F U T U R E R I T U A L

F U T U R E R I T U A L is a research project which interrogates the place, use and function of ritual in contemporary queer and performance cultures. Through various performance events, and through documentation and critical reflection, the project demonstrates the expanded ways in which othered artists bring the ritual of performance, or performance rituals, to bear on ideas of futurity.

Noting the proximity of ritual within both queer and performance histories, F U T U R E R I T U A L is primarily concerned with queer futurities and the ways that ritual performance might manifest, gesture towards, or otherwise call forth these alternate states or ways of being. 

The project is a lab for performative research by lead artist Joseph Morgan Schofield and other invited artists – to date, thirty eight artists make up the F U T U R E R I T U A L constellation. Through sharing performance work, and providing space for critical reflection and documentation, the project aims to speak to the diverse ways in which minoritarian artists engage with ritual and futurity. Rather than locking ritual practice down, or establishing some sort of taxonomy, the expanded practices explored through the project each gesture towards new understandings, and towards the contours and coordinates of new lines of enquiry.

One of the material aims and effects of the project is also to provide an active context for the presentation of performance art in the UK.

Following six performance events taking place around the country in 2017/18, the second phase of F U T U R E R I T U A L takes place in London in September 2019, with three days of free performances, screenings and discussion, taking place at the Live Art Development Agency and Kunstraum.

The programme features thirteen artists, including: dance witch Charlie Ashwell (UK), whose new project spells has been commissioned by F U T U R E R I T U A L and Kunstraum; Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley (UK), an artist who uses technology to imagine trans lives in environments where trans bodies are centred; Leman Daricioğlu (TR) whose compelling performances unravel the body, using it as a laboratory of emotions, fears and limits; Sandra Stanionyte (LT) whose body, in performance, becomes “a house leaking memories, a site for research and a tool for action”.

F U T U R E R I T U A L has invited artist/curators Sara Sassanelli and Phoebe Patey-Ferguson to respond to the performance events, and their responses, along with photographic documentation, will be available to view online, following the events.

Check out the full F U T U R E R I T U A L programme.

Categories: Featured Activity

Date Posted: 25 September 2019