Month: August 2013

Tuesday 27 August 13.   P.A.F.

1st day.

PAF is an amazing place, an old monastery, a massive space with a strong energy coming out from walls, corridors, rooms, objects…A place where so many people lived for long or short periods of time. Past, present and future coexist in each corner and stories have been traced on the air….You are here to add something…your own story…a story that the ghosts of the place will narrate at each others in their secret gathering every dawn…But you don´t need to care about the ghosts. They care about you and they are here to assist you when is needed. In the meantime you have to keep working on your ideas till something to come out…Something that worth to share with others. 

First day (Monday). I arrive after a long trip form Brussels, with a bacterial infection on my medium finger of the left hand, an inflammation on the left foot, a lost MP3, tiredness because of so many travels through Greece and abroad, a bit of sadness and lack of energy. We were welcomed from a bunch of people, ready for a performance/presentation of someone. We gathered in the garden…oh there are peacocks and a beautiful friendly cat. ..We sat and a piano music was travelling on the air. Some windows opened. The pianist inside. We outside…I cannot say if I liked it or not.What I know is that I was needed this moment of silent. The silent of the music in an unknown place. ..After that we were ready to make a short tour…Rooms, studios, kitchen, bathrooms, library, media space, roof, garden, dining room, washing room, the green room, the dance room, the room for smokers, sofas, vintage objects and furniture, some people, the cat, a chapel, roses, trees, traces of previous artists…yes, I am in the right place…I choose the room 115, because I like the wooden bed and  the view from the window. The bed seems quit old with its thick dark brown frame and the soft mattress. From the window, green colors of the grass, some trees, a table with some chairs…Who was staying before me, and before him/her, and before..and before..?Who was the first person to look at this window?What s/he was seeing?Who slept first in this bed?What s/he dreamed of?…I like this unspoken stories of people that shared the same space with me… I think of this each time I am in an abandoned or old place…Past…is related with past…past is attractive…past is seductive…past is a curious place to be…past connects you with the ghosts…

Anyway my “research” supposes not being about ghosts,  past and haunted places. Although for sure exists some connection.

When I came here, the idea was very much theoretical and quite generic: The construction and deconstruction of Identity. The question that I started with was: “Who I would be, if I was not me?”. But from there, as it happens always to me, my mind get overwhelmed by philosophical analysis, theories and ideas.Some day ago I had also a discussion with a friend of mine , Costas, who tried to challenge me through questions and opposite argumentation. The first confrontation. Certainly not the last one.

TUESDAY. It is important to clarify more and more my ideas and the direction I want to take day by day. At this helped the first two encounters  and discussions about the project with Pavlos K. and Jan R.

Meeting with Pavlos.

Keywords: identity, structure, masks, ruins, hybrid, lexicon, censorship, self-obsession, narcissism, satisfaction, body map, myth, truth,definition, automatic writing, portrait, me.

Some points from our discussion.

• U use the improvisation as a way to avoid the structure.
• In dance u trying to be beautiful, u have a feminine quality and u fall on the trap of doing the same things without challenging yourself and pushing the boundaries.
• RUINS (in relation to the space we are): how do you find the ruins of yourself?How u destroy yourself as artist/person/dancer and create a new one?
• At the beginning you lose yourself..at the end you find it.
• If u want to use the video as medium, where is the research question? How you use it differently from other artists. Do you want to make a film?
• Making a portrait of who Fenia is. How important is to be exact?
• If you ask other people what they think about you, you see more things about the others than about you.
• Regrading the information you gather: How u use them?how do you perform them?Are u critical?Do u make fun of them? You want to show the identity, you want to destroy it?
• Which is the truth? where is the myth?
• What is the language in use for discovering yourself?
• Hybrid: a specific category that needs a certain definition. What is it? How is made?
• Lexikon of yourself: what is included and what not? How is made?Is it a book?is it video?is it performance?a website?

Lexikon of Fenia.  Fenia becomes element of discovery. Making a research on how does work a Lexikon. Finding words and expression that explain who Fenia is. Examples. A body map. Historical parts. References.

