| art.description.project | The Performative Writing Lab was a public event that explored ways of writing in relation to artistic practice, involving ten artists/master students from the programs Contemporary Performative Arts and Acting at the Academy of Music and Drama.
This lab explored ways for performing artists to be able to write directly from their own performance practices. The lab worked with questions such as: How can we develop languages and ways of writing that speaks directly from the artistic practice rather than about it? How can we create close connections between body, action and words? The lab played with modes of performing as text and text as a way of staging.
During the lab ”the exercise” and ”the instruction” was used as formats to explore, both physically and in words, both in action and in writing.
We also used physical improvisations as a way of creating words, by naming what was happening in the body and in space, and developing this further into associative and creative strategies.
Repeatedly, the writings were read aloud. Repeatedly, new words and stories were added to the ones already there.
In the end we went out into the street, on the Avenue, and collected voices, words or situations from the street. When doing this we also brought something with us from the wall indoors, some words that influenced our different paths outside. We considered this movement between bringing something to the world and simultaneously picking up and being affected by the world as crucial.
The event highlighted some strategies through which performing artists may find new and alternative ways of producing text, both close to and dependent on their actual artistic pratice. The use of practical instructions, exercises and physical improvisation was included, as well as related writing sessions and discussions.
Both the lab event and the traces of texts it left behind was exhibited in the gallery during the ongoing action weeks. This meant that the lab combined elements of workshop, seminar and performance, being presented as a performative event for an audience. The lab was a public presentation as well as an investigation of performative writing strategies, forming part of Cecilia Lagerström’s ongoing research on walking as art. | sv |
