Tuesday at Toynbee Studios Other Durations and a double bill by Augusto Corrieri & Owen Parry

They say:

Time in Western Cultures continues to accelerate and a slower unregulated life is seemingly nowhere to be found. Contemporary art has seen a resurgence of performances of valuation of historical works of duration. Artists are increasingly playing with, inhabiting and transforming the time of the artwork. Speakers will address questions of how we can now think of the time of performance? What are the relations between performance, time and cultural value? How is performance reconfiguring and othering our understandings and experiences of time?

We say:

Mackenzie

As Fred Moten eloquently and compellingly explained, exhaustion opens new forms of possibility. ‘Other Durations’ was exhausting and inspiring.

Bojana Kunst talked of the audiences work through a durational performance: work and wait for the time to pass, or leave. Two and a half hours in, as my eyes fought to stay open, these words made a mark on my fuzzy brain.

I lit up at the thoughtful enthusiasm of Janine Antoni and Matthew Goulish. Although not new, I re-realised that I just like a story.

A double bill by Augusto Corrieri & Owen Parry

They say:

Part of an ongoing investigation into solo performance, Musical Pieces explores the deceptive qualities of perception and attention offered by the theatre, playing with different forms of on-stage concealment and trickery.

I Wanna Be in that Show is a performance about wanting to be in a performance. It draws on the feeling of seeing a performance and recognising one’s own desire to be in it or to have created it. It’s about art that drives
you to make more art, to revel in its forms and textures and to question the bodies that occupy it.

We say:

Wellesley Wesley

Musical Pieces appealed to the scrupulous side of me that enjoys seeing philosophic resonance in practical ideas. Corrieri highlighted the dichotomy between what we see and what we hear, implicating me as a spectator through staged 'tests'. By contrast, Parry seemed to celebrate the under-rehearsed. A ramshackle assembly of images, allusions and fanciful acts brought the foibles and uncouthness of this creator/star to the fore. Like a child he was engaging, bemusing and, at times, embarrassing. I came away wondering if trust in the maker matters.

And to sum it all up:

Sikorski

The more interested we become in each other and each others’ thoughts, the more absolutely different our own thoughts and individual creations can, and will, be. The more individual and rich our own thoughts are, the more others will be interested in them. The more others are interested in our thoughts, the more interesting their own will become. And in turn, the more interesting they will become to us...etc.

This was the joy of the day.

Presentations are best when they are as engaging as conversations, or indeed, are conversations.