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WORKSHOPS
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Workshop in the Balie Autonomous Zone
-- This workshop has been rescheduled to start
Saturday Jan. 20th, 17:30 - 19:00
AFTER "Tactical Media as Tools for Survival"! --
"MORTAL ACTS: the tactical body" will address the symbolic use of the body in art and political intervention. The term "symbolic" in this instance can refer to both its linguistic and its ritualistic sense; in all instances the body becomes a carrier of meaning, a signifier in the semiotic sense, but the weight of the tradition of ritual, and its connection to personal physical risk or hardship, lends an additional intensity to its use.
In political intervention the physical mobilization of the body has always been a powerful agent of change. Revolutions have usually relied on the physical mobilization of a mass in demonstrations, and the strongest media interventions still tend to be those in which individuals put their bodies physically on the line (think of the Chinese student in Tianenmen square blocking the way of a tank by standing in its way). Still, it is exactly this dissemination of the image of physical danger that now seems to be the crucial factor in its efficacy. Is there still any real relevance to physical mobilization in political intervention independent from its media representation? If one considers the electronically generated, and disseminated, image of one's body as part of one's "data-body" (to borrow a phrase from the Critical Art Ensemble), then isn't any physical intervention ultimately an intervention in the data-sphere, and would it not make more sense to simply concentrate on interventions in that sphere alone?
Alternately, if one sticks to the thesis that the physical mobilization of bodies is the most crucial factor in any struggle for change, independent of its media dissemination, how does mobilize these forces in a time when physical separation has become almost a non-issue in the preconditions for communication and solidarity?
The mobilization of the body in art can largely, though not exclusively, be related to performance art. Performance art has seen a kind of revival recently, although compared with the 'body art' of the seventies, more performers choose to work with some kind of electronic mediation. Performance art can be related to physical political intervention in the sense that it, too, insists on the use of the body as signifier, and often works with the element of physical danger to create an impact, although in many instances it refers more self-consciously to a tradition of ritual. What parallels, if any, could be drawn between the symbolic performance of the political activist, and the physical interventions of the performance artist?
In some instances art and political intervention have been quite closely related; after Fluxus and the happenings in the sixties, most notably the AIDS movement generated collective efforts in which these were brought together in an effective way (Gran Fury, General Idea, ART Positive). Also, the interventions of the Gorilla Girls, and the agenda of Ocean Earth can be seen in this light. It might be possible that especially performance art and ritual could now play new role in political intervention (think of the late David Wojnorovic's call for the public ritual commemoration of each AIDS victim). Is there room, at this time, for a new alliance between art and activism?
Participants in this workshop will include Babeth, who has a performance art background and recently made a film about the U.S. intervantion in Haiti; Hunter Reynolds, a New York performance artist who has been active in ART Positive; Calin Dan, a Rumanian performance artist who was involved in the TV revolution of December '89 (you might know him from the Bethanien Haus); and Ross Sinclair, a performance artist from Glasgow.
Suggestions for other participants are welcome. I would be interested to invite members of the Critical Art Ensemble and any political activist who has experience in orchestrating physical interventions.
Produced by ALMANAC: live art on live tv. ALMANAC intervenes on Amsterdam local television with live work by performance artists. During the Next Five Minutes ALMANAC will produce performances by Hunter Reynolds and Ross Sinclair for the live cablecast from Paradiso.