Winter & spring 2015 highlights
Delfina Foundation
29/31 Catherine Place
London SW1E 6DY
Winter: Performance as Process
After a major expansion in 2014 and an inaugural year of new thematic programmes, Delfina Foundation has launched Performance as Process. This programme brings together visual artists, curators, writers, filmmakers and live art practitioners to broadly explore how “performance”—from daily routines to public protests to religious rituals—plays an inherent role in the production of cultural knowledge. The thematic season culminates in a panel discussion, “Performance as process, histories and traces of a shifting field,” with RoseLee Goldberg (Founding director of Performa), Catherine Wood (Curator of Contemporary Art & Performance, Tate), Charles Aubin (Curator, Performa), and Lawrence Lek (artist), chaired by Dr. Joanna Melvin on 16 March.
International residents: Benjamin Abras (Brazil), Jumana Emil Abboud (Palestine), Jean-Paul Kelly (Canada), César Martínez (Mexico), Bona Park (South Korea), Oscar Santillan (Ecuador), Kate Strain (Ireland), and Alvaro Ugarte (Mexico)
UK associates: Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Young In Hong, Lawrence Lek, and the collective I’m With You
Associate Curator: Gabriela Salgado
Beyond winter, some of the ideas explored in Performance as Process will permeate Delfina Foundation’s forthcoming programmes The Politics of Food in spring and The Public Domain in autumn 2015.
Spring: The Politics of Food II
In March, Delfina Foundation begins the second season of The Politics of Food which examines the sub-themes: Sex, Diet and Disaster. This programme will incubate the work of cultural practitioners whose investigations range from culinary cartographies of conflict-decimated cities to the collision of social practice, consumer fashions and food.
Residents include Marta Arzak (Spain), Annia Ciezadlo (US), Vanessa Hodgkinson (UK), Dagna Jakubowska (Poland), Christine Mackey (Ireland), Taus Makhacheva (Russia/Dagestan), Matheus Rocha Pitta (Brazil), Daniel Salomon (Denmark), Lantian Xie (UAE), and The Center for Genomic Gastronomy (US/Norway)
Associate Curator: Nat Muller (Netherlands)
Public programme: Performance as Process
fig-2 5/50 Young in Hong
9–15 February
Venue: ICA, London
A week-long installation in the ICA Studio as part of fig-2 by UK associate artist Young in Hong with a performance on the 12 February at 19h. More info here.
Afterword
11–22 February
Venue: STUK, Leuven
Resident artist Oscar Santillan presents a new work that explores the relationship between a defective typewriter owned by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, psychic mediums and dance. More info here.
The politics of the visible and the invisible
13 February, 18–19.30h
Venue: Spike Island, Bristol
Performance and panel discussion with Lois Keidan (Founding director of Live Art Development Agency), Chantal Pontbriand (independent curator), and resident artists Bona Park and Alvaro Ugarte, chaired by Gabriela Salgado. More info here.
Repeat/Rehearse
19 February, 18.30–20h
Venue: Delfina Foundation
Simultaneous performances throughout the home of Delfina Foundation by guest-artists Adrian Lee and Lydia Ourahmane with resident artists Bona Park, Jean-Paul Kelly, Oscar Santillan and Alvaro Ugarte. More info here.
The Mentalists
3 March, 18.30–20h
Venue: Delfina Foundation
Performances from resident artists that require the suspension of disbelief. More info here.
Xipe Totec Punk
13 March, 18.30–20h
Venue: Delfina Foundation
César Martínez’s gastro-economic performance. More info here.
“Performance as process, histories and traces of a shifting field”
16 March, 18–20h
Venue: Chelsea College of Art Lecture Theatre
A panel discussion with RoseLee Goldberg (Founding director of Performa), Catherine Wood (Curator of Contemporary Art & Performance, Tate), Charles Aubin (Curator, Performa), Lawrence Lek (artist), chaired by Dr. Joanna Melvin (Senior lecturer of Fine Art Theory at Chelsea College of Art)
This panel examines what are the differences, concerns and procedures that underscore our relationship with live art when the viewer is removed from the physical space of the performer. Furthermore what is at stake when documenting and archiving the ephemeral moment of a live action? More info here.
Staging Histories project
Also part of Performance as Process, Delfina Foundation has launched an initiative to document the history of performance art from the Arab world through Art Basel’s Crowdfunding Initiative. Under the curatorial direction of Tarek Abou El Fetouh with Aaron Cezar, an exhibition will be staged at the Hayward Gallery Project Space in summer 2015 that emerges from this research, co-commissioned by Shubbak Festival and Maraya Art Centre in collaboration with Ibraaz.
Public programme: The Politics of Food II
Projects researched during this 12-week residency will be presented in a series of public events including an open laboratory for food culturing and fermentation; roundtable discussions with anthropologists from SOAS University’s Food Studies Centre; a food memory event in collaboration with students from Goldsmith’s Department of Visual Cultures; public lectures; workshops and performative dinners.
In May, Delfina Foundation opens Stirring the Pot of Stories, an exhibition curated by Nat Muller that examines the historical power play inherent in how and what we eat.
More events will be added to www.delfinafoundation.com.
Partners & supporters
Performance as Process has been generously supported by Arts Council England and Delfina Foundation’s “family” of individual patrons.
Individual residency partners and supporters: The Year of Mexico in the UK 2015, A. M. Qattan Foundation, Maraya Art Centre, Frances Reynolds, Baibakov Art Projects, Farook Foundation, Arts Council Korea, The Danish Art Foundation, The Canada Council for the Arts and Arts Council Ireland
Additional thanks to: Art Basel Crowdfunding Initiative, Al Serkal Avenue, Dubai, Art Dubai Projects, Copperfield, fig-2, Live Art Development Agency, Spike Island, IBT15, Performa, STUK
