Live Art Development Agency's Annual Review 2019/20
Live Art Development Agency's Annual Review 2019/20
DEVELOPMENT
AGENCY:
A CENTRE
FOR LIVE ART
ANNUAL
REVIEW
2019-20
www.thisisliveart.co.uk
Welcome to the
Live Art Development Agency’s
2019-20 Annual Review
The Live Art Development Agency (LADA) supports LADA – and Live Art itself – gives agency to
contemporary culture’s most radical and inventive artists who often don’t have a voice in more
artists, practices and ideas. mainstream practices; it refuses to be defined
We champion new ways of working, legitimise by traditional categories of what people think
unclassifiable artforms, record untold histories, and of as art, instead challenging that very idea.
support the agency of underrepresented artists. LoveEast Magazine
We believe in Live Art as a means to challenge the
status quo and initiate meaningful social change. What is Live Art?
Live Art is a cultural strategy to make space for experimental
Whether you are an artist, curator, writer, producer, student, processes, experiential practices, and the bodies and identities
educator, researcher or activist, LADA is here to help you that might otherwise be excluded from traditional contexts.
understand, appreciate, dig into, and take inspiration from
a huge breadth of Live Art and performance practices – Rather than a description of an artform or discipline, Live Art
contemporary and historic. is a way of thinking about what art is, what it can do, and where
and how it can be experienced. Some may experience Live Art
All our resources, opportunities, projects, publications and in a gallery, others in a theatre, and others still in forests or town
events are driven by our commitment to experimentation and squares, or as a process in which they are involved.
risk, to the sustainability of our planet, and to difference and
diversity in all its forms. From intimate encounters to civic spectacles, from
attendance at shows and installations to mass participation
in virtual events, Live Art practices are concerned with all
2019-20 was a packed year: we celebrated our 20th anniversary kinds of interventions in the public sphere and all kinds of
with publications, films, artworks, events and a spectacular interaction with an audience.
fundraising Gala; we collaborated on an epic intergenerational Whatever it might look like, and wherever it may take place,
and interspecies project for Manchester International Festival; Live Art always explores the possibilities of the live event
we launched an unprecedented research project into the and the ways we can experience it.
histories and futures of Live Art in partnership with Arts Council
England and Live Art UK; we facilitated 24 artist-led professional
development DIYs across the UK; we produced an expansive
body of new publications and online resources; we hosted all
kinds of activities at our home at The Garrett Centre; and we
welcomed a new LADA team.
Like everyone else, LADA’s 2019-20 ended under the shadow
of the Covid-19 pandemic. Although we closed the doors of
our space on 17th March 2020 and postponed all planned
events, the LADA team continued working remotely – acting
as a resource for our communities, providing information
and advice for artists and arts workers, keeping calls for
ideas open, developing online programmes, and setting up
commissioning opportunities for artists in order to support
them through dark days.
We send our deepest thanks and appreciation to all those who
supported and engaged with our work in 2019-20, and to all the
artists who make everything we do possible. Our thoughts are
with everyone who has been hit the hardest by Covid-19, and to
those whose lives have changed beyond recognition.
Angela Bartram, Human School. Image Chris Payne Theatre of Research & Ansuman Biswas, Town Hall
(Standing Conference of Animals). Image Chris Payne
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Live Art
AND ANIMALS
Animals of Manchester Programme The projects we commissioned for
Animals of Manchester were:
Animals of Manchester (including HUMANZ) imagined a city
in which animals of all kinds, including humanz, live together Joshua Sofaer’s Mouse Palace, a reconstruction
in peace. It set out to ask what life might be like if dogs, of a popular Chinese attraction in mouse and
cows, squirrels and other creatures lived alongside us not just human-sized forms;
as our pets but as our peers – our companions?
a Town Hall (Standing Conference of Animals) for cows,
Taking place over the Manchester International Festival’s microbes and pigeons created by Theatre of Research
final weekend (20–21 July), audiences of all ages followed a & Ansuman Biswas, Andy Field & Beckie Darlington, and
trail through Whitworth Park and Gallery and took part in all Esther Pilkington & Daniel Ladnar (random people);
kinds of animal encounters. Across a series of installations
and performances, human children, adults and families of all Angela Bartram’s Human School where dogs
kinds explored their relationships with other species and were teach humanz;
invited to become a citizen of our alternative city and share
Pet Workshops (for Human Students)
ideas on how to improve relationships between all creatures.
with Krõõt Juurak and Alex Bailey;
Nuts House, an edible Arndale Centre for squirrels
and birds by Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joelson
(London Fieldworks);
Memorials for Extinct Species by Marcus Coates
and Adam O’Riordan;
The BeetleFilmTheatre with artist Tim Spooner
and scientist Dmitri Logunov;
The Hedgehog Hospital & Hedgehog Manifesto
with artist Rebecca Chesney and Barbara Roberts
of the Withington Hedgehog Care Trust;
an Interspecies Family Portrait Studio
with photographer Benji Reid;
an Aquarium: The Way of the Shark for small
humanz who want to be bitten by sharks
with artist Martin O’Brien;
It was a real, if temporary, model of a different a Bestiary Beauty Parlour for humanz to signify
way of thinking, being and interacting in the their animalship with Katharina Duve;
world, without disavowing our responsibilities a Pantheon of Performing Animals where artists
to the ways things are. It adhered to the and other experts celebrated inspiring and unusual
legislation regarding cows, for example, and animals as artists;
it stood in solidarity with them. It involved a Life Art Library exploring the history of animals
children in reciprocal activities in which they in art, books and films, including an Index of Animals
were invited to imagine a different world; it in Performance; and Performing Animals Lectures
asked them to perform for their parents and where animals were honoured as artists by Karin
teachers and also listened when they asked the Harasser, Antony Hall, Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca,
audience to perform back. This commitment to Jack Ashby, Kira O’Reilly, David Weber-Krebs
& Maximillian Haas, and Kerry Morrison.
an imperfect world adds strength to the model.
Mary Paterson, Maddy Costa, Animals of Manchester (including HUMANZ) was created
A Response to Animals of Manchester in collaboration with children from Holy Trinity CE Primary
School, Claremont Primary School and the Greater
Manchester Home Educators network working as facilitators
and ambassadors; and in partnership with Dogs4Rescue,
Withington Hedgehog Care Trust and Wythenshawe
Community Farm.
Above: Joshua Sofaer, Mouse Palace. Image Joshua Sofaer
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Benji Reid, Interspecies Family Portrait Studio. Image Benji Reid Katharina Duve, Bestiary Beauty Parlour. Image Chris Payne
Andy Field & Beckie Darlington, Town Hall Mayors and Mayor, Town Hall (Standing Conference of Animals).
