A colaboradora, a workshop commons: inaugural research practice series hosted by Performance@King’s – 26th to 29th July (Previous Staff-Led Events)

26^th-29^th July

convening daily from 5-7pm with Performance@ pop-up art throughout the week (details TBC)

Deadline for sign-ups: June 10th

The global pandemic has felt like a moment of suspense, a temporal torque in world-time where concerns for personal health and financial-state recovery have met reflection, remorse, grief and loss, and a deeply reflective sense of movement into the unknown. 

In line with this sense of cultural suspension, this talking point series is framed as a set of workshops where PhD students can gather, learn about and put into practice collaboration-based methodologies of transformation and knowledge-sharing. The series draws its methodology from a colaboradora: a community and arts-based practice of Instituto Procomum in Santos, Brazil. We will offer PhD students the chance to shape their own collaborative grouping within the Performance@ assemblage. Facilitators are international and interdisciplinary practitioners and scholars, reflecting the moment of suspense across timely themes of care, embodiment, stillness, medicine, public and private health/space and decolonization.

From 15^th June – 26^th July we will distribute advance discussion provocations and invited PhD students to respond in any format, including performance/experimentation. These will form the backbone of each discussion space in our workshop series week from 26^th – 29^th July. At the very least we hope that PhD students can gather in person but we have contingency for online events. We will support PhD students to share their discoveries, methods and ideas via platforms such as the Performance@ blog.

How to sign up

To sign up please email Kélina Gotman kelina.gotman@kcl.ac.uk and Penny Newell penny.newell@kcl.ac.uk

Workshop Series Outline

A colaboradora 26^th July 5-7pm BST 

Participants discuss a colaboradora methodology and explore underpinning theories of “commoning” and “service exchange”. They reflect on what it means to take space and define their community’s “groups and territories”. Facilitators: Georgia Nicolau (Diretora de Parcerias e Institucional, Instituto Procomum), Dr Diana Damian Martin (RCSSD) and Dr Bogomir Doringer (Amsterdam).

After technique, before care 27^th July 5-7pm BST

This session will map decoloniality and issues of representation in embodied practices of dance and care, offering a vision of embodiment through the lens of medicine and dance education.

Facilitators: dancer Valerie Ebuwa, Dr Phaedra Petsilas (Rambert), and Dr Suzy Willson (Co-Artistic Director of Clod Ensemble).

After language, before gesture 28^th July 5-7pm BST 

What are the choreographics of speaking and holding space? This session looks at the emergence of gesture from moments of stillness, with a focus on coloniality and the pandemic.

Facilitators: Dr Kélina Gotman (King’s College London), Olivia Ardui (curator, Museo de Arte de Sao Paulo) and Prof. Gil Anidjar (Columbia)

After place, before recollection 29^th July 5-7pm BST

What writing practices are possible within moments of collective suspense? This session explores performative writing methodologies for moments of collective transformation.

Facilitators: Dr Penny Newell (King’s College London), Caroline Bergvall (King’s-affiliated artist and writer) and Dr Sophie Lally (Translator and activist, Mexico). 

Performance@ pop-up art 26-29^th July

Adam Moore (former colaboradora artist and current Jerwood mentee), Jade Montserrat (multidisciplinary artist exploring institutions of care) and Valerie Ebuwa (dancer and Clod Ensemble artist)

After the revolution, who’s going to pick up the garbage on Monday morning?

(Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Manifesto for Maintenance Art 1969!)

This series reaches out to students in a moment of suspense, equipping them to interrogate how their research methodologies might shift in light of the transformative experience of the pandemic. PhD students will forge a reflective and supportive community, bringing a new vision to academic space and discussion.

Partners and spaces

Events will take place in various King’s-affiliated spaces including the Anatomy Museum at King’s and National Gallery X, with contingency for online events. International partners are joining via Zoom.

Partner organisations: King’s College London, Queen Mary University London, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Instituto Procomum, and Clod Ensemble. 

A colaboradora and Instituto Procomum

These events connect a London network of PhD researchers with a visionary organisation in Brazil. PhD students can take a colaboradora methodology forward in their research practice, as an asset for research and artistic activities, for the editorial processes of The Still Point Journal, or providing new methods for convening events through a logic of the commons. 

Performance@ and follow-on potential

Performance@ King’s was borne out of a collaborative conversation between 40 scholars in Battersea Arts Centre in 2019 and is now a vibrant assemblage of interdisciplinary King’s and consortium scholars: Performance@King’s – present in the act (kcl.ac.uk). Following a soft-launch during the pandemic, this inaugural series will fully launch the Performance@ grouping. Performance@ functions as the home for PhD students’ exploration of new methods of communication, thought and writing. Moving forwards, Performance@ will continue to function as a space where PhD students can find support and collaboration with each other and faculty peers. 

For more info on Performance@King’s visit https://blogs.kcl.ac.uk/performance/