Body Talks (Mind, Bodies & Thoughts)

Art Everywhere (I’m in a foul mood)

If there’s an unsaid rule about blogging that we all should apply, with no exception, not rushing a post will be this one. And guess what? That’s exactly what I’m about to do! If not with my thoughts, at least in style…Why? because I’m in a foul mood!?

Let me take you back to the early beginning of my day:

I’ve started it with a clear plan in my head. Full of enthusiasm. Full of confidence. Full of determination…After all, I had 3 good days in a row – on the first 2 days, I was at a steady pace with my (preparation) phase for a potential project I’ve agreed to coordinate in principle while the 3rd day was some good old fun R&D that I haven’t done for years as an actor (more on that soon). So yesterday should have gone as right, right? Of course not…

Being in a foul mood, it’d be sensible to put the blame on these die-hard distractions that make you lose track of time – and their contribution was quite noticeable – but the main reason why this day didn’t go as planned was purely down to my state of mind. My body & soul seemed to be in need of a relaxing day; instead I let my rigidity do the talking, being adamant to stick to my week plan…How little I remembered a tired soul is stronger than a wise mind. I ended up ranting all day: on Twitter, on Facebook, on Messenger…

Ah! The joy of ranting…Think I wasn’t the only one “whingeing” about ‘Art Everywhere’…Saw some feisty comments for and against this “cute” initiative. Personally, I don’t get it: everything about it seems wrong from its title to its format of execution. Branding such initiative ‘Art Everywhere” is not only corny but plain stupid.

Since when do you need 22, 000 billboards showing 57 carefully selected masterpieces by a sample of the general public to tell you can easily access (visual) art? Quite frankly it only perpuates the dated notion than (visual) art is elitist and excluding most of the general public…Then what to make of the graphics, art work for music albums, video art pieces displayed in some shops on Oxford Street? Most importantly what to make of numerous pieces of (visual) art in local galleries in which you can enter, without spending a dime? Obviously, I’m missing a trick here because I’m an artist. And, as one peep on twitter (un-)cleverly stated artists ‘are irrelevant noawadays & have failed to’ engage…I forgot, as an artist I’m meant to make art for myself not to be viewed by an audience!? And of course I see Performance Art as being part of the gang!?

Perhaps I’d be more inclined to see a good side to this gimmick if the chosen art works were to be displayed as it is in the Gallery, and not being reproduced to fit a billboard…What sort of message does this convey? What sort of experience a viewer is meant to get? – Thinking about the twitter peep’s arguments, he was boasting himself about the fact the “common folk” (his words not mine) preferred The Beatles over your pretentious b******** (my assumption not his). Yet, the art work for the Beatles’s classic album was made by an artist…And to add a bit of spice to the irony, a few of these soon-to-be national treasures’s authors had once shaken both art & mainstream worlds for not being “viewer-friendly”.

What will be Art Everywhere’s legacy then? Did I say I was in a foul mood?

Photography is Truth

“Photography is the truth if it’s being handled by a truthful person” (Don Mccullin)

That was a crucial moment in Don McCullin documentary. Up to that point, which happened roughly towards the end of the film’s first half, I was having a strong feeling the documentary was a celebration of McCullin’s professional life as photojournalist. Nothing wrong about that: it was informative, poignant at times, rather intimate without being intrusive and respectful of the man’s humble nature. I would have still liked the film had it been strictly a depiction of his ‘illustruous” career. But that thought gave the film another layer. From there, as a viewer you could understand and apprieciate even better the tricky position someone like McCullin found himself in. As he said himself, taking pictures of wars, public executions, dead bodies, mourning families, dying children and other calamities is a job he chose to do. Yet, a job…He created for himself. Not a job of mere observation. A job of telling the “truth”. His truth – shocking, unsufferable, disturbingly sexy and poetic at times – still a job…that pushed him and his sense of morality to their limits. Or is it?

With his thought, McCullin revealed himself as being more than a hard-working reporter or a (self-confessed) war junkie. With his thought, he revealed himself as being an artist. An artivist even. And so Photojournalism became an act of transgression. Photography became a corruptive medium of (aesthetic) expression.

