Flow embody • in site
“The ocean is in the cup…”
This performance art festival was initiated by Alastair MacLennan and Brian Paterson traveling to China visiting Shanghai, Wuhan, and Chengdu in 2023. They established different relationships with performance art organizations and brought them to Belfast in May 2024 for an 11-day program starting with performances for four days, artist talks at Ulster University and then group performances in different cities in N. Ireland.
Moving, being, and seeing in Yoko Ono’s exhibition.
As one enters a group of three wishing trees at the entrance to the exhibition “Music on my Mind” by Yoko Ono one is greeted by a phone message from Yoko herself. It is a brief message in this transitional dark space between the outside world and entering the creative space of Yoko Ono. As the title in the exhibition makes a reference to music – the curatorial tempo is carefully created as one moves from one space to the next experiencing notions of being, seeing, and connecting are equally interwoven into this special experiential exhibit if you are open to it.
TO LIVE UNEXPECTEDLY IS TO LIVE WITH NO EXPECTATIONS BUT OPENNESS; WHEN YOU MEET SUDDENLY YOU MEET YOUR SOURCE
Kineret Haya Max, an Israeli performance artist and a teacher, as a part of this year’s FLOW 2023 symposium, has created a tender, gentle space of exploration where each individual could go on an intimate journey of seeing the imposed control of the process and alchemising it through the surrender to the sudden flow; allowing one's illusions to die and resulting in recognition of the creative core-heart~ inner eye - the source of imagination.
Eleni Kolliopoulou on Daisuke Takeya
First thing that Daisuke shared with us was one of the performances he gave in his hometown in Japan in 2021. The performance was given in public space and featured himself shaving on the street at a crossing point. After a while, police came and stopped Daisuke from doing this ‘private action in the public space’. His impression was that, to his surprise, the police tried to ‘protect him’. Policemen did not mention that he might hurt the public but that he is vulnerable in the public space when doing an action that is not meant to be performed there. In his work, Daisuke inquires upon the limits of acceptable, normal and by the law in the public space. With his practice he wonders ‘how does police interact with public performances?’
“Sit comfortably in your chair”
Dr Anna Dako guides us to the actual experience of felt thinking smoothly. Availing of the virtual space that offers a degree of safety and anonymity, we are invited to take a couple of minutes to enter a more experiential connection with ourselves and other life-forms through time/ space.
In her lecture, Anna invites us to embody and contemplate all those different frequencies that we are constantly tuning to. She pays attention to simple things that are already there, but we almost constantly take them for granted, such as the earth itself.
A Cosmic Union
Jelili Atiku - artist, performer, human, the ambassador of the World and all its realms. The custodian of Outer Space and representative of Yoruba traditions. Atiku creates opportunities for the energy to flow and recognise itself through different bodies. In his performative practice, the body is a healing material that is connected to nature; it is a sacred tool. As a tool, it can share a message of mutual love, respect and support. It can heal others, so itself - through the connection with the Cosmos, so everything that surrounds us. A tool that helps one to leave the rigid identification with the mind, and it’s limitations; and through its senses to liberate and set itself free – to recognise experientially the presence of collective consciousness.
Welcome Letter 2023
We are thrilled that you have chosen to participate in the third symposium of Flow • embody in site 2023. The ethos of Flow is about creating an intimate community gathering with people tuning in online and in-person who are dedicated to public performance art practices. As we move to a hybrid format this year we are hoping to maintain the intimacy that we have created in previous years with more in-person gatherings. Flow is a space where you can connect with the world around you – be it with the natural environment or the city. World renowned performance artists lead practice-based workshops inviting you to embody the local environment where you live. What does it mean to feel connect, to unfold and be with nature and the earth we live with? How can our performance art practices be of a journey to deepen our relationship with the world around us?
Always look for the golden thread
At BIFPA Performance Art Festival in Belfast, N.Ireland at the Imagine Festival organized at Ulster University there were twenty performances organized over two days. In this blog post, Carron Little describes five performances by artists in our community and works that she was profoundly moved by at the Festival. There were far more performances that truly deserve space and textual analysis beyond the space of this short post. The performances discussed in this blog post discuss works by selina bonelli, Marilyn Arsem, Brain Connelly, Bernadette Hopkins, and Yaryna Shumska.
