not easy and often shifts into slapstick comedy or a funny joke. It needs great attention from the performer to be able to transport the entire performance from start to finish into a safe harbor. Even though the audience was able to detect a lot of failures in the presented choreography, the professionalism of the pair was still clear. Both holding plastic sketch boards for children, they drew arrows pointing in different directions: Left, right and up and down. Moving in the directions the arrows were showing, they established a funny, sometimes absurd repertoire of movements which created laughter from the audience ranging from awkwardness to joy. Placing the sketch boards on the floor, they then used their clothes to continue the somewhat synchronized movements. OK and KO were marked on white underwear which they showed to the audience. More and more possibilities appeared and we were fascinated by the amount of possibilities which were shown to us, playing with OK and KO as a kind of Yin and Yang of everyday life. At the end, musical notes appeared and were connected with these simple movements creating a hilarious dramaturgy. But of course this action was not a joke when placed in the context of the current economic situation in Spain. In doing so, Terrones and Lopez created a caricature of the Spanish situation which may best be approached with humor.
Live performance: Anja Carr. Photo: Monika Sobczak
Anja Carr
In the backyard of Atelier Nord ANX, the audience awaited an action which dealt with an unique language. A woman dressed in a duck costume with a pop pink jacket and yellow stockings sat in a tiny red car in front of a comic book landscape. Not really visible at first sight, but important for the action, was a penis protruding out of her feather costume. In fact, the figure was a drake and not a duck, but perhaps both at the same time. This pop cultural setting and the naivity of the actions culminated in an absurd situation in which the duck wanted to drive the car and was unable to. Again and again the duck/drake tried to make the car start and the more she tried the more absurd this situation appeared. The specific use of pop or child-like visuals merged with the action and brought up echoes of the freedom of being a child. The choice of bold colors also directed attention to this naïve play. Although the action appeared to be cute, there was always an obscure, obscene undercurrent reminiscent of clowns which draw wider parallels to our lives. Finally, flyers saying "Boys don't cry- Ducks don't fly" were thrown into the audience, thereby creating another uncanny layer which left a smile on our face.
Rita Marhaug
The room was darkened when the audience entered the space. A huge piece of fabric covered the floor like moss. A body was covered by the fabric and was positioned at the end of the room on a small podium. The sombre atmosphere silenced the audience. Slowly the fabric was moving towards the silhouette of the body, the moss turned into a river which softly floated backwards to its well. While pulling the fabric towards the body, the fabric changed into a huge skin with wrinkles until the body seemed to imbibe the fabric until it completely disappeared. The body slowly raised up and was now sitting on the podium. Cautiously this figure placed a book on its lap. When the book was opened, a red light appeared softly out of the pages like a story coming alive between the pages. As the pages were calmly turned, the red light became stronger creating a dream-like image which was surrealistically beautiful and mystic at the same time. Leaving the red glowing book on the podium, the figure stood up, cloaked itself in the fabric and slowly walked towards the audience. While passing the audience one could see that the head was covered with fur which heightened the surrealistic qualities of this image. The Performance from Rita Marhaug combined mysticism and surrealism and created a universe of poetical images which transported the viewer into spheres of the unknown and the subconscious where words have no meaning and only images can be used to comment upon existence.
The night also featured performances by the Polish artist Justyna Scheuring and Spanish artist Bartolome Ferrando.
With its vision and direction PAO successfully created a festival for Performance Art which opened up a space for encounters between the artists and audience. The excellently curated program made the festival a unique platform to exchange ideas and also to promote and celebrate Performance Art in Oslo. In addition, the artistic direction of the festival highlighted how when logic fails- poetry always has a way of expressing the inexpressible.
BBB Johannes Deimling 2014 /15
More images from the festival here!
In the backyard of Atelier Nord ANX, the audience awaited an action which dealt with an unique language. A woman dressed in a duck costume with a pop pink jacket and yellow stockings sat in a tiny red car in front of a comic book landscape. Not really visible at first sight, but important for the action, was a penis protruding out of her feather costume. In fact, the figure was a drake and not a duck, but perhaps both at the same time. This pop cultural setting and the naivity of the actions culminated in an absurd situation in which the duck wanted to drive the car and was unable to. Again and again the duck/drake tried to make the car start and the more she tried the more absurd this situation appeared. The specific use of pop or child-like visuals merged with the action and brought up echoes of the freedom of being a child. The choice of bold colors also directed attention to this naïve play. Although the action appeared to be cute, there was always an obscure, obscene undercurrent reminiscent of clowns which draw wider parallels to our lives. Finally, flyers saying "Boys don't cry- Ducks don't fly" were thrown into the audience, thereby creating another uncanny layer which left a smile on our face.
Rita Marhaug
The room was darkened when the audience entered the space. A huge piece of fabric covered the floor like moss. A body was covered by the fabric and was positioned at the end of the room on a small podium. The sombre atmosphere silenced the audience. Slowly the fabric was moving towards the silhouette of the body, the moss turned into a river which softly floated backwards to its well. While pulling the fabric towards the body, the fabric changed into a huge skin with wrinkles until the body seemed to imbibe the fabric until it completely disappeared. The body slowly raised up and was now sitting on the podium. Cautiously this figure placed a book on its lap. When the book was opened, a red light appeared softly out of the pages like a story coming alive between the pages. As the pages were calmly turned, the red light became stronger creating a dream-like image which was surrealistically beautiful and mystic at the same time. Leaving the red glowing book on the podium, the figure stood up, cloaked itself in the fabric and slowly walked towards the audience. While passing the audience one could see that the head was covered with fur which heightened the surrealistic qualities of this image. The Performance from Rita Marhaug combined mysticism and surrealism and created a universe of poetical images which transported the viewer into spheres of the unknown and the subconscious where words have no meaning and only images can be used to comment upon existence.
The night also featured performances by the Polish artist Justyna Scheuring and Spanish artist Bartolome Ferrando.
With its vision and direction PAO successfully created a festival for Performance Art which opened up a space for encounters between the artists and audience. The excellently curated program made the festival a unique platform to exchange ideas and also to promote and celebrate Performance Art in Oslo. In addition, the artistic direction of the festival highlighted how when logic fails- poetry always has a way of expressing the inexpressible.
BBB Johannes Deimling 2014 /15
More images from the festival here!