• Is it a fact of transformation?
• This moment who is Fenia? show me that.
• Self obsession and narcissism. Where this finishes?does have an end?
• Where is the satisfaction?
• Why this is attractive for the audience?Why is it important for me doing that?to heart yourself?to purge myself and find catharsis?to make fun of me?
• For example: This is me writing about me>in this way the audience is placed in clear position

 

Action plan for WED:

ME. Presentation of myself.

1. Automatic writing of 1 hour about myself;picking up elements and information. What do I use and what I don´t? What am I doing with the non used things(self wastes)?Nothing is thrown away.
2. Pictures of different parts of the body. Measurements. Explanations.
3. Using the outline of myself for making a body map. I have to find a material that is appropriate
4. Making a video of presentation.

Image: self map on the ruined wall.

 

Meeting with Jan

Keywords: boy, girl, mask, restriction, desire, occupy, space, free, speak, open, home, loud, dare,

“Why for God shake do you make to yourself such a question?”.

The discussion with Jan was more specific,  regarding mainly the gender, male and female elements in relation to Identity. He asked me if my parents wanted me to be a boy. Do I feel a boy? What does mean to feel boy or girl?Precisely, what is exactly the masculine perspective I am longing for? How would I dressed as male that feels very good?What is the exact feeling of being a girl?Which male figure would you like to be?How do I make sex?

Portray yourself how you are now. (Both  asked me to do that). My answer both times was similar. Although the discussion with Jan went more deep. (home and belonging in relation  to my self and body). It seems that anyway the first thing to do is to portray myself in order to have a starting point.

EXPERIMENT with yourself is different thing from MAKING A PERFORMANCE.

Schopenhauer : What you wish is what you do and not what you saying to want.

Antonia Baehr: artist to look at.

 

In this discussion came up my experience with Diane Torr and the construction of my male persona during her workshop. As well Rebetiko was referred.

• occupy space
• speak out and loud.
• dare.
• don´t be afraid.
• speak like man.
• be less vs not be

What means to be open?

Maybe what you want to do is to

FREE YOURSELF FROM YOURSELF (meaning the restrictions).

J:Do you hate me?

F:No….Should I?

J:Do you love me?

F:No…It´s too early.

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I start thinking about the role of the others (Jan, Pavlos, Peers, people/artists coming and leaving from PAf, the cat Enzo etc) and how they influence my work and this process. After speaking with both I understood that my topic is still generic and can follow different interpretations and directions. From this two dialogues and conversations I have to take out the main point interesting for me.

The main task for WED is the presentation of myself, through my eyes. 

 

 

 

 

Initial Idea.

What the research question is?

What interests you?

Even if I feel constantly invaded by ideas ans things I want to do, when I am asked to speak specifically about something and to write a whole proposal about it,  I am in front of difficulties to gather my thought in one point and then externalize it in the way I am asked. So the training consists in just doing it..just writing down proposal.

Here the first trial.

7th August

A research based on Identity.

Title: “Who I would be, if I was not me? ”

.

 A Summary of the research

The starting point of this practice as research is my interest to investigate and explore the topic of identity in relation to the genealogical history and inheritance of the individual. The main question that runs through my research is “Who I would be, if I was not me?”. The aim is not to find an answer but to use this question as a key that opens the door of a mysterious world that hides a lot of information regarding the construction of identity and gender. Each answer to this question has only a hypothetical character that it won’t find a verification in the realm of the reality, as we intended based on our logic. The research has autobiographical – autoethnographical character and regards not only the psychological aspect of this new hypothetical “I” , created if I would change some parts of my story, but also the physical aspect of it in terms of gender and sexuality. The basic link it will be with my ancestors.

My main inspiration comes from areas that I intend to explore in depth such as: gender studies , theory of subjectivity, Freud’s and Lacan’s theory concerning the triad Id-Ego-Superego, Psicogenealogy and genetic inheritance of Alexander Jodorowsky.

