December 13, 7 p.m., Three Uses of the Knife lecture series invites to the “Body in the Institution – Institutional Body” event by Anna Gritz (UK) and Alicia Frankovich (NZ / DE) at Arts Printing House (Siltadarzio 6, Vilnius).
In the recent years we have witnessed how performance and dance have been widely integrated into exhibition programs in museums and large-scale art events. This relation of performance to institutional structures is often discussed in terms of service and experience economies. However, performance-related art practice resists full and smooth integration into institutional framework and creates a number of challenges both for institutions and for performance artists. Curator Anna Gritz (UK) and artist Alicia Frankovich (DE) will explore these issues, and the productive possibilities of the relationship between institution and performance in the last meeting of the Three Uses of the Knife. The event will be moderated by Virginija Januškevičiūtė, curator at the Contemporary Art Center (CAC), Vilnius.
In her presentation, Anna Gritz will reflect on a general tendency to absorb/present durational and performative strategies in institutions, relating this tendency to existing theory and research on the subject of high performance, the live, and productivity, and also to her own programme at the South London Gallery, which is very much focused on testing out the margins of performative practices and the infrastructure that enables performative work. She will present the practices of Cally Spooner, Gerry Bibby, and Kelly Nipper amongst others as her case studies during the talk.
Alicia Frankovich’s talk, titled “Working conditions: performing within institutions” will explore these problematics from an artist point of view.
Several strategies will be discussed, including works where she has exhibited the social relations of the artist, curator and other exhibition staff as an extension of analyses into the conditions of art production, and constructing situations that make these social dynamics visible and political. In addition, Frankovich will also discuss the way she has worked with the time structures and constraints of exhibitions in order to investigate the politics of artistic labour and its consumption.
Moderated by: Virginija Januškevičiūtė
The event will be held in English.
Organizers: Artnews.lt, National Gallery of Art.
Image: Alicia Frankovich, A Plane for Behavers, Performance 1, 2009. Courtesy of the artist and Starkwhite (Aukland, New Zealand).