(Standing Conference of Animals). Image Lee Baxter Image Chris Payne
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Live Art
AND ANIMALS
A Q&A with LADA and Sibylle Peters Theatre of Research and Live Art Development Agency (LADA)
have collaborated on two Live Art projects with Tate Families
(unpublished interview with The Guardian) programmes that disrupt the binary between adults and
children – PLAYING UP, a game for kids and adults to look at
1. Animals of Manchester (including HUMANZ) is described as the world differently together, and KAPUTT, an intergenerational
‘a cultural experiment’. What are you looking to explore? academy of creative destruction. A lot of work in Animal
We are trying to imagine a city in which all species are equal, Studies has sought to cross the binary between humans and
and to ask what life could be like if dogs, cows, squirrels, non-humans. With Animals of Manchester we will try to bring
pigeons, beetles and other creatures lived alongside us these two binaries of adults/children, human/non-humans
human animals as companions. With the guidance of our together to undo one through the other.
collaborating kids, we will create an autonomous zone of Live Art has always been interested in encounters between
companionship and use the creative methodologies of Live Art humans and non-humans, partly because animals, like Live
to find out more about the relationships between human and Art, disturbs the production of meaning in art by ‘keeping
non-human animals. their realness’. So, Animals of Manchester illustrates Live Art’s
2. There is a long association with animals and ‘Live Art’. defiance of the rules of art by inviting those we should ‘never
Were any specific pieces at the forefront of your mind when work with’ to be our collaborators!
creating this show? What inspired you? Bringing animals into a Live Art setting is fraught with all kinds
Animals of Manchester artists like Angela Bartram (Human of difficulties. Animals are usually not allowed into art spaces
School (be your dog!) and Krõõt Juurak (Pet Workshop (for and with Animals of Manchester, most of our collaborating non-
human students) are looking at the hierarchies of ‘pet and humans will be based in Whitworth Park and not in Whitworth
owner’ and ideas of co-species co-habitation. Their work builds Gallery.
on a long history of animals in performance from Joseph Beuys’ We are also sensitive to the ethics of involving non-humans
I Like America, America Likes Me (1974) where he was locked in within art. We will be engaging in respectful ways with
a gallery with a coyote, Albert Vidal’s Urban Man (1984) where animals which are already resident in Whitworth Park, such as
he inhabited a cage in a zoo alongside other species, to Kira squirrels, pigeons and insects, as well as dogs and their human
O’Reilly’s Falling Asleep With A Pig (2009) where she shared a companions who frequently use the park. We will be working
living space with a pig. with the Withington Hedgehog Care Trust and Dogs4Rescue
Animals of Manchester will also feature a Life Art Library - organisations working for the benefit and welfare of animals –
exploring the history of animals in performance art where and Wythenshawe Park Community Farm where the cow who
we will show films of iconic artworks involving animals, and will be the mayor of our temporary alternative city currently
where animals will be honoured as artists in lectures and in A lives.
Pantheon of Performing Animals. Other people who have pets, particularly children, will be
3. As the old saying goes: ‘never work with animals or invited to bring them to take part in other aspects of the
children’, you seem to have decided to do both for MIF this programme, including Benjie Reid’s Interspecies Portrait Studio.
year! Have there been any difficulties in bringing animals to a
Live Art setting?
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4. Can you tell us about how you work with children and what
it brings to your work?
Theatre of Research create art projects that are conceived
and developed by and with kids, and not just for kids. Over
many years their work has shown that encounters with animals
are at the very top of the list of children’s wishes for what an
art programme should be. Kids often seem to be more open
towards building relationships with members of other species
than adults, and often they crave the opportunity to do that. We
hope Animals of Manchester will meet some of those cravings.
Leading up to the weekend, groups of kids (aged from 5 to
14) will work closely with the commissioned artists to explore
relationships between humans and other animals in Manchester
and make suggestions on how to make them better. During the
weekend those suggestions, alongside those gathered from
our visitors, will be presented in our open Town Hall, a standing
conference of animals.
5. With the rising popularity of veganism and sustainable
living, do you think we are seeing a move to a society more
conscious of animal welfare?
Children have always known that humans are not superior to
other animals. Now most adults think this too, and the new
UN report on biodiversity leaves no doubt that all species are
in this together for better or worse. Animals of Manchester
invites everyone to look at what art can do to engage us in
creating experiences and images of why humans need to
change our relationships with non-humans and the natural
environment, and what we can look forward to if kids’
movements like Fridays for Future succeed.
6. What are you hoping visitors will take away from
this experience?
We would like everyone to look forward to a world which has
better interspecies relationships, and to appreciate the role of
art, and particularly Live Art, in helping us achieve this.
Sibylle Peters was invited to write a performative lecture in November 2019 for People and Cranes,
a conference on social and political issues created by Manchester’s rapid growth, curated by
Quarantine and Florian Malzacher. Thinking about the findings of Animals of Manchester and the
future the project had imagined, Sibylle wrote a lecture from 2029:
The young people who started the Bee Party were kids twelve years But we lived in cities becoming more and more dense back then. And
ago, when I was first in Manchester. That was during the big building in the centre of the cities this ‘world of theory’ manifested itself, made
boom in the city in the tenner years. I think back then those kids itself real, this world only for humanz, dead gods, data and machines.
were the first, who really pointed us to this consequence of the city So, working in the centre of cities, and flying back and forth between
becoming more and more dense. The kids were – quite simply – them, like I did back then, you wouldn’t even realise that the concept
missing something, someone: the animals, the other animals. They was lacking something. The refrain of history repeating itself: we did
were wondering: these cows and chickens and piglets from their not know what we were doing. We did not see that we were inside the
books about the little farm – they knew the sounds these animals bubble of a fossil fuel economy, trying to take the place of our dead
make, but they had never actually heard or seen them. gods and killing everybody else, too, in the process.
Back then, who was really aware of the fact that booming cities Does that remind you of something? Being in the bubble of a centre of
becoming more and more dense was not just – in terms of colonialism for example? When I was in Manchester during the tenner
gentrification – pushing out certain groups of people, but generally all years I was often booked into a hotel, that was celebrating cottonopolis
other beings, apart from humanz working in office buildings, shops with installations of cotton, looking like abstract flowers. You couldn’t
and hotels. I mean all other beings - plants, wild animals, insects and really open the windows in that hotel – the risk assessment said that
farm animals, all of them. And not only pushed them out, but at the too many people might jump. So, I have spent quite some time in the
same time created another density invisible to city people, far out of streets around the hotel having a smoke with the people who lived on
the city’s centres, but nonetheless dense and intense: the factories of their cardboard beds. Animals were the last thing we were talking
farming, which also singled out one species each, if only to produce about in those nights.
and consume them effectively.
Anyway, I only started to get a glimpse of what was coming, when
It might be obvious from today’s perspective, but back then the the UN-report of biodiversity came out in 2019 with these amazing
segregation of humanz and other animals, as we call it today, was statistics saying that of all the mammals on planet earth only 4% were
something totally invisible and unthought of. what was called ‘wild animals’ then, (we say ‘free animals’ today) only
4% were left! 36% of the mammals were humanz (I think it was very
I mean no wonder – that’s the way this kind of segregation, or any
smart of the designers of these statistics to include humanz in the
segregation, actually works, right?
mammals in this very slide!) And 60% were the animals we (humanz)
Manchester, with its industrial history, might very well be one of the keep – the animals we eat and feed. And the strangest thing: those
epicentres of this forgetfulness, that reaches its tipping point right 60% we never saw. Though they lived just for us. And right then the
now in 2029. I thought about that, when I learned that the park, in Amazon forest started to flare up. And the horrible populist leader of
which we worked back in 2019 to put this programme together called Brazil said this one correct thing: ‘If you in Europe are so devastated
Animals of Manchester (including HUMANZ), Whitworth Park, was about it, why don’t you turn Europe back into the jungle it has been
partly built on the ruins of the factory belonging to Engels‘ father, once, too?’
a factory which as a site of experience for young Engels obviously
To me all those blows were deafeningly loud. And suddenly I realised,
informed the theory of Capitalism and the working class in a global
that the kids I work with in my children’s theatre, who were missing
way. I mean, in Manchester you have to dig deep.
the animals and were surrounding themselves constantly with animal
The fact that this segregation and its devastating consequences was heroes and animal avatars and animal stories and furry animals and
so utterly overlooked for so long, was also due to 200 years of leftist dreaming of animals and longing for pets so badly, that all this was
culture and theory focusing solely on the humanz. I remember that actually the planet trying to tell us something. Trying to tell us for
from my own education, don’t you? We were taught that the whole quite some time.
world of theory was only inhabited by humanz, their consciousness,
It was in those days when Extinction Rebellion shut down the city
and by dead gods, data and machines. All other living beings were
centres of London and Berlin and Fridays for Future called the
missing. It makes me blush today, how we left that fact unquestioned
biggest public manifestation my home city, Hamburg, ever saw. In
for so long.