The main artists of whom work intrigues and inspires me is Orlan with her constant transformation through plastic surgeries, Diane Torr, a Scottish artist working in drag king performance and Cindy Sherman. My participation in Diane Torr’s workshop Man for a Day, was the first attempt of the construction of my male persona. That experience has been a significant introspective journey that opened a serious of questions on how my identity has been constructed by societal factors and at the same time cultivated a deep curiosity about the influences coming from our ancestors and our genetic historiography. Also Ivo Dimchev and Lili Handel is another interesting source of how a new persona is constructed. Although the aim isn’t the construction of fictional character that it will take place on stage.

The question of “Who am I?” is very often addressed by individuals, especially in our times that idols and archetypes proposed by the consumerist and capitalistic society through the media help to create a false image of our self and how we should/would like to be. The crisis of identity asks for the re-formation of a self. Very often in different phases of life we ask ourselves “Who am I?”. It ‘s like a quiz question that is coming back to find new answers. Is there any essential answer?Which danger is hidden behind the answer “I am…”? So many sub question arises and there is more than one pathway to walk on.

In this research is involved the technology and the more specifically the video-art and the photography. How technology and its artistic aspect contributes to the construction of identity?

Well…definitely it needs to become more clear.

INSPIRATION

 

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ANTEWORTA 1

WHY ALLTHESE QUESTIONS

 

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http://www.theguardian.com/books/audioslideshow/2011/feb/03/artist-manifestos-century-futurists-dada

 

Alain Badiou: Handbook of Inaesthetics

Chapter: Dance as Mataphor for Thought.

Keywords: dance, thought, metaphor, Nietzsche, spirit of gravity,  flight, child, light, innocence, play, aerial, dancing -mad feet,  intensification, military parade, unconstrained body, active power, vulgarity, principle of slowness, virtual moment, event, unfixed, subtracted, silence, Mallarmé, principles, space, anonymity, omnipresence, sexes, subtraction, nakedness, gaze, spectator, theatre, kiss, fulgurant, absolute, exact vertigo

“Dance is nothing but the mysterious and sacred interpretation of the kiss”. 

“The dancer does not dance”.

Mallarmé

Summary

 For Badiou  poetry, theatre, cinema and dance are the pretexts in his analysis regarding the identification of the arts. This chapter is totally devoted to dance. The main statement we find in the text is that “Dance is not an art” that Badiou will elaborate tthrough  six “principles” of dance, which he defined subtractively from related principles for the theater. These six axioms are: the obligation of space, the anonymity of the body, the effaced omnipresence of the sexes, the subtraction from self, nakedness and the absolute gaze.

But first lets see what is dance. Badiou in accordance with Nietzsche considers the dance as metaphor for thought because is free from the law of Gravity. The  essential characteristics of dance are designated within the text in a poetic and imaginative way.

Dance. Dance. Flight.Birds. Dance like a bird. Dance is innocent. Child. Dance a body before a body. A body that forgets to fetter. The unconstrained body. Dance, a new beginning. Dance, a play that frees the body. Body free from gravity, free from conformity. Dance is a circle in space, dance is the primer mover, dance is affirmation. Dance as fountain. Dance and the intangible Air. Dance is aerial. dance as active power.It is the movement of its own intensity. But dance has also its opposite. The dance of the aerial and broken body, the body of the military parade, the aligned body, the hammering body, the servile body, the sonorous body. The German body and its dance. The body on points.

• The dance that follows the principle of slowness.
• Dance as metaphor for the unfixed.
• Dance as metaphor for the event “before” the name.
• Dance is subtracted from time. There is something in dance that is prior to time.
• Dance and silence.
• Dance is prior to music on which it relies.

First, dance requires a “pure site”  or a space situated on the edge of the void of space. It takes place according to Badiou, in a completely neutral space, devoid of theatrical décor and demands “space and spacing, and nothing else” . Second, the anonymity of space/setting extends to one of character. Badiou claims that dance, in contrast to the needs of theater, does not need a narrative structure, and, in terms of its characterization, “depicts nothing” ). Third, it asserts the “erased omnipresence of the sexes”It reveals the pure form of sexual difference, in  a way that the couple male dancer/female dancer cannot be reduced onto the couple man/woman. Fourth, dance should effect a “subtraction from self”; following the statement of Mallarmé—”the dancer does not dance”  The (true) dancer never knows the dance she dances, the dance itself appears spontaneous. Fifth, dance should have no need for adornment, and essentially reveals “nudity” , an absence of the décor of costume. The sixth and last principle relates to the spectator rather than the dance itself, and requires of him or her a kind of rigorous impersonality, free of desiring gaze.

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Alain Badiou: Handbook of Inaesthetics 

Chapter: Art and Philosophy

 Key words: art, philosophy, education, Master and Hysteric, truth, here, knowledge, schema, didactic, mimesis, semblance, charm, control, romantic, impenetrable Father, suffering Son, incarnation, classical, dehysterize, catharsis, imaginarization, likelihood, verisimilitude, imaginary, innocent, Marxism, psychoanalysis, hermeneutics, Brecht, therapy, disrelation,lost object, desire, avant-garde, singularity, immanence, infinity, finite, event, artistic configuration, opinion, subject point democracies.

 

 “What is truth?” Nicolai Ge (1890)

SUMMARY

In this chapter Badiou , after making a distinguish between truth and knowledge, in order to elucidate the relationship between art and philosophy he establishes  3 modes of thinking-schemata: the didactic (marxist), the romantic (hermeneutic – phenomenological) and the classical (psychoanalysis). Because of the saturation of these schemata in the modern society, Badiou proposes a forth one that he calls: “inaesthetics” .

Regarding the didactic schema he posits that art is incapable of truth but only produces a semblance of truth and is thus not actual truth, a semblance that belongs to the affect of art, not to its actual form. The definition of art in the didactic paradigm is to be a charm to the semblance of truth and to educate. The essential thing is the control of art .The romantic schema is opposed to this understanding of art as  a source of truth and  presents art as a truth procedure. Art becomes Lacue-labarthe and Nancy named as the literary absolute.  Here the relation of truth to art is imminent.The third is the classical schema that  places art as a sort of catharsis, or therapy. For this reason it must be liked as  a sign for the effectiveness of catharsis. Also art is not a form of thought and it contains two thesis: art is incapable of truth and art  is mimetic  and its purpose is neither to be true nor to educate but to heal (therapy).

Marxism is didactic. Taking as example Brecht, the agent of the art is the philosopher. Brecht practiced a “Stalinized Platonism”: art is separate from the truth of dialectical materialism, but it educates; in the end, art is the pedagogical tool for the courage of truth.The Heideggerian art is romantic because the artists hold the keys to the open. For last psychoanalysis is classical. A s Lacan writes, the object of desire, which is beyond symbolization, can emerge at the very peak of an act of symbolization. Art experiences a block of the symbolic by the Real, and this links up to a transference. This is why the ultimate effect of art remains imaginary. The avant-garde was didactic to a certain extent in their desire to put an end to art. They were above all anti-classical; mainly a hybrid schema of didacto-romanticism.

Badiou claims that these three schemata are saturated as consequence there is more a “disrelation” than relation between art an philosophy .Therefore he considers necessary to propose a new schema, a fourth modality of thought that links art and philosophy and it comes after aesthetics; The “inaesthetics”. He considers that the common element of the 3 schemata is the relation between art and truth and he uses the categories of immanence and singularity. The relation is immanent if truth is internal to art’s effects. The relation is singular if art is coextensive with the truths that generates. For the didactic schema, the relation between art and truth is singular but not immanent: art has a singular pedagogical role but truth stays external to it. For the romantic schema, the relation is immanent but not singular. For the classical schema, there is no relation between art and truth; art is relegated to catharsis and transference.

Badiou will introduce the concept of “artistic configuration“. This configuration is an “artistic truth”, a multiple of works. and is designated by means of abstract concepts. Artistic configuration is actually an identifiable sequence, initiated by an event. The artwork is the subject point of an artistic truth. The artistic configuration that have marked the century are: dodecaphonic music, novelistic prose etc.

