Performing Identity

PERFORMID_bouteille
Performer, Lou Kanche © DR

Performing Identity is a nomadic programme of learning and practice in Performance Art taking place over two academic years (22-23 and 23-24). The programme is offered to a total of 15 students from the higher level art education who have a Performance or Live Art practice. 4 Art schools/universities are project partners : ENSAV - La Cambre and ESA Le 75 in Brussels (BE), UAP in Poznan (PL), Burren College of Art in thin the West of Ireland (IE), and three festivals : Verão Azul in Lagos (PT), New Performance Turku in Turku (FI) and (Pas si) Fragile ! in Brussels (BE). Addressing questions of identity, the programme offers a series of workshops at the partner institutions and festivals, including performance practice, professional and theoretical encounters and the creation of performances in varied public frameworks. A living archive is built during the whole length of the project.

The 2 year project develops over four immersive workshops of artistic research and practice. The student will encounter many art works and research at the intersection between art and knowledge, develop and create their own performative response. They will finally present their works in public space, gathered in an intensive festival programme, open to audiences and professionals. The whole process is documented by their peers in an engaged and collaborative relationship, and shared with the public on an original digital platform.

The encounter with the plurality of pedagogies and with different cultural criteria activates what Performance Art does best, while in dynamic response to the context where it is created. The theme of identity makes this journey coherent, and anchors it in contemporary problematics. These experiences, along with the opportunity to create new work while being supported by a team of experienced artists and teachers, deliver the necessary tools for student performers to assert real artistic singularities.

Schedule of activities

  • Workshop “Identity and intersectionality”, La Cambre/Brussels, November 2022 (6 days)
  • Workshop “Collective identities” and attending of the festival Verão Azul/Lagos, April 2023 (5 days)
  • Workshop “Identity and ecology”, Burren College of Art/Ballyvaughan, August 2023 (6 days)
  • Attending of the festival New Performance Turku/Turku, September 2023 (4 days)
  • Workshop “Identity and censorship”, UAP, Poznan, November 2023 (8 days)
  • Creation of performances in the framework of the festival (Pas si) Fragile !/Studio Thor, Brussels (April 2024, 4 days)

Each of the workshops includes the creation of performances, presented publicly in different ways. In parallel, a group of students and teachers of ESA LE 75, in dialogue with the students performers, will create a live archive of the project.

The programme is open to students with a practice / strong interest in performance art enlisted at La Cambre, UAP or Burren College. The participation in the Live Archive dimension is reserved for the students of ESA LE 75.

Students will receive travel and accommodation scholarships, and production support for their final performances.

Students enrolled on the programme will be required to commit to the entire 2 year duration of the project.

Credits

The enlisting of the students of La Cambre is possible only in M1 or M0: the participation into the project is be valorized as credits with the teaching units transdisciplinarity (2 X 10 credits). Therefore, the students concerned do not have to enlist in the transdisciplinary modules or CASO.

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