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Manchester though? Well, I have experienced Manchester as one of you might say. And that’s when the Bee Party appeared on the scene.
the most controlled and most disciplined places on this planet, right The Bee Party leaders are so young, they are coming right out of their
next to Saudi Arabia and Singapore. It all started in – you guessed cowboys and cowgirls costumes. And their approach is really smart:
it – education and risk assessment. I mean, this fetish of evaluation in this grief over the bees they won everybody over to build this huge
and risk assessment here in Manchester – everything is processed monument for extinct species. I love it, that it is now used by all
through that filter isn’t it? the pigeons and other birds as public housing. It’s getting difficult
for the birds with the continuous loss of insects everywhere. And
In that sense I think it was an important moment, when in 2020 this
then in the process of opening the monument for the public, with
one agency first started to evaluate schools’ excellency, partially in
everybody emotional, reading poems for all the extinct species, they
terms of the knowledge children get on questions of sustainability.
came out with their ‘all access to all beings’ proposal. Have you heard
Only then it became apparent, that the general knowledge regarding
about that? I actually heard ‘all access to all beings’ first at Animals
the basic facts of the cycle of food and life, as we call it today (back
of Manchester in the Town Hall meeting in Whitworth Park. The kids
then I think people said ‘nutrition’) was literally zero. We did some
who first suggested it were only 8 years old.
research on that. Ten years ago, roughly 300,000 cows lived and died
for Manchester per year. Something like 900 a day. Imagine if those All Access, All Beings is quite a pragmatic programme of several
cows were to do a procession through the city centre each morning. steps meant to break the segregation of humanz and other animals.
Imagine the amounts of plants and water these animals are made of. And right now, they are discussing step number one in the city
Imagine the amounts of shits and farts they produce in the process, council. Step one combines the ban on private cars in the city with a
which contribute hugely to climate change. And cows are pretty big. programme to reduce meat production. It suggests that around the
Imagine the millions of chickens and the abundance of piglets going city of Manchester the daily meat consumption is measured by certain
with them in that procession. indicators. And when it falls under a certain average line, a certain
number of animals are taken out of the food cycle and set free in
But they don’t.
places around the city centre which are won through the car ban.
The centres of the cities consume those animals, but at the same time
I mean, back in 2019 it slowly became chic to combine your office
they systematically block out the realities of this consumption. My
space with some sort of urban gardening. But this is a completely
experience back then, working with kids from elementary schools
new scale. It might all be a bit hipster, but I still hope they will win:
in Manchester on these questions was that there was a kind of taboo
imagine if all the animals you don’t eat start appearing around you
around these realities. It proved really difficult to just talk with the
and then we learn to live together with them in the centre of the city.
kids about how milk is produced and how much shit comes about
That should be real fun – for everybody.
in the process and so on. It was a mixture of a taboo concerning the
physical facts of life, a taboo surrounding food with all the conflicting
cultural and religious rules connected to it, and finally a taboo that
forbid to let children see the cruelties of intensive farming so as not
to traumatise them. The damage that is done by trying to protect
people, it was hard to overcome. But this new definition of excellency
actually created a new educational approach. Since 2023 many kids in
Manchester are organised in this new kind of cowboys and cowgirls
networks, where the schools have these partnerships with intensive
farms and help to reform and transform them.
But the real turning point was the final dying of the bees in 2025. Bee
extinction year. You know how Mancunians think about bees. They
are passionate about this one. And when the last populations just
dropped dead that year, well, Mancunians took it personal, finally,
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LADA AT 20
LADA marked its 20th birthday in 2019 and we Robert created two sets of Tiny Live
Art (Development Agency) editions,
celebrated with special anniversary initiatives one set was made up of twenty pieces
throughout the year. in bespoke displays that were sold
exclusively as one-off editions on our
online shop, Unbound. The second set
LADA has ensured that over AGENCY offers one of the
are encased within bell jars and are on
the last two decades Live clearest explanations in permanent public display at LADA.
Art, which has often been plain English of exactly what
ignored by the mainstream, constitutes Live Art, what l Marina Abramović, 7 Easy Pieces,
has had the strongest possible sets it apart from theatre or reperforming Gina Pane’s, The
Conditioning, first action of Self-
advocacy. It has spread out its other practices in the creative
portrait(s) (1973)
tentacles across the UK and industries and why that matters. l Franko B, I Miss You!
into Europe and beyond. As a reference book it offers
l Kira O’Reilly, Stair Falling
Lyn Gardner, Run Riot an intelligent and rigorous
l Ron Athey, Self Obliteration
interrogation of Live Art’s guts
l La Ribot, Another Bloody Mary
AGENCY, A Partial History and gore, its shock tactics and
l Martin O’Brien, It’s Good To
of Live Art disruptions, its raw energy, risk
Breath In (This Venice Air)
taking and ingenuity.
Edited by Theron Schmidt l Lone Twin, Totem
and co-published by LADA and Julie McNamara, Disability l Bobby Baker, Drawing On
looking back at the last 20 years of Prick It and Mark It with ‘B’
Live Art through the lens of LADA, and l Tania El Khoury, Gardens Speak
considering not only what Live Art has l Harold Offeh, Covers
been against, but also what it has been
l Aaron Williamson, Artist Leaps
for. Through the work of this particular
On To The Gallery Wall
‘Agency’, the book explores the idea of
l Station House Opera,
agency more generally, and how Live
Art has enabled the possibility for new The Bastille Dances
kinds of thoughts, actions and alliances l Guillermo Gómez-Peña & Coco Fusco,
Avant-Garde, Tim Etchells, Andy l William Pope.L, The Great White Way
Field, French & Mottershead, RoseLee
Goldberg, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Jen Tiny Live Art A 21st Tiny Live Art was commissioned
Harvie, The Institute For The Art And to mark the death of artist, LADA
Practice Of Dissent At Home, Dominic
(Development Agency) Board member, and beloved friend
Johnson, Amelia Jones, John Jordan, 20 works for 20 years Katherine Araniello – The Dinner Party
Lois Keidan, Alastair MacLennan, (2011 / …Revisited, 2014)
LADA commissioned Robert
John E. McGrath, Jordan McKenzie, Daniels to create 20 limited edition
Hayley Newman, Martin O’Brien, Kira miniature sculptures of iconic
O’Reilly, Mary Paterson, Project O, Alan performance works.
Read, Heike Roms, Rajni Shah, Joshua
Sofaer, Selina Thompson, Jane Trowell, Part re-enactment, part archive, part
Johanna Tuukkanen, the vacuum hobby, Tiny Live Art embraces and
cleaner, Manuel Vason, Lois Weaver embodies theories and practices
and Catherine Wood. of performance documentation,
re-enactment and the making and
sharing of memory.