Badiou points out that the most difficult thing is to distinguishes the truths from opinions.

 

 

KEY CONCEPTS:TRUTH and EVENT

 

 

• According to Badiou truth is  something new;a new idea or a new world of ideas. Truth is  “a process from which something new emerges” , as opposed to an adequation between knowledge and its object. This is why “each truth is at once singular and universal”. Truth is what disturbs, destroys and interrupts the order of knowledge. Badiou distinguishes truth from knowledge. Knowledge  gives us repetition, it is concerned only with what already is but truth in order to affirm its newness, there must be a supplement. This supplement  is unpredictable, incalculable, irruptive and beyond what it is. This is what he calls: an event. An event is the creation of new possibilities. It is located not merely at the level of objective possibilities but at the level of the possibility of possibilities. An event is a “major historical turning point, or moment of rupture in time and space, which brings something new into the world”. It is a rupture of  a situation caused by awareness of what is missing from this situation. The singular truth, arising in an event, happens to a subject.
•  Badiou has always asserted that philosophy does not create but “seizes” truths whose origin (foundation) lie beyond it, specifically in one of four discourses: politics, science, love, and art. These, and only these four categories form the differential modes of possible truths.
• Badiou associates philosophy and art with Lacan´s Master and Hysteric. The hysteric goes at the master and demands that s/he shows  his or her stuff, prove his or her mettle by producing something serious by way of knowledge.a hysteric gets off on knowledge. The hysteric pushes the master–incarnated in a partner, teacher, or whomever–to the point where he or she can find the master’s knowledge lacking.

 

 

• Truth occurs in an event to a subject.
• A truth appears  because an eventful supplement interrupts the repetition.

• The truth begins with the axiom of truth, with a decision.
• Truth speaks through my mouth, I am here.
• The truth does not exist – only truths.
•  Each truth is a process and infinite.
•  One will call the subject of a truth every finite moment within the infinite part of each truth.
•  Every truth begins with an event, and an event is unpredictable.

 

•  The event shows the void of the situation, because it shows that what there is now was previously devoid of truth.
• An event breaks with the state of the situation, and reconfigures the co-ordinates of the symbolic order.
• For each event, or truth (as truths are multiple), a subject must make a wager.
• The four conditions of philosophy: science, art, politics and love. Philosophy thinks under the events of these four conditions
• Every truth originates in an event.
• The work of art is not the object of an event. However, an artistic event submits art to a principle of novelty
• The truths of artistic events are thought from within the condition of art.
• The event cannot be guaranteed by the Other; it can only be wagered on by a subject.
• Philosophy doesn´t  produce any effective truth but  seizes truths , shows them, exposes them, announces that they exist.
• The most difficult thing is to distinguishes the truths from opinions.
• Truth is ‘the real process of fidelity to an event’.

 

ARTISTS:

Maurizio Nannucci  is an Italian conceptual – and light artist, photographer, video producer. He works mainly with neon installations and designs public art.

 

“AND WHAT ABOUT THE TRUTH” (2006) is a large light installation in white neon (8 x 7 meters),  structured on five lines and positioned vertically on the front wall of the staircase in Scalone d’Onore della Triennale in Milan. The message “AND WHAT ABOUT THE TRUTH”, is a question that arises as an instrument of cognition. Conceived as a site-specific installation work interferes with the space, its size and its function, opening a dialogue on truth. Where is hidden and where the truth lies in art, architecture and design? The question is clear. The answer is yet to be explored.

 

Hermann Nitsch.

Hermann Nitsch’s work draws parallels between religion and the ritualistic spiritualism of creativity. Heavily entrenched in ancient philosophy and a dissident, questioning Christian theology, he actively seeks catharsis through pain and compassion, a rigorously disciplined quest for ethereal release and enlightenment through an embracing of primal instinct and ancient sacrament.

 

http://www.egs.edu/faculty/alain-badiou/articles/on-the-truth-process/

http://filozofskivestnikonline.com/index.php/journal/article/view/43/55

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/spirkin/works/dialectical-materialism/ch01-s05.html