Conversation with Janek Alexander

Heike was invited to chair a public conversation today with Janek Alexander, director of Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, about his performance work in the 1970s and 1980s. Janek was part of an extraordinarily vibrant and diverse performance scene, which included Cardiff Laboratory Theatre, Pauper's Carnival and Moving Being, all resident at Chapter in the 1970s.
Janek made an extraordinary debut in 1976 with Howard Hughes, a performance described by Mike Pearson as ‘a tour de force’. He went on to create ten more substantial pieces of work in a quest to develop a new form of minimalist "anti-theatre". Previously unseen video footage, rare audio recordings and contributions from former collaborators (Karen McGregor, Karen Lucas, Dave Perry and Paul Turner) and Alexander himself explored this unique body of work and the first decade of experimentation at Chapter.

More information: http://www.chapter.org/20742.html

Lectures and Presentations

It's been a busy summer - we have been doing a number of presentations and lectures about the project at different events - here are some of them.
For a full list visit: http://www.performance-wales.org/english/events/lectures.htm

SYMPOSIUM PRESENTATION AND CHAIR (Heike): "Living Archives - Session with Rose English and Anne Bean"
Performing Idea symposium, part of Performance Matters, Goldsmiths University of London, Roehampton University and Live Art Development Agency, funded by an AHRC Research Grant, Whitechapel Gallery and Toynbee Studios, 6 October 2010. Details

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CONFERENCE PRESENTATION (Heike): "Performance art (in) history: disconnecting traditions, connecting histories"
"TAPRA: History and Historiography Working Group", TaPRA THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE RESEARCH ASSOCIATION conference, Glamorgan University, Cardiff 9–11 September 2010. Details

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PRESENTATION (Heike and Rebecca): What's Welsh for Performance?- Creating a record of performance art in Wales
"Documentation and the Cultural Record" session at Culture Colony-Y Wladfa Newydd launch day, 7 September 2010, Aberystwyth Arts Centre. More information and documentation; response

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CONFERENCE PRESENTATION (Heike): "Teaching the Avant-garde - (Mis)Performing Pedagogies"
"MISperformance -an inverted approach to doing Performance Studies (international?) - PSi15 follow-up event" conference, Rijeka, Croatia 3–5 September 2010.

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PRESENTATION (Heike and Rebecca):"'Welsh Not': Performing Wales in 1970s Performance Art"
"Theorizing Wales: Gender, Culture, Politics" conference, Swansea University, Gregynog 12–14 July 2010. Details

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CONFERENCE PRESENTATION (Heike): Performing An Oral History of Performance Art in Wales
"[Record] [Create] Oral History in Art, Craft and Design (Oral History Society Annual Conference 2010)" conference,Victoria & Albert Museum London, 2+3 July 2010. Details
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Presentations - London April 2010

Heike presented a paper based on her oral history work at a symposium in London this week:

An Oral History of Performance Art in Wales', at the "Oral History/Theatre History: Past - Present - Future" conference, Rose Bruford College London, 17 April 2010.
More information:http://www.str.org.uk/events/other/archive/oralhistory2010.shtml
 

Presentations in Glasgow and Liverpool

Heike gave two presentations on the project over the past week.

Heike contributed to a roundtable on Remembering Performance as part of the 30-anniversary edition of the National Review of Live Art Festival in Glasgow. Other participants included Claire MacDonald, Richard Layzell, Fiona Wright and Paul Clarke.

Sunday 21 March 2010, 11am -1pm at The Arches in Glasgow.

Further details are available at:

http://www.newmoves.co.uk/event-list-2010-national-review-of-live-art/40-national-review-of-live-art/697-remembering-performance-panel-discussion 

 

Heike presented a paper on her research into the development of performance art at Cardiff School of Art in the 1960s and 1970s as part of the Sculpture & Performance Conference, organised by the Henry Moore Foundation and the Tate Liverpool.
Friday 26 March 2010, 2pm at Tate Liverpool.
Further details are available at:http://www.henry-moore-fdn.co.uk/hmi/research/research-events/sculpture-performance

For future presentations visit http://www.performance-wales.org/english/events/lectures.htm

Lecture in Leipzig

Heike presented a lecture, entitled Eventful Evidence: Between Memory and Archive, as part of the ARCHIV/PRAXIS Arbeitstagung Conference, Tanzarchiv und Universität Leipzig, 10–13 December 2009.