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LADA AT 20
LADA at 20 Postcards Live Art on the page,
A special box-set collection of the stage and the
20 postcards with images from key screen – Events at
LADA projects and initiatives from
1999 to 2019.
The Garrett Centre
As Seen on TV (April) was an evening
Featured artists: La Pocha Nostra,
of clips from TV programmes which
Curious, The Disabled Avant-Garde,
inadvertently or otherwise feature
Dickie Beau, Franko B, George
artists better known from the worlds
Chakravarthi, Harold Offeh, Katharine
of performance art and Live Art – from
Meynell, La Ribot, The Famous Lauren
artists appearing on chat shows, talent
Barri Holstein, Lois Weaver, Martin
shows and reality TV shows to John
O’Brien, Nando Messias, Neil Bartlett,
Cage on 1960’s US show I’ve Got A
Nicola Hunter, Oleg Kulik, Oreet Ashery,
Secret, Tim Miller featuring on The Larry
Ron Athey, Sibylle Peters and Yang
Sanders Show and Pussy Riot’s 2018
Zhichao.
pitch invasion at the World Cup final.
It is so important to pass on Co-hosted with Brian Lobel (artist and
20 x 20: Artists reflect winner of Come Dine With Me).
our stories of whence our
on 20 years of Live Art – inspiration comes – the modern Readings from the Pulpit (June) was an
A Radio Series world is crowded with crap evening in which over 30 artists read
We presented monthly programmes mythologies of ‘discovery’ and extracts from books held within our
for Resonance 104.4 FM on Live ‘originality’, and in the face of Study Room that have influenced and
Art histories and futures, broadcast all that hogwash it is good to inspired them. Lucy Hutson, Nicholas
between April and December 2019. remember that no, what actually Tee, Martha Pailing, Emma Berentsen,
Each programme included a dialogue James Johnston, Elena Marchevska,
happens is that one body lights
between two artists of different Jack Bateman, Andreia Afonso, Eunjung
a flame in another body – often Kim, Rumi Woolf, River Champion, Tara
generations speaking on moments,
movements, artists and events in key
in the unlikeliest of moments – Fatehi Irani & Jemima Yong, Tom Bland,
Live Art themes: and that is how the bloodlines Shakti Orion, Chiara Mu, Rebekah Dean,
of our cultures will continue to Ruth Hallgarten, Serena Braida, Matt
Claire MacDonald and Hava Carvajal feed the generations... Smith & Claire MacDonald, Burong Z,
on Community (April) and Sylvia Solakidi read works by or
Neil Bartlett, contributing
Nando Messias and Hester about artists including Lee Wen, Anna
artist and LADA Patron Mendieta, Marina Abramović, David
Chillingworth on Gender (May)
Wojnarowicz, Kathy Acker, Sophie
Nigel Rolfe and Martin O’Brien
Calle, Situationist International, Adrian
on Body (June)
Howells and many others.
Jane Trowell and Rosamund Zipporah
on Activism (July) Icons on Icons (October) was an
David A Bailey and Jade Montserrat evening in which some of LADA’s icons
on Race (September) talked about their own icons from
Joshua Sofaer and Tania El Khoury popular culture - Marcia Farquhar on
on Participation (October) Joyce Grenfell, Neil Bartlett on Lily
Neil Bartlett and Travis Alabanza Savage, Harold Offeh on Grace Jones,
on Queerness (November) Stacy Makishi on Steve Buscemi, Gary
Daniel Oliver and Noemi Lakmaier on Stevens on Laurel and Hardy, Selina
Thompson on Missy Elliott, Tim Etchells
Disability (December).
on Mark E. Smith, and Anthony Roberts
on Arthur Lowe.
Watch this
event on
Live Online
Top: Burong Z. Still from video
Bottom: Nigel Rolfe and Martin O’Brien.
Image Alex Eisenberg
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Oozing Gloop, LADA’s 20th Anniversary Live Art Gala. Image Manuel Vason Victoria Sin, LADA’s 20th Anniversary Live Art Gala. Image Manuel Vason
Watch this
event on
Live Online
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LADA PROJECTS
Curatorial partnerships,
artist’s commissions,
research projects,
screening programmes
and public events.
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Research Gatherings
We hosted four MtR research
gatherings in 2019. The first looked
at Collective Practices of Care in
experimental performance and was
held at The Place, as part of The Sick
of the Fringe’s Care and Destruction
Festival in April. The second gathering
held in May at LADA discussed
Experiments in Organisation. The third
gathering, Take the Money and Run:
Power, Money and Counter-Power took
place at LADA in June and featured
ideas on how we might build for future
struggles to free art and artists from
their dependency on the proceeds of
toxic capitalism including speakers
Jess Worth of Culture Unstained, Jane
Trowell of Platform, Elona Hoover of
The Common House, Natasha Nkonde
of Edge Fund and writer Morgan
Quaintance. The final gathering in
October reflected on what we had
learned and where we might go with Nando Messias in collaboration with Biño Sauitzvy, The Pink Supper. Image Holly Revell
our research in 2020 and beyond.
* Watch a film of Take the Money Few artistic performances stay The Library of Performing Rights offers
and Run: Power, Money and Counter- with me for long. Nando Messias’ a range of activities and resources, and
Power by Claire Nolan and read a The Pink Supper is an exception an annual performance commission
written response by Lewis Church produced with additional support from
to the rule. It left me reeling. I
on our website. South Bank University, and the Study
feel deeply touched to have been Room in Exile in Liverpool.
DIY 2019 witness to Nando’s profound and
Two of LADA’s 2019 flagship
visceral journey that moves us The Library of Performing Rights
DIY professional development so deftly, so graciously and at Commission 2019,
programmes were part of the times so brutally, between life Nando Messias, The Pink Supper
Managing the Radical research and death, between righteous The Pink Supper was a performance
process – Phoebe Patey-Ferguson, rage and survivor’s guilt. This and installation that took place at Raven
FK Alexander & Andre Neely’s THE event was powerful, painful Row, London in November. Based on a
CULT (‘returning the sacred into arts commemoration, redemptive recent trip to Nando’s native Brazil, the
administration and practice’) and Tim world’s number one country for trans
defiance in the face of unbridled
Jeeves & Lena Simic’s The Party Calls murders, the work was a response to
You (‘what place is there for artists
hatred and exquisitely beautiful the rise in reactionary populism and to
within the UK’s political institutions?’) in its conception. This fabulous the question of how artists can react
creation is so brilliantly charged ethically to social injustice?
with Nando’s loving care, with
The Library of Performing Rights Nando originally envisaged inviting
astute social observation, with ambassadors from twelve countries
The Library of Performing Rights careful dramaturgy, and with the
(LPR) was originally developed for where homosexuality is illegal to
guilt that deadens our hearts for sit around the table for a meal – a
Performance Studies international: 12
Performing Rights (2006) as a resource the audacity of remaining alive, pink supper. That process proved to
of materials examining the intersection for simply breathing. be an ethical, artistic and logistical
between performance and Human Julie McNamara, ‘nightmare’, and Nando instead invited
Rights, which has been housed at twelve members of the public who
Disability Arts Online
LADA since 2007. In collaboration with identify as being ‘in exile’ to join him in
the artists/researchers Lois Weaver a shocking pink and lavish exploration
and Elena Marchevska, the LPR has of ethics in performance.
been reactivated and reimagined as a The performance was accompanied
place of action, a place of knowledge by an installation of 13 ceramic plates
exchange, a repository of experience, created by Nando Messias and Aga
and a resource and a context that Robak, each decorated with an
others can use to support and advance image of one of Nando’s personal
their own work. queer heroes. The plates are now on
permanent public display at LADA.
