STRUCTURing SUPPORT

Visions at The Nunnery, London

STRUCTURing SUPPORT, instructions drawing (2016) Elena Cologni, graphite on Moleskin paper 

 Documentation Images by Orlando 

This is to be intended as a work in progress where the performers/facilitators would feedback on their physical and psychological experience proposed.

This piece evolved from a previous work, and is on an ongoing interest in place attachment, an issue I have been working on for sometime. Within this the way we move through space while navigating it to produce meaning and ‘place’, to know it from a phenomenological viewpoint, and in relation to others is what interests me.

Instructions for facilitators:
On Thursday evening you will be given simple props. You will adopt a simple modular movement, in order to move from one end of the dedicated space in a group of 4 performers per every one structure – there are two available for the performance on Thursday. The two structures can be experienced one after the other, eg. when 4 performers with structure n°1 start from one end of the space and move towards the other end, the other 4 will start with structure n°2 to follow the same journey, slowly.

The structure is a 3part folded light object, 180 cm which opens to become 540 cm. The movement in three positions include: close, 45° open, 90° open, see sketch above.

The performers are positioned at the ends of the sections of the structure and support the structure itself with their abdomen, and applying pressure towards the other performers, while moving.

The performers devise a system to navigate the space while applying enough pressure to keep the prop up. Devising good group dynamics is central, and I cannot indicate how that might happen: its up to you!! The performance requires concentration and physical strength.

Please wear black stuff, I shall also provide black padded fabric belts you can wear around your waist

It’s a durational piece about 2 hrs (with pauses )

FEEDBACK

”The performance was easy enough in my experience.
I would have liked if there would have been another 4 performers so that it could have been more complex and interesting to evolve within the space when moving 2 structures. I also think it could have more of a visual presence. It worked for 4 however.  Perhaps a belt that would allow for a better fixing to the body could help performers to focus on the movements and possibilities that arise more than we did.  Sometimes we would work together, sometimes we created more difficulty for ourselves or one individual amongst us, other times we would attempt to help one another or the group to help one. We started to find a sort of balance in a sideway walk that developed by itself as we repeated and experimented various steps and areas within the space.  I became very much interested in our level of connection, direct and indirect ones; sometimes being affected by the smallest move of one or more of us and sometimes not at all by any moves except one’s own.
I could also see and feel gender related relations being evoked and put in various arrangements although the main one was that women were one side and men the other, each of the 2 groups coming very near or very apart its specific members as we moved”. (Ludovic )

“I felt the spatial dynamics of the implications and of site and gender and their overt and subtle power shifts came to mind, especially being of balanced gender and the site of the Nunnery dark alleyway. It would be interesting to re-perform this with different gender groups in different locations/spaces and see if audiences pick up on this. The most difficult part was not letting the structure fall from our fronts – the balancing act between our stomachs, the black belts and the wood wasn’t the easiest, however I feel you wouldn’t want to make the wood integrated with the belts, but the tensions and dynamics are disrupted when the structure falls – but this all feels part of it(?) There were interesting moments when two of the performers on one side would come to support the other in tight spots or pass the structure over to the other if the balancing act was likely to fall.” (Sebastian)

 

CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND

Programme 3 Launch Event of the Visions at The Nunnery 2016 

Date: Thursday, December 1, 2016
Address: The Nunnery, 181 Bow Road, London E3 2SJ
Time: 6-9pm
The final Visions programme will launch on the last First Thursday of 2016 with five live performances, including an exclusively new and live performance from Richard Layzell that will start at 6:30pm, as well as Elena Cologni, Marina Moreno and Tony White and Raluca Croitoru and Mikio Saito from the Unnoticed Art Festival, with a new installation Hey You! by Tessa Garland, a film about control and the power of information. Whose watching who now?

Programme 3 will explore digital worlds, utopias and dystopias, with artists including Adriana Amodei, Sandra Araújo, Ulu Braun, Carla Chan, Milo Creese, Sandra Crisp, Raluca Croitoru, Dennis & Debbie Club, Nina Danino, DMK (Davies, Monaghan, Klein), Valentina Ferrandes, Tessa Garland, Heidi Kilpeläinen, Lawrence Lek, Allie Litherland, Jonathon Monaghan, Marina Moreno, Chris Paul Daniels, Mikio Saito, Mauricio Sanhueza, PolakVanBekkum, Schellekens, Zeljko Vidovic and Tony White.

Curated by Cinzia Cremona and Tessa Garland, Visions 2016 showcases over 100 international artists’ work through an innovative six-part programme, including artists Marina Abramović, Ori Gersht, Susan Hiller, Mikhail Karikis, Richard Layzell and Uriel Orlow. 12 events punctuate the programme, featuring live performances in the gallery, Carmelite Café and Bow Arts’ unique Victorian enclosed courtyard. View the full programme here

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Cinzia, Tessa, Ludovic, Sebastian, Lynn, Orlando