For future presentations visit http://www.performance-wales.org/english/events/lectures.htm

Research Seminar at York St John University

Heike presented a research seminar, entitled 'Performance (in) History – Archives, Memories and Re-enactments', at York St John University on the 23 November 2009.

Research Seminar at Surrey University

Heike presented a Research Seminar, entitled 'Eventful Evidence: Performance Historiographies', at the Department of Dance, Film and Theatre at Surrey University on the 20 November 2009.

Conference Presentation in Lithuania

Heike presented 'Performing the History of Performance: Re-enacting 1960s performance art' at the The Past is Still to Change: Performing History from 1945 to the Present International Conference, which took place at the Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania, from the 21 - 23 October 2009. The paper discussed Heike's 're-do' of the Aberystwyth Fluxconcert 1968. More information on the Fluxconcert is available here: http://www.performance-wales.org/english/events/AberystwythInFlux.htm

Workshop presentation in Bristol

Heike presented Oral Histories of Performance and ran a workshop on using oral histories to document performance work at the Digital Documentation and Performance training event, hosted by JISC Digital Media and the University of Bristol Drama Department in Bristol on the 23 – 25 September 2009.

 

(Detail of Becoming-snail performance by Paul Hurley, which was being documented through various means by the workshop participants– Photo: Sara Popowa)

The event consisted of three one-day enquiries into the topics of creating, managing and delivering digital documentation of performance work, which mixed presentations with hands-on practical workshops. More information on the event can be found here: http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/training/digital-performance-seminars/

Symposium presentation in Newcastle

Heike presented 'An Oral History of Performance Art in Wales' at the NOTES on a Return symposium, which took place at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on the 4 and 5 September 2009.

Guest lecture in Frankfurt

Heike presented a guest lecture, entitled 'Performing the History of Performance: Re-enacting 1960s Performance Art', at the Institut für Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft of the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe- Universität Frankfurt today (30 June 2009). Heike was invited by Professor Hans-Thies Lehmann.

A scene from the Aberystwyth Fluxconcert 1968–2008 'redo', organised by Heike in November 2009 in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the original event. More information available at:  http://www.performance-wales.org/english/events/AberystwythInFlux.htm

Presentation in Aberystwyth

Heike contributed a short presentation, entitled 'The Gift of the Archive', to the Out of the Box and Dusted Down: Foraging and Findings – A collective event to welcome Honorary Departmental Fellow Barbara Cavanagh and to introduce the International Theatre Collection as an active TFTS resource. The event was organised by Dr Amy Staniforth on behalf of the Centre for Performance Research at Aberystwyth University on 12 May 2009. Some of the papers from this event are published here:
http://cadair.aber.ac.uk/dspace/handle/2160/3284

Conference presentation in Cardiff

Heike presented 'The "What's Welsh for performance?"' archive at a panel on 'Archives as Media of Communication' at the Cyfrwng conference 2009, hosted by the BBC Wales on the 7 and 8 May 2009 in Cardiff. More information on the conference is available here: http://www.cyfrwng.com/e/conference/index.shtml

Discussion Chair in Aberystwyth

Heike chaired a discussion with curator Bruce Haines in Aberystwyth today (28 April 2009). The event was organised by Axis as part of their Café Artistique series in collaboration with Showroom and Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Venue was Y Consti on Aberystwyth's Constitution Hill. Bruce is the curator of the 2009 'Wales at the Venice Biennale' exhibition with John Cale, and Bruce and Heike had worked together in February when Heike interviewed Cale for the exhibition catalogue.
Full documentation of the discussion can be downloaded from: http://www.axisweb.org/atATCL.aspx?AID=2385