15
LADA PROJECTS
The Library of Performing
Rights Open 2019, Ben Walters,
Dr Duckie’s Homemade Mutant
Hope Machines
For 2019’s LPR Open talks, we hosted
a presentation of Ben Walter’s
Homemade Mutant Hope Machines,
a lecture on the neoliberal wobble,
the technology of queer fun, doing
family differently, and the power of
homemade mutant hope machines –
ways of thinking, feeling and acting that
build better worlds.
Based on his doctoral research at
Queen Mary University of London, the
lecture looks at Duckie’s community-
centric projects like The Posh Club,
The Slaughterhouse Club, Duckie
Homosexualist Summer School, Duckie
Family and ‘vintage clubbing’ events
as well as Ben’s theories around
reproductive queer futurity.
Artist, activist and LADA Patron Lois
Live Art Now 2019 Accelerator Programme
Weaver led the response to Ben’s Live Art Now is an annual event We joined the Accelerator Programme
presentation. as part of LADA and Queen Mary in 2019, a partnership between Julie’s
University, London’s ground- Bicycle and Arts Council England to
Homemade Mutant Hope Machines was
breaking MA Live Art programme inspire environmental action across
produced by Duckie and supported by
(see Opportunities). It features the arts and cultural sector. We will be
Arts Council England. a Live Art Keynote Lecture and working in partnership with Gasworks
presentations by artists that offer to address the challenges of climate
Watch this a flavour of the kinds of practices, justice within the context of both
event on ideas, approaches and issues that organisations’ creative field, and
Live Online
the MA Live Art course engages networks of organisations that we host
with. both nationally and internationally.
2019’s Live Art Now was held at The project will respond to individuals
Queen Mary in June and featured and organisations that are hardest
conversations between practitioners: hit by climate catastrophe and social
artists Lois Weaver and Martin O’Brien injustice, research how organisations
on sustaining a practice; artists Franko across international networks can
B and Nando Messias on documenting, better communicate, readdress past
critical writing, and archiving; harms and strive to move from an
producers Phoebe Patey-Ferguson extractive framework to a regenerative
and Jen Smethurst on networking and one. Over the next few years, LADA
connecting; and artists, curators, arts- and Gasworks will look at the cultural
workers Joseph Morgan Schofield and sector through an intersectional
Jordan McKenzie on the artist as… lens, understanding how class, race,
(artist as curator, artist as researcher, sexuality, age and gender inform artists
artist as activist, artist as day-jobber). and organisations’ opportunities,
The conversations were followed resources and structures within the
by Brian Catling’s keynote lecture arts sector and society as a whole.
FICTIONAL EVIDENCE, The art of
We hope this work will empower
performing imagined crimes.
LADA’s partners in Live Art UK and
Gasworks’ partners in the Triangle
Watch this Network to influence others around
Image: Franko B and Nando Messias, event on
Live Art Now 2019. Still from video Live Online
them, and will see the transference of
knowledge and power from the least
16 affected to the most.
Swiss Live Art
We continued our partnership with Pro
Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council on an
initiative (2018-20) to raise the profile of
Swiss Live Art in the UK and contribute
to the development of exchanges and
collaborations between artists and
promoters in the UK and Switzerland.
In April 2019 we took a delegation from
the Live Art UK network on a research
trip to Switzerland and collaborated
with L’Abri, Geneva and Gessnerallee,
Zurich to host gatherings of artists and
presenters from across Switzerland.
We hosted two Study Room research
residencies for Swiss artists. The first
was undertaken by the Zurich based
artist Ivy Monteiro in July 2019 who
used their residency to deepen their
research into ancestrality, prostitution,
race, and metaphysical connections
leading to a performance-lecture on
queer spirituality and Afrofuturism.
The second residency was by the
Basel based performance artist,
curator, networker and member of
PANCH (Performance Art Network
CH), Andrea Saemann in October 2019
and February 2020, whose research
into documentation, archives and the LADA Screens
relation of contemporary performance
artists with their remnants or artworks LADA Screens are free online
outside of the live moment itself led to a presentations of performance
performance lecture in February 2020. documentation, works to camera, and
archival footage, with each screening
Those angels in the form of launched with a live event at LADA.
people at LADA left me free LADA Screens in 2019-20 featured:
and had total understanding
Organ Player by Narcissister
for my wishes of tranquility. But
Ex Nilalang (From Creature ~
they have also shared with me
From Creation) by artists Justin
material and opportunities that Shoulder and Bhenji Ra, Club Ate
they could offer with me Soldier of Female by Kembra Pfahler
if I would be open to it…
Greatest Hits of Katherine Araniello
I knew that I should take all
Anne, Richard and Paul
the opportunities and do the by Morgan Quaintance
best out of it because it is so (re)collecting (f)ears by the
rare for artists like me to find a artist selina bonelli
supportive place and people who
fully back you up.
Ivy Monteiro
Watch this
event on
Live Online
17
LADA PROJECTS
World AIDS Day 2019:
David Wojnarowicz
Our 2019 World AIDS Day event,
marking a significant artist who has
influenced Live Art and performance,
was the first UK screening of Self-
Portrait in 23 Rounds (2018); a film
essay about the work and life of David
Wojnarowicz by Marion Scemama,
co-directed with François Pain.
Political artist, painter, writer,
performer, and photographer David
Wojnarowicz was one of the leading
figures of the New York Downtown
artistic scene of the 1980s who
died of AIDS in 1992 in New York.
Told through the voice of the artist,
this unique document reveals how
Wojnarowicz viewed his work and
own death in a society that refused to
Image: Shy Radicals at LADA’s Festive Fair 2019. Image Alex Eisenberg
confront the AIDS epidemic. The film
includes previously unseen images
Festive Fair 2019 The Right Lube – Artist platform from from the director’s personal archives
Hava Carvajal and Maz Murray as well from Wojnarowicz’s archive.
We held our second Festive Fair on 8 Simple Gifts – Social action and
December 2019 with 25 stalls run by campaigning community group Thirty years in the making,
local artists, activists and social action Power Play Theatre – Artist collective Self-Portrait is an astonishing
groups selling a huge variety of things selling social action “Calling Cards” document of influence,
and promoting a range of campaigns
Barbara Gamper – Textiles and friendship, love and the effort
around social and environmental justice.
wearable artworks it takes to figure things out.