“A river is a living, dynamic thing…” by Heraclitus
The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus said: '“ A river is a living, dynamic thing, an architect of its surroundings. It changes all the time. That’s its beauty.” Please read this blog post to find out about the structure of Flow • embody in site 2023 symposium 2023. The Flow community that has grown out of the last two online symposiums has gathered an intimate group of artists dedicated to working in outdoor contexts. The public performances that have been created at each Flow in the practice-based workshops create giggles, inspire profundity, and create a thin space. This intimate space where participants engage in practice-based workshops that occur over several days, open community sessions and artist presentations. The currrent open call for performance lectures and artist presentations is open until April 14, 2023 and this program will happen in Week 1 & Week 2 with one online presentation each day. As a living, breathing organization that works collectively ieke Trinks and Carron Little started to brainstorm the structure for a hybrid symposium in 2021 planting the seed to build a partnership with WORM, Rotterdam.
Welcome to Flow 2022 by Carron Little
After the intimacy and warmth of community feeling created at last year’s online public performance symposium, we have decided to organize another. Flow • embody in site 2022 an online public performance symposium will bring practicing public performance artists together to create new work, to be in community and share work at the finale weekend of live public performances from around the globe.
Jennie Klein on Welcome to the lunchtime event from 10 to 4 am
On Sunday, May 9th, the Flow Festival concluded with four performances of approximately 30 minutes each taking place in different parts of the world. The Lunchtime event was kicked off by ieke Trinks at approximately 12 p.m. Chicago time. As Trinks noted in both the introduction and the blog post written for Out of Site, experiencing live performance through Twitch (used for these performances) or other digital platforms is not the same thing as being there in person.
Avery Plummer on the Public Performances
Out of Site’s Flow Symposium culminated in a two-night performance event. Participants were invited to take what they learned from the symposium’s workshops over a three-week period and create a live stream performance. The event was hosted on Twitch, an online streaming service, and was open to participants, workshop leaders, and the general public.
Jennie Klein on Isa Fontbona Mola
Isa Fontbona is an artist, an art historian, a philosopher, and currently a doctoral student at the University of Girona in Spain. She is also a body builder who uses her body to display the way in which philosophy, literature, and art have constructed the ideal feminine body. She has gained and lost 30kg/66 lbs for her two year performance TRANSMOGRIFICATION.
Katherine Guinness on Denys Blacker
During a variety of times and places, artist Denys Blacker was in conversation with Martine Viale. The talk, which for me was a Sunday afternoon, kicked off with the grounding (but also spreading, dispersing, connecting) practice that each presentation for the Out of Site Flow Symposium had thus far, in which we shared our times, our zones, which way the light was or was not shining into our small square space-screens for all to see. All falling along different places on the spacetime continuum, brought together by a common cause, but perhaps not to land at the same ends or energies.
Avery Plummer on Martine Viale:
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,
Jennie Klein on Zhou Bin:
Zhou Bin’s lecture on his work, interpreted and facilitated by Sophia Kidd, was a fascinating tour of his oeuvre from the late nineties until today. The lecture gave the attendees a good idea of the scope and importance of this work. Of particular interest was Zhou’s emphasis on pedagogy, the centrality of teaching performance, and the importance of working with other artists who are also teachers.
Jennie Klein on Laura Paolini
Image: It’s like talking to a wall by Laura Paolini, 2021, photo by Cara Tierney
Laura Paolini’s lecture on Chris Burden’s early performance work took place against the backdrop of the Flow Festival, a public performance event sponsored by Out of Site in Chicago. Flow advertises itself as embodied and sited/site specific. This year, as a result of the ongoing pandemic, it has been forced to be completely virtual, with artists and scholars participating remotely in the workshops, lectures, and performances.
We mourn, we grieve
The Out of Site community of artists condemn the violence that continues to impact black & brown, latino, asian, marginalized and gendered bodies in public space. We are horrified by the recent police murders of Adam Toledo, Anthony Alverez and Travon Chadwell in our City of Chicago.
＊ Welcome to the Lunchtime Event from 10 to 4 am ＊
On Sunday May 9, 2021 @12noon - 2pm CST, ieke Trinks is curating an live stream performance event on Experimental Sound Studios twitch.tv and ess.org
Marilyn Arsem’s Performance Work
Image: Adrift by Marilyn Arsem, 2012, photo by Chelsea Coon
As part of the symposium we will be providing a space to discuss the new book Responding to Site: The Performance Work of Marilyn Arsem edited by Jennie Klein and Natalie Loveless.