Thoughts on Mountain

Went to see Mountain, a new live performance by visual artist Orla Barry, at the South London Gallery this evening. To say that the piece was disappointing would be an understatement. It was a frustrating, forced, fakely entertaining experience. My main issue with Mountain was the fact that, for a long hour and a half, I basically saw a conventionally devised piece of experimental theatre performed in a gallery space. There’s fundamentally nothing wrong with that; in fact, I actually think modern theatre is much more interesting and relevant in galleries’s and other unconventional spaces. However when the gallery space is turned into a theatre stage and its function is to be host to a conventional theatre piece made by a visual artist who presents this work as an exploration of improvisation and language then there’s a slight problem…

That’s not to say visual artists can’t make theatre and if they do, it can’t be shown in a gallery space. But then, I’ll expect something different from a theatrical exprience that falls flat throughout its course, letting me crave for some dose of Bonnie Tyler or any other runny cheese’s slices the Eurovision traditionally offers at this time of the year on a Saturday night! I’ll expect the bodies to be at the heart of the work of art as opposed to have individuals pretend to be put through misery by the spins of the fortune wheel.

What Orla’s piece lacked was simplicity: by playing with the idea of fate through the use of different props, primarily lead by the spinning wheel, the live performance got trapped pretty quickly and all I saw was 3 irritatingly noisy performers, talking endlessly, exhausting themselves in repetition but unable to sustain any momentum they might have created or to deliver any substantial moments in their various acts. It just didn’t work.

It didn’t work because the piece was too cleverly devised therefore too contrived with no room for error, danger, uncertainty and, from an audience point of view not even a feeling of being kept on your toes. This obvious sense of control from every aspect of the performance destroyed not only its concept – which on paper is interesting – but most of all its reason of being. What didn’t also help was the weakness of the script: each material was banal in its delivery and content to a point that I wish the performance had used language to its strict minimum, giving instead its total space for physicality.

Fortunately, there were a few things about the piece I liked: the rare moments of “complicity” between the performers and of proximity with the audience, the set design and its overall heavenly feeling, the precision and tighteness of the movements in the physical episodes. But these were not enough to give the piece the meat it desperately needed to keep me engaged…Would have it made any difference if the piece had been conceived with a director and/or a dramaturge in the room? I’m not sure. I feel like the concept serves the purpose for a durational performance and only in this context all the ideas of fate, chance and “shows within a show” thrown in the mix could truly play equal roles to “control” the performers and therefore shape the performance.

Notes on Spill Folk Academy, Day I+II (3/3)

2nd Day:

I) A quick check of who’s in the room: Artists (Hands are Up), Venues (Hands are Up), Support Agencies (Hands are Up), Venues (Hands are Up), Festivals (Hands are Up), Producers (Hands are Up), Writers (Hands are Up), Funders? Hands are NOWHERE To Be Seen…

II) What have we got today? 3 areas to explore: 1)Advocacy (Union?) 2)Monetary considerations (Fees & Levy) 3)Head of Terms & Rights.

III) Sharing: Knowledge. Skills. Resources. Spaces. Acquaintances. Spare Rooms. Experience. Savoir-Faire. Hobbies. Passions. Stories. Memories. What else have we got to offer?

IV) Timebank: To create or not to create? The feeling was Strong but not Unanimous about the idea of setting up a (new) Time bank for (live) artists. The question of its relevance was quickly brought up. Justified or not (Live Art Development Agency’s Director) Lois Keidan’s comment summed it up: “Why wasting energy reinventing the wheel where there’s so much resource [already] out there being underused?”

V) Cairo: Naming Stuff and Move On + A Lesson of Humility.

