Beyond Pause & Affect
Keijuan Thomas at performance s p a c e. Image by Andrea Abbatangelo
Gabi at performance s p a c e. Image by Bartle Haplin
Selina Bonelli at performance s p a c e. Image by Benjamin Sebastian
“Is it even possible to pause within capitalism and who cares for those busy caring?
]performance s p a c e [ is an artist led, D.I.Y crew of two-made-more within an exceptional network of collaborators, friends, lovers & peers. We are regularly, not routinely funded, hustling each year within the ride-or-die arts economy of project-to-project funding.
We wanted to facilitate a project that pushed back against the capitalist imperative to do more faster – to enable something beyond an extended moment, for our entire creative ecosystem (not just a handful of artists in a singular programme). We wanted (for said ecosystem) the resources to stop, take a breath, reflect, care for each other, imagine, think & feel deeply – s l o w l y – then, when appropriate, dive back into artistic production – rested, renewed, replenished.
The idea was the more PAUSE afforded the greater AFFECTs possible. After 9 months and 17 artists, the PAUSE&AFFECT programme and invited artists manifested numerous sophisticated works of contemporary performance art, yet these art works came at a cost. That cost has been the depletion rather than development of the impetus enabling the field of potential from which they sprang.
PAUSE&AFFECT's major funder said yes to funding elements of the project that supported artists to make art (the flowers), yet they chose not to fund elements that would have developed the organisation (the branches) and the people (the roots) running it.
It's like this; sure cut flowers are beautiful, but they will rapidly decompose, never to rejuvenate – but a whole plant cared for; it's soil tended, will yield a similar beauty year after year.
So for now let's celebrate the flowers of PAUSE&AFFECT in all their glory; Rhine Stone, Lena Chen, James Jordan Johnson, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, Émilie Newman, Gemma Jones, Gareth Cutter. Máiréad Delaney & Ria Jade Hartley, Keijaun Thomas & Gabi, Uhuru Ali Moor & Dani d'Emilia, Rubiane Maia & Emilio Rojas, Selina Bonelli & Joseph Morgan Schofield...
And from here into the future let us P A U S E to think of new and more dynamic, creative ecologies; cultivating with radical tenderness such landscapes as to not over farm them.
B. Sebastian
co-director ]performance s p a c e [
Categories: Report
Date Posted: 25 July 2019