Avery Plummer on Martine Viale:
The Body and Public Space
Public Performance by WeiZen Ho, photo by Yaslene Ho-Schacher
Martine Viale hosted a three-day performance workshop for Out of Site’s Flow Symposium. With Viale’s emphasis on bodily presence in both installation and performance, participants embarked on a three-day journey in which they were asked to account for their own body’s presence in public spaces. The online platform of the workshop allowed artists and students from around the world to connect and work together, however it also provided several obstacles, including how much each participant could experiment and perform in their respective homes due to varying degrees of COVID lockdowns. Nevertheless, Viale created an environment in which participants were encouraged to expand and work with situational moments such as the COVID pandemic.
Viale began by introducing herself as a public artist, dependent upon what she referred to as “unspectacular actions” and using the body as language. After short introductions by a diverse group of participants, Viale moved on to pose several questions, including how to reintroduce our bodies into public spaces, now sites of anxiety, after a pandemic, as well as how to integrate our daily encounters in these public spaces into art strategies. Discussion was open and free, as Viale encouraged participants to share their own practices and their own anxieties surrounding public spaces. At the end of the first day, she ended by giving an assignment, quickly summed up: go on a walk until you find a site that is spontaneously attractive. Take the space in, situating the body within it, and keeping the senses open. Perform a small action in the space, stop at an interval space while heading home, and finally draw a map of the place in which the action was performed.
On the second day participants were encouraged to share their maps and experiences, as Viale created a space for discussion. She emphasized the very personal experiences that each person had in their chosen spaces, as many chose to perform actions at stops along their daily walks. By the end of the discussion, Viale assigned participants to go back to their chosen spots and perform an action they always wished to perform but were nervous to do in public. Participants’ documentation of this exercise began the third day of the workshop, and Viale allowed everyone to discuss their individual experiences. The idea of personal experiences came up again, and many participants mentioned that they grew fond of their chosen space and chosen actions, finding it easier to return and perform. This discussion seemed to lead Viale to her third and final assignment: perform the first exercise again, but choose a space that sparks no feeling, one that feels indifferent. Change this feeling by performing an action, achieve a personal experience in an unfamiliar place.
These exercises were light, attainable for those who were not able to travel far due to COVID. Viale’s point seemed to be less about what each individual action was, and more about the experience each individual had in their chosen spaces. She even emphasized that many things take time to integrate, citing that many participants may be taking bits and pieces of the workshop with them for years to come. Perhaps the workshop did not end in a live grand finale, but Viale created a space, albeit online, to explore and expand individual practices. It is a space that participants will be sure to carry with them as they continue to create.