So where do we go from there? A bit difficult to predict on my part as I had to leave before the end of the second day’s afternoon session. Similar to the previous day, I left the room with lost of questions running through my head. Some were upsetting. Some were exciting. Some puzzled me a great deal. Some just kept coming naturally as I relived the day’s key moments & sporadic debates in my head. New Network’s launch, demise & legacy being one – the possibility of launching a NN-body like, in agreement, ruled out from the start and yet, I couldn’t help but sense its shadow being pretty much present in the room. Is it because its loss could have been avoided? Or was its loss premature in some ways? That’s not for me to say…

One thing I’m sure about Spill Folk Academy: Whichever way it’ll grow from these intense two days, we clearly started something…I’d like to think it’s a Movement (as subtle as it could be). But it could be at the very least a Sense of Realization (or even simply The Confirmation) from each one in the room – without having to become an officialized assembly – that sticking together is definitely the way to go.

Notes on Spill Folk Academy, Day I+II (2/3)

First Day:

XI) Insituationalization of Live Art (What does that mean? What if you don’t follow the procedures? The traditional stages to get recognized and supported? Are we talking about the (heavy) administrative side that comes with making work? Meaning: the bureaucracy around applying for platforms, festivals etc.? Or are we talking about as well the sense of etiquette that goes with the duty of being our own PR? Being at the right time in the useful place to talk to The People? How does one progress in such contrived environment then? How does the institionalization of my scene impact on the quality of the work? Its creator? On creativity in general? Is it what any fresh blood should be aware of when they’re first starting out? Is it part of the package of being a contemporary artist?)

XII) Good art. What about Bad art? (What’s Bad art? Could (contemporary) Bad art a direct consequence of its instutionalization? Is there as much Bad art as good art nowadays? Or even more? Who’s programming Bad art? Who’s responsible for its success? Good art for its audiences Bad art for its professionals = Snobbery? Good art for its professionals Bad art for its audiences = Misunderstanding and/or Ignorance? Good art for its audiences and professionals = Popular, Safe or Lazy?)

XIII) Scractch Culture = exploitation (Why do we need to Scratch work publicly? Have anyone heard of the word “demo” in the music industry? Surely scratching work, isn’t it what being in a rehearsal or studio room is for? Musicians don’t show their demos to their fans, neither their labels, so why should we, artists, go through this ordeal? Isn’t that a sign of institutionalization? Doesn’t it contradict the basic notion of live art, anyway? So what are the benefits to it?)

XIV) Welfare System: What is there for artists specifically? More transparency around receiving benefits & living off it (Models in Belgium & in France, could we use them as a starting point to create our own model? Does JSA recognize us as a professional status? What impact the Universal Credit will have on us? How to change mentalities & reform the system in relation to our profession? How can a model similar to France or Belgium exist in the UK when most of us are used to the idea of having different (art) jobs to make a living or of having a job that pays the bills besides our practice and make the balance between the two work to the best of our capabilities? And when you have a family, do you have the luxury to think you could live off benefits as an artist until your next “pay”? And what makes you live off benefits to run your practice? A choice, circumstances, a hope to have your break so you can sign off them once you get regularly paid? But we’re not aspiring to be Madonna, are we?)

XV) Lack of Genuine Context around Diversity (When does the line get drawn between recognition & sympathy? Or will both always go together? Should being seen as a token always bother me? Can I turn it into an advantage? Or shall I go against it? Will I pay for it then? Or will it earn me (more? True?) respect? Will I subvert the diversity rules with my work? Yes, and how? By using shock – read it as inapproriate – values (according to the promoter’s concerns)? Ah, the ticking boxes culture will never end! Or will it?)

XVI) Stupid opinions about Live Art (What are they? Do we really have such dated opinion about audiences? Are we afraid of our audiences?)

XVII) The Whiteness of Live Art – brought up by @Fiercefestival (Conservatism of our craft? Or not enough colored acts? Can we talk about Equal Opportunities in the arts? How can we talk about it positively without sounding institionalized? What about the concepts of Ethnic Minorities, Migration & being a Foreign artist in a broader sense?)

XVIII) Tower Hamlets: Nudity being forbidden on stage by Law (Reactions?)

XIX) Afternoon Session: What Have we Got? What We Got To Offer?

XX) MANIFESTO