Homosexual Death Drive – Artist Fox Irving – Artist Composed in the present from
collective selling zines, artworks Prick Your Finger – Textiles art archival materials, it’s also
and merch and activism
the most historically truthful
Magical Women ADHD artists – Zines, Local Foreigner – Artist
comics and artworks depiction of Wojnarowicz and
Franko B – Artist
LEZ GO SWIMMING – The Lez Bag the cultural moment he lived in
Ruth Hellgarten – Dried edible festive
and Let’s Go Swimming press, selling insects
that I’ve seen.
books, artworks and gender-neutral Laura Rinati – Homemade candles, Chris Kraus, Sleek Magazine
handbags soaps and tasty treats
Grrrl zine fair – DIY feminist Tim Bromage and Julian Gravy –
publications, merchandise and artworks Calendars, zines, ceramics
Earthlings – Artists Hari Byles and artworks
and Linden McMahon Richard Dedomenici – Artist
Phytology – Artists’ street posters Unnamed Collective – Diasporic artist
and GOOD, a plant-based body collective
and face balm
GraceGraceGrace – Artist collective
Shy Radicals – Artist activist project
TDWM Studio – Artist initiative selling
selling zines, badges, stickers and
anti-Brexit limited edition playing cards
prints commanded by artist
Gallery café – Bethnal Green based
Hamja Ahsan
vegan café and community project
Goslowcomics – Light hearted, comical
zines to promote social action
18
Histories and Futures:
A Live Art Sector
Research Project
Commissioned by LADA, in partnership
with Live Art UK, funded by and
undertaken in close dialogue with Arts
Council England, Histories and Futures
is an unprecedented research project
mapping the impact and influence of
Live Art in the UK, and demonstrating
the sector’s complexity, diversity
and achievements.
The research project is being
undertaken by Dr Elyssa Livergant
and Dr Cecilia Wee (London) in
collaboration with Dr Johanna Linsley
(Dundee), Dr Tim Jeeves (Liverpool) and
Dr Tarek Virani (Bristol) through regional
focus groups, audience engagement
activities, an online survey, interviews
and case studies, and commissioned
artist and writer responses.
19
LADA PROJECTS
performingborders | LIVE:
Curating Borderless
Spaces
LADA was a partner on
performingborders | LIVE, a programme
of events and commissions focusing
on the exploration of artistic practices
happening around the notions of
cultural, juridical, racial, gendered,
class, physical and everyday borders.
In June we hosted a day of
performances, commissioned
premieres, talks, food and provocations.
Curated by Alessandra Cianetti and
Xavier de Sousa, the event highlighted
urgent voices and discourses within
Live Art on how we can work together
in creating collaborative borderless,
anti-racist, non-binary, feminist,
non-ableist, post-colonial spaces.
performingborders | LIVE 2019
featured a keynote presentation by
interdisciplinary artist, educator,
and activist Raju Rage; specially
commissioned performances-to-
camera by Istanbul Queer Arts
Collective and Tara Fatehi Irani;
new digital conversations on
Live Art and borders by Burong
and Critical Interruptions (Bojana
Janković and Diana Damian Martin);
an open conversation dotted by
the interventions and provocations
of guest artists Bojana Janković,
Marikiscrycrycry, Dana Olărescu, Kai
Syng Tan and Helena Walsh; and a
performance response by Writer in
Residence Season Butler.
20
Hauntings and
Herstories: Feminist
Live Art in 1980s and
1990s Ireland
LADA works with artists and scholars
on post-doctoral research projects.
In 2019 we became cultural sector
partners on a project led by Clare
Daly in collaboration with Adrian
Heathfield and Eleanor Roberts of the
Department of Drama at the University
of Roehampton, which is funded by the
TECHNE doctoral awards scheme.
Live Art practices have held an uneasy International Womxn’s Day 2020: Wikipedia Edit-athon. Image Joseph Morgan Schofield
21
lada resources
Physical and online Timely Readings Listen Online
films, publications, This study on Live Art in Australia by In 2019-20 we launched a new platform
guides and resources Madeleine Hodge and Sarah Rodigari for LADA’s extensive audio content,
considers what kind of history might
to help artists, curators, be revealed through a poetic analysis
including recordings of artist talks as well
as commissioned artworks by artists.
producers, writers, of the seminal Australian Live Art
producers, students, document RealTime Magazine. Their
educators, researchers
process not only shows Live Art EDGE OF AN ERA
practices as they currently exist across
and activists dig Australia, but also attempts to map the Online Archive
deep into Live Art and emergence of the form.
In 2019-20 we added online archives
performance practices On Neurodiversity of Art in Danger (1985-86), New Work
ancient and modern. Responding to a widespread lack
Newcastle (1988) and The Last Weekend
(1991) to the EDGE OF AN ERA web
of resources on neurodiversity and archive.
performance, this Study Room
Study Room Guide by Daniel Oliver contains a
EDGE OF AN ERA is an archival project
revisiting seminal performance art
Housing over 8,000 catalogued items, collection of recorded conversations
events that took place in the UK
including books, journals, DVDs, with neurodivergent artists working
in the 1980s, including EDGE 88,
digital files, rare materials, and unique in Live Art and performance; a list of
one of London’s first site-specific
‘collections’, LADA’s Study Room is resources relating to this field, and a
performance/installation festivals.
the world’s largest publicly accessible contextualising essay by Daniel Oliver.
library of Live Art publications and Thirty years later, artist Helena
documentation, and a space for events, Goldwater and Rob La Frenais (former
screenings, workshops gatherings and Live Online editor of Performance Magazine
residencies. and original Director of EDGE 88),
A series of channels where you can
in collaboration with Alex Eisenberg
watch short videos and films selected
Study Room Guides from LADA’s Study Room or generated
and LADA, revisited those events and
connected artists from the 1980s
through our programmes and
We commission artists and thinkers with current generations through
initiatives.
to research and write guides around a programme of commissions and
specific themes to help navigate In 2019-20 we added over 50 new public events, and the creation of an
users through the materials we hold, Live Online channels. online archive. The project continued
encourage Study Room users to LADA’s commitment to shed light on
experience the materials in a new way under-represented histories that have
and highlight materials they may not had a significant influence on current
otherwise come across, and to help us art practices.
research titles we should also hold.
The EDGE OF AN ERA web archive is
made up of incredible rare materials
2019-20 Guides generously provided by artists, studios
and archivists, and specially digitised
Live Art and Animals
for this project.
This Study Room Guide on Live Art
and animals is based on the artists’
films, books and contextualising
materials LADA developed for Animals
of Manchester (including HUMANZ)
and the documentation and legacies
of that project.
Left: Live Art and animals Study Room Guide.
Design Saulius Leonavičius
Opposite page:
Top: Alastair MacLennan, Ink Ash for National Review
of Live Art (30th anniversary). Image NRLA
Middle: At the Edge brochure
Bottom: Bobby Baker, Icing On The Cake for
National Review of Live Art (1990). Image NRLA
22
NRLA30
LADA is a partner on NRLA30, a new
web-based project celebrating the 30th
anniversary of THE NATIONAL REVIEW
OF LIVE ART (NRLA), which took place
in March 2010 in Glasgow. Between
1979 and 2010 the NRLA was the
UK’s leading performance art festival,
beginning in Nottingham at what was
the Midland Group and ending in
Glasgow via London’s Riverside Studios
and the ICA.
The NRLA30 website launched in
March 2020 and features 75 videos of
performances from the 2010, and final,
edition of the Festival when artists from
across its 30-year history presented
new work, alongside essays, articles,
podcasts and reflections.
Unbound
Unbound is the world’s only online
shop dedicated to Live Art related
materials, featuring the unusual
and independent alongside major
critical works. Our carefully-curated
selection includes books from
major publishers, hard-to-find
artists’ editions, zines, and all LADA
publications and artworks.
We invite artists and thinkers to
guest-edit Unbound’s newsletters
and curate special ‘shelves’ on the
site – highlighting the books and
editions that have made a significant
contribution to their own work.
2019-20’s Guest Editors were Annie
Jael Kwan, Joshua Sofaer, Ron Athey,
Dominic Johnson and the collective
GraceGraceGrace.
