Re-Do It? Re-Presenting Bodies in Performance @ SAIC

Coming soon...

SAIC Performance Department Symposium,
March 16, 17, 2006

Re-Do It? Re-Presenting Bodies in Performance

The Performance Art Department of the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago is planning an intensive 2-day Performance Symposium, "Re-Do It?
Re-Presenting Bodies in Performance." The Symposium begins on Thursday,
March 16,2006 with a public keynote address, "Performance Returns," by
Peggy Phelan, the Ann O'Day Maples Chair in the Arts, and Professor of
Drama at Stanford University. It continues on Friday, March 17 with a day
of panels and discussions; and ends with a performative extravaganza of
re-doable, un-redoable, and un-doable propositions and acts by
participating student and faculty artists. The Symposium will take place in
and around the Department's 280 S. Columbus Drive Performance Space, Room
012 (Basement). Peggy Phelan's keynote address on Thursday, March 16 will
be in the Columbus Building Auditorium and is free to the School and the
public.

Peggy Phelan has written, "Performance's only life is in the present.
Performance cannot be saved, recorded, documented, or otherwise participate
in the circulation of representations of representations: once it does so,
it becomes something other than performance." (Unmarked. The Politics of
Performance, p. 146)

On the other hand, Miwon Kwon writes, "Š(E)ven if the efficacy of
site-specific art from the past seems to weaken when it is re-presented,
the procedural complications, ethical dilemmas, and pragmatic headaches
that such situations raise for artists, collectors, dealers, and host
institutions are still meaningful. They represent an unprecedented strain
on established patterns of (re)producing, exhibiting, borrowing/lending,
purchasing/selling, and commissioning/executing art works in general." (One
Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity, p. 43)

There has been a recent trend for signal performance artists of the 60s and
70s to either re-do iconic works from their past careers, or to recreate
the work through documentation and installations of ephemera and objects.
For example, Paul Schimmel, curator of Out of Actions: Between Performance
and the Object 1949-1979 (MOCA, Los Angeles, 1998) invited Carolee
Schneeman to partially recreate her 1963 mixed media installation Eye Body
for that exhibition. Ironically, a crucial element in the original
presentation of this piece was the performer's own nude, painted body,
which however was not included in the recreation. In November 2005, Marina
Abramovic "re-did" seven iconic performances by artists such as Vito
Acconci, Joseph Beuys, Gina Pane, and others at the Guggenheim Museum in
New York City. This event triggered further conversations about
performative repetition and re-presentation, historicity, and the
impossibility of documenting the ephemