SAT, 11 07 2020, 11:00 am - 3:00 pm

Concept: Performatorium (Olivia Jaques and Marlies Surtmann)

An archive refers to the systematic collection of documents of past events, i.e. their recording, putting into order and being catalogued. Digging is usually not desired because it contradicts the logic of order and classification. Even though the archive of Kunstraum Niederoesterreich is not yet open to the public, we are gaining an exemplary view of the young and committed performance past of the exhibition space.

By Digging in the Archive, we want to 'exhume' a performance from the archive of Kunstraum Niederoesterreich and re-enact it with the help of a systematic analysis of performance documents. The project demands the end of contemplation: not a re-enactment, but a forensic composition of the traces, a physical recreation of a past event.

For this, we borrow from Diana Taylor's concept of the scenario, which means a gradual approach to the performance selected. Taylor establishes the scenario as a kind of analysis tool to 'conjure up' past events and to learn to understand them through various modes of transmission. In addition to the logic of traditional archiving, which is based on writing, images and objects, Taylor places a tradition in the form of cultural practices (repertoire). The archive and the repertoire are in a reciprocal relationship and condition each other. The scenario forms a framework that allows for multi-perspective interpretations and shifts in time, place and culture; a formalistic structure that makes equal use of the modes of the archive and the repertoire.

Digging into the Archive is a performative attempt to apply Diana Taylor's scenario to a performance through two different approaches. The central questions are: At which points does the transfer of a performance into a different temporal context cause friction? What can be experienced or understood through the process of re-enacting? What kind of updates or reinterpretations take place? What does this change of perspective imply for a feminist perspective on history, but also for an everyday dealing with past events? The focus shifts from the question of accurate and complete transmission to the question of what and how we learn from past (performance) events for a recent understanding of society and culture.

Artists and everyone interested in performance art are invited to participate in this experiment. The project is embedded in a research project for archiving performance art and is divided into two parts (the second part will take place in autumn). By participating in the workshop, the participant agrees that recordings and illustrations of the workshop, as well as illustrations of any (artistic) results within the research project "Archiving Performance Art? On the Archiving, Transmission and Mediation of an Art Form in Motion" may be published and used for further research.