23
lada publications
LADA is one of the Joshua Sofaer is a deeply
world’s leading Live Art attentive artist. His multifaceted
works are careful, smart, witty
publishers, specialising and generous. At their heart
in artist-led publications sits the encounter: with ideas,
and in titles on people, places and objects.
provocative ideas and I can’t presume to ‘know’
influential practitioners. Sofaer, but this gorgeous,
layered and richly detailed
book – an exquisite collection
Joshua Sofaer: Performance | of documents, discussions
Objects | Participation
and reflections – allows me to
Joshua Sofaer works across boundaries, encounter him and to relish the
borders and disciplines to create unfolding perspectives.
artworks that engage with all levels of
society. In cultural institutions or on
Dee Heddon, Professor of
the street, for art galleries or personal Contemporary Performance,
homes, staged as operas or cast as University of Glasgow
golden sculptures, Sofaer’s work
weaves with and through social fabric to
consider the ideas that hold us together.
With a mixture of intellect, humour,
and striking design, Joshua Sofaer:
Performance | Objects | Participation
analyses the artist’s oeuvre in the
contexts of liveness, visual art and
participatory practices.
Edited by Roberta Mock and Mary
Paterson, the book features discussions
with producers and participants,
documentary images and specially
commissioned photographs by Hugo
Glendinning, interviews with the artist
himself, and thirteen commissioned
essays by Nadia Abdelaziz, Yuan-Liang
An, Stuart Andrews, Maddy Costa,
Robin Deacon, Konstantina Georgelou,
Simon Gould, Sarah Harvey, Yu-Chin
Hsiao, Lois Keidan, Yu-Ying Kung, Carl
Lavery, Stacy Makishi, Roberta Mock,
Mary Paterson, Sibylle Peters, Joanna
Sofaer, and Daniel Somerville.
Joshua Sofaer: Performance | Objects
| Participation is the seventh title in
LADA’s Intellect Live series. Intellect
Live is a collaboration between LADA
and Intellect Books on influential artists
working at the edge of performance.
The series is characterised by lavishly
illustrated and beautifully designed
books, that are created through close
collaborations between artists and
writers, which are the first substantial
publication dedicated to the artists’
work.
24
Shortlist Live #1 Praxis Volume 2:
The Town as Art Centre
LADA is the co-publisher of ANTI
Festival’s new publication series LADA is the co-publisher with Heart of
that forms part of the ANTI Festival Glass, St Helens of the second volume
International Prize for Live Art (Finland) in the ongoing series Praxis. Featuring
new Shortlist LIVE! events. contributions from Patrick Fox, Chrissie
Tiller, Jack Welsh, Heather Peak Morison,
The first issue, Shortlist LIVE #1, edited
Jeanne van Heeswijk, Michelle Browne,
by Heidi Backström and designed by
Karen Smith, and Alastair Roy. Praxis
Tomi Leppänen, focuses on the four
Volume Two is an invitation to encounter
artists shortlisted for 2019’s ANTI prize:
work and thinking that is in motion.
Cuqui Jerez, Dana Michel, Keijaun
Thomas and Mammalian Diving Reflex. The publication connects with a number
Each artist was asked to suggest of research questions Heart of Glass
Awkwoods: Daniel Oliver’s authors to write about their work. have been developing – the concept of
Dyspraxic Adventures in the Town as Art Centre as a mechanism
Experimental poet and curator Quim
Participatory Performance to be part of a solution by placing art,
Pujol writes an accurate portrayal of
and the making of art into issues of
Daniel Oliver is dyspraxic and he creates Cuqui Jerez, who he sees as a reality
place, care, identity and prosperity;
awkward participatory performance hacker, space-time mistress and
Fierce & Urgent Conversations to disturb
worlds. He has done so since 2003. perceptual sorceress. Researcher
and disrupt the ways in which we gather
and essayist James Oscar plays with
This book documents some of those and convene around forms of artistic
the potential of an essay format and
worlds, as well as bringing together practice; and The Archive of Social
offers the reader a text that feels like
critical and creative responses by Practice to create a way to meaningfully
a sprawling conversation with various
Aby Watson, Jo Hauge, Luke Ferris, encounter collaborative or social
references, his own experiences and
O. Husch, Chloe Spicer, Hamja Ahsan artwork beyond the act of creating it.
encounters. By doing this, Oscar
and Nwando Ebizie. These writings provides a powerful insight into
focus on discussing, embracing, and Vanishing Points
the unique nature of Dana Michel’s
celebrating dyspraxic approaches to art. Broderick Chow‘s text on the A new anthology of cultural criticism,
performance making and socialising, Mammalian Diving Reflex and its focusing on the making, watching and
and is for anyone who is invested in artistic director Darren O’Donnell is conditions of Live Art and performance
dyspraxia, neurodiversity, Live Art, also a personal text; the seemingly in the UK today.
audience participation, world-building, light structure of the essay makes it
and sentences like this one. accessible also to a reader without the The choreography of racism is
knowledge of art theories, even though not one of constant motion.
What really captivated me Chow is an academic. Another example
Season Butler
about ‘Awkwoods’ was that it on arts and activism is Keijuan Thomas,
isn’t only ND friendly regarding who the writer and art theorist Joshua
Vanishing Points features contributions
accessibility, but also in tone… Chambers-Letson captures powerfully
from Ava Wong Davies, Zarina
Daniel Oliver’s writings are zany, in his essay.
Muhammad, Ben Kulvichit, Season
at points clumsy, blatantly weird These four essays on four different Butler, Jack Tan, Salome Wagaine,
and a whole lot of awkward! A artists remind us that art is not always Marjorie H Morgan, Rajni Shah, Selina
must for anyone interested in nice, beautiful or easy to comprehend. Thompson and Dr Cecilia Wee. The
book is edited by Salome Wagaine, with
how and what Neurodivergent
deputy editors Ava Wong Davies and
brains create. This book is a start Ben Kulvichit. It was designed by Chani
to Dyspraxic actors and artists Wisdom.
recognising and claiming their
Co-published by LADA and Diverse
place as ND performance artists,
Actions, a Live Art UK initiative.
instead of seeing dyspraxia (and
awkward) as something that Above: Awkwoods cover. Image: Daniel Oliver
needs to be overcome. (Weird Séance, SPILL Festival of Performance 2014,
produced by Pacitti Company. Photo Guido Mencari)
Emma Robdale, Opposite page:
Disability Arts Online Top: Cover of Joshua Sofaer: Performance | Objects |
Participation. Image Hugo Glendinning (2018)
Bottom: Joshua Sofaer, Double Bill (2017).
