Performance Days
27 November–3 December 2014
If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution
Ruysdaelkade 2
Amsterdam
Featuring Gerry Bibby, Gregg Bordowitz, Andrea Fraser, Sara van der Heide, Jacob Korczynski, Louise Lawler, Sven Lütticken, Chus Martínez, Alex Martinis Roe, Sidsel Meineche Hansen & Fatima Hellberg, Babette Mangolte, Snejanka Mihaylova, Fred Moten, Rachel O’Reilly, Emily Roysdon, Grant Watson Curated by Tanja Baudoin, Frédérique Bergholtz and Vivian Ziherl
Performance has become an ascendant term, perhaps a periodising concept, for both art and “real” world economies. Here neoliberalism acts first and foremost upon the subject. New York of the late 1970s and early 1980s may have been its epicentre—a form-giving crucible of financialisation and gentrification. From a feminist position, the attendant 1970s–1980s artistic strategy of “appropriation” may be revisited through subsequently elaborated theories of “affect.” Over Edition V–Appropriation and Dedication (2013—2014), If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution has explored the questions of subjecthood, ownership, art-making, self-making and agency contained in this return.
Concluding this two-year period, If I Can’t Dance is proud to present Performance Days, a seven-day festival in Amsterdam presenting the four artist commissions and four research projects of Edition V, along with invited lectures, performances and workshops.
Performance Days features four new artist commissions—by Gerry Bibby, Sara van der Heide, Snejanka Mihaylova, Emily Roysdon—that query the current imperative to “perform,” diverting their energies to text, film and installation linked through live movement. The four projects of the Performance in Residence programme further pursue “liveness” as a matter of art-making with projects by Gregg Bordowitz, Jacob Korczynski, Sven Lütticken, and Grant Watson studying poetics; late 1970s feminist strategies with Lucy Lippard and Babette Mangolte; the work of Louise Lawler; and Michel Foucault respectively.
The Days further include contributions by artists and speakers Andrea Fraser, Alex Martinis Roe, Chus Martínez, Sidsel Meineche Hansen with Fatima Hellberg, Fred Moten and Rachel O’Reilly. The Amsterdam chapter of the If I Can’t Dance Reading Group will feature a special session led by Rachel O’Reilly, while the findings of the Toronto, New York and São Paulo chapters will be shared.
The Days also feature the launch of four publications accompanying the artist commissions (designed by Maureen Mooren) and four publications accompanying the Performance in Residence projects (designed by Will Holder). Art and design book shop San Serriffe will offer a special selection of titles corresponding with the festival.
The location of the Performance Days is Ruysdaelkade 2, neighbouring the Rijksmuseum in the heart of Amsterdam. For the full programme and to order tickets, visit www.ificantdance.org.
Performance Days is curated by If I Can’t Dance and supported by the Mondriaan Fund, the European Union, the municipality of Amsterdam, Ammodo, VSB Fonds, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, and Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. With special thanks to SKOR | Foundation for Art and Public Domain and SONSBEEK International Foundation.
The Commissions and Performance in Residence projects are coproduced by various partner institutions, with specific works within the Performance Days presented in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (Emily Roysdon) and with Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory (Andrea Fraser and Alex Martinis Roe).
The programme of If I Can’t Dance is supported by the Mondriaan Fund, the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and the municipality of Amsterdam. If I Can’t Dance is a member of Corpus and Performance Platform.
