Curators’ note: This page illustrates all the work created, programmed, commissioned and championed throughout 2020. Early in the year, we were lucky to have received funding for that year’s programme just weeks before the first COVID-19 related lockdown in England. Whilst we all had to adapt and re-conceptualise our programme, we also were in a position where we were one of the lucky UK-based live art companies that had the capacity to navigate a newly-digital focused art world, as well as being a point of reference and support for migrant artists who were now faced with even more institutional and state violence. The resulting programme was an extensive exercise in survival and support, whilst trying to make sense of the biggest social shifting landscapes in a generation.
performingbordersLIVE welcomes people whose artistic practice, research and lives have been shaped by experiences of migration and/or borders. Everyone is welcome!
COMMISSIONS
Performance Walk
in partnership with Foreign Actions Productions, ArtReach (UK), HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Flinnworks (Berlin), Standplaats, Spring (Utrecht) Festival Boulevard (‘s Hertogenbosch), Zuiderstrandtheater (The Hague), Korzo (The Hague), Over het IJfestival (Amsterdam), WPZimmer (Antwerp)
The Art of Walking by Pankaj Tiwari & Abhishek Thapar
A durational performance walk of 312 km from Amsterdam to the refugee camps in Calais, France.
Open post with all documentation & reflections: https://performingborders.live/pbchannel/the-art-of-walking-on-going-open-post/
Digital Conversations on Live Art and borders
in partnership with the Live Art Development Agency (LADA)
Read more about the Successful Applicants here.
Third Nature by Elena Marchevska, Sebastian Aguirre and Syowia Kyambi
From The Cages To The Clear Blue Sky – A borderless conversation with Cassils and Whiskey Chow
RESIDENCIES
Residency on Curating Borders in partnership with Never Done
Read more about the Successful Applicant here.
Digital Residency in partnership with Ọ̀RỌ̀ ÀNÍKÉ
Online digital Residency: writer Anike Bello. Anike undertook a 2-month digital residency delving into performingborders online resources and she responded with a writing piece published on 14th May 2020.
Read Anike’s piece here: Encounters with Fluid Borders
Instagram Residency
Istanbul Queer Art Collective took over performingborders’ Instagram for a week residency delving into their practice, the platform’s archive of resources, and intersections between queerness and migration. Explore Istanbul Queer Art Collective’s IG residency here.
Community Digital Residency with East Street Arts, MAFWA & Counterpoint Arts
During her residency, Jade Montserrat looked at notions and lived experiences of body, land, and ownership while exploring modes of online and offline communications with migrant communities in times of health, social and political crises. In partnership with East Street Arts, MAFWA, with the support of Counterpoints Arts. More information here.
Twitter Residency
The White Pube took over performingborders’ Twitter for a week residency that will delve into their critical practice and the platform’s archive of resources.
Read The White Pube’s residency wrap-up text here
Community Digital Residency
in partnership with Deptford Lounge and The Albany
Temporary Works: Covid-19 Update by Critical Interruptions. Temporary Works is a digital archive of real, imagined and potential closures and notices of termination in and around Deptford. The project collects and speculates on disappearances and terminations prompted or made visible by the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on speculative fiction and queer approaches to the archive, Temporary Works maps closures in Deptford from an imposed distance, using dislocation to experiment with forms of remote participation. More information here.
WORKSHOPS
Returning to Home: A series of embodied workshops that refocus our attention to restore, re-set and recognise. Curated by Annie Jael Kwan in partnership with Asia-Art-Activism and Something Human. Facilitators: Annie Jael, Kwan, Whiskey Chow, June Lam.
Enjoy a collective exercise outcome here: https://performingborders.live/writings/collective-writing-let-me-give-you-some-breathing-space/
PUBLIC EVENTS
18 September | Fuglen, der (The Bird, There) by Lasse Lau | Première & Q&A in partnership with Warehouse9
‘When I was 16, there was a virus that only killed someone like me. Something I couldn’t talk about at the time, as I only knew the hidden truth deep within my own window towards the world. This video performance lecture is a story about trauma accompanied by visuals to a small text called “Virus” from a new series of stories – in the making -titled “The Island of Violence.” A virus that I never contracted myself, but which I still live with today in my intimate and social choices. These invisible borders that can determine lifelong paths, and sometimes even hinders me from flying’.
Post-premiere Q&A with Lasse Lau & Naja Lee Jensen: https://performingborders.live/pbchannel/fuglen-der-the-bird-there-qa-by-lasse-lau-naja-lee-jensen/
19 September | Performative Lecture | Catalysing Change Through Artful Agitation: Part I: Be Ill-Disciplined +Workshop | Ill-disciplined by Kai Syng Tan in partnership with Contact Theatre, Manchester.
With the pandemic, Black Lives Matter, and the ongoing crises in climate, health, and technological control, we’ve all been thinking a lot about leadership. Below is the Performative Lecture + Q&A with Ashokkumar Mistry:
performingbordersLIVE20 FINAL EVENT
23, 24, 25 October In partnership with Live Art Development Agency, Counterpoints Arts, East Street Arts, Queer Art Projects and HowlRound Theatre Commons. Supported by Arts Council England
“It is in collectivities that we find reservoirs of hope and optimism.” Angela Davis
A three-day gathering, bringing the performingbordersLIVE20 artists together to reimagine a borders-free, collaborative live art practice.
Performance To Camera Commissions:
RE:seeding – in correspondence by Jade Montserrat & Webb-Ellis
‘There is a connection between ourselves and the earth and that this line, or connection, like our communications with one another, is drawing’
Post-premiere Q&A with Chandra Frank: https://performingborders.live/pbchannel/reseeding-qa/
Lavender Man by Tania El Khoury & Mohamad Ali “Dali” Agrebi
A reflection on friendship, chosen families, the long effect of collaborative and community-based art, and the right of love and movement.
Post-premiere Q&A with Professor Harriet Hawkins: https://performingborders.live/pbchannel/lavender-man-qa-with-tania-el-khouri-mohamad-ali-dali-agrebi-professor-harriet-hawkins/
FINAL ONLINE CONVERSATION
There is (No) Time | Q&A with Joon Lynn Goh & PBLIVE2020 Digital Residencies Artists Jade Foster, The White Pube, Jade Montserrat, Istanbul Queer Art Collective and Àníké Bello