Image Hugo Glendinning
25
lada opportunities
27
lada opportunities
MA Live Art Residencies Adrian Howells
MA Live Art is a partnership between We offer self-directed research Award for Intimate
LADA and Queen Mary University residencies in our Study Room to Performance 2019
of London which was launched in artists, researchers, critics, academics LADA is a partner on the annual Adrian
2018 – this postgraduate course is and other such curious folks. Some Howells Award for Intimate Performance,
dedicated to the research, practice, and research residencies are part of wider an opportunity for a UK based artist to
programming of Live Art and is partly LADA programmes and initiatives and develop and present an early staging
based within LADA’s Study Room. others are in responses to requests to of a new performance-based project
undertake in-depth enquiries into key
MA Live Art is the first programme with Take Me Somewhere, Glasgow and
themes, histories or artists.
of its kind. Students gain theoretical Battersea Arts Centre, London.
and practical grounding in histories In 2019-20 we welcomed: Alinah
The Adrian Howells Award celebrates
and practices of Live Art and Azadeh, Toby Adejo, Craig Barrowman, the intimate work that Adrian pioneered
the genealogies of visual art and Jude Browning, Burong (Wenjie Li), and excelled in, and is led by the
experimental theatre in the twentieth Maddison Collymore, Leticia Izquierdo National Theatre of Scotland, Battersea
century, through studio-based and Diaz, Nicole Garneau, Michael Guhry, Arts Centre and Take Me Somewhere
discussion-led methods, workshops, Katy Hawkins, James Johnson, Sally Festival with the University of Glasgow
lectures, master classes, seminars, Ann Labern, Amy Lawrence, Clio Lloyd- and LADA.
fieldwork and professional placements. Jacob, Susan Merrick, Ivy Monteiro,
Students are enabled to understand, Aaron Orzech, Bitten Peach, Andrea The 2019 recipient of the award
challenge and make Live Art as a Seamann, Lasana Shabaz, Self-harm was Rhiannon Armstrong, an
technology for intervening in the most performance, Petra Trendafilova, Edythe interdisciplinary artist with over a
pressing issues of our time. Wooley, and Jian Yi. decade of experience making works
with empathy, interaction, and dialogue
From the start I have felt that To find myself within LADA and at their core, often with unfiltered
my learning and practice are all its collaborators and the audiences in mind.
embedded in a vibrant Live Art LADA study room made me
culture both inside and beyond quite excited and nervous. I had Receiving the Adrian Howells
the university. We are a really never seen such a specificity Award is providing me with the
small and supportive cohort, and of knowledge, experience, inspiration and opportunity to
I’m so pleased to have made this publications and material build a creative process where
leap with them. around Live Art issues. I will for the first time engage
explicitly with my autobiography
Es Morgan Andrea Saemann
as a creative force. I hope to
bring this process (which I think
of as a ‘live reckoning’) together
with other ongoing explorations
such as witnessing intimacy in
public space, touch as a form
of listening, and the research
and performance of lullabies
that express a wish to harm. I
intend to explore the creation
of an immersive performance
environment where vulnerability
and pain can co-exist with the
embodied experiences of safety,
rhythm and intimacy that are
needed in trauma recovery.
Rhiannon Armstrong
28
live art uk
LADA co-ordinates
Live Art UK, the
national network of 30
venues, festivals and
facilitators working
collectively to support
Live Art across the UK.
Diverse Actions
Live Art UK members continued to
support exciting projects with a wide
range of artists for the third year of
Diverse Actions, an unprecedented
initiative to champion culturally diverse
ambition, excellence and talent
in Live Art. Led by Afreena Islam,
Salome Wagaine, Amy Lawrence and
Cambridge Junction, Diverse Actions
was supported by an Arts Council
England Ambition for Excellence grant.
LADA supported three Diverse Actions
DIY projects: Lateisha Davine Lovelace-
Hanson’s To The Ritual Knowledge Of
Remembering in partnership with ]
performance s p a c e[, Folkestone;
Adam Patterson’s Green Screen
Charivari in partnership with Live Art
Bistro, Leeds; and Jack Tan & Annie Jael
Kwan’s Potluck Stories in partnership
with BUZZCUT, Glasgow.
LADA ran the third and final round of
Diverse Actions Leadership Bursaries,
supporting a new generation of ‘skilled-
up’ leaders from culturally diverse
backgrounds, and new models of
leadership which will have an impact
on the Live Art sector and across the
arts. The 2019-20 Leadership Bursaries
of £10,000 each were awarded to the for other artists from my
artist Travis Alabanza and curator Annie communities. This bursary feels
Jael Kwan. like an exciting step to making
that happen.
As an artist that is often not Travis Alabanza
reflected within the industry, I
want to find skills and methods
to not only sustain my practice,
but help create infrastructures
of support and opportunities
Top: Vanishing Points cover. Design Chani Wisdom
Bottom: Travis Alabanza. Image Holly Revell
Opposite page:
Andrea Saemann, Shift the Manifesto (2019).
Image Emmanuelle Bayart
29
live art uk
SKIN in the GAME
SKIN in the GAME was a day-long
symposium held at Z-Arts in Hulme,
Manchester in November 2019; the
start of Live Art UK’s sharing of Diverse
Actions’ findings and recommendations.
SKIN in the GAME brought together
a cohort of artists, journalists and
researchers of colour from across the
UK, offering a platform to think and
discuss ideas around ghettoisation,
radical constitutions, anti-racist work,
representation and leadership within
the Live Art sector and wider culture.
It was imagined as an open space for
discursive honesty.
The day was made up of presentations,
discussions, workshops and
performances by Afreena Islam, Harold
Offeh, Hetain Patel, Annie Jael Kwan,
Hardeep Pandhal, Jade Montserrat,
Chanje Kunda, Cecilia Wee, Paula
Akpan, Season Butler, Jack Tan,
Alexandrina Hemesley, and Nima Séne.
You can listen to Stance Podcast’s
commentary on SKIN in the GAME
via https://stancepodcast.com/
skin-in-the-game
Vanishing Points
The Vanishing Points publication is a
Diverse Actions legacy project (see
LADA publications).
30
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LADA welcomes donations of all sizes The Garrett Centre Cecilia Wee, Chair
– we make a little go a long way, and 117A Mansford Street
make a lot go even further. £20 will buy Bethnal Green We give our deepest gratitude to those
a book for the Study Room, £200 will London that left our Board in 2019-20, Stephen
support a LADA Screens, and £2,000 E2 6LX Cleary and Emmy Minton.
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Your contribution may be eligible for Anne Bean
Staff 2019-20
Gift Aid. Sonia Boyce
Alex Eisenberg Tim Etchells
We are giving LADA all of Natalia Damigou Papoti Guillermo Gómez-Peña
our money after we die. We Ben William Harris Raimund Hoghe
encourage anybody to think Rosaleigh Harvey-Otway Tehching Hsieh
about what you might leave Lois Keidan Isaac Julien
behind when you are gone. Finn Love La Ribot
You can’t take it with you, so CJ Mitchell Lois Weaver
why not give some or all of it Amy Poole
to LADA? You don’t have to be The Live Art Development Agency is funded
Joseph Morgan Schofield
rich to leave money after you as a National Portfolio Organisation by Arts
Megan Vaughan
die. We are surprised that more Council England.
people don’t do this. It’s a bit of In 2019-20 CJ Mitchell left LADA The Live Art Development Agency is a
administration, but it’s also fun, to move to Kent and develop new Company Limited by Guarantee, Registered in
projects, Alex Eisenberg left to work England and Wales, number 3651554.
political, caring and creative, a
independently, and Amy Poole left
treat for yourself, a good thing to take up a new role at Guildhall.
The Live Art Development Agency is a
Registered Charity No. 1079943.
to do that makes you feel right Ben William Harris joined LADA to
with the world. You could make run our Operations & Events, Natalia
a show about it. Damigou-Papoti to direct Press &
Charlotte Cooper, Simon Communications, Rosaleigh Harvey-
Otway to be responsible for Digital
Murphy, Kay Hyatt
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& Management.
31
“The Live Art Development
Agency is one of the creative
industries’ most authentic
beacons of creativity. If you
wanted to seek out the most
innovative and experimental
laboratory for the arts -
you’ve found it, right here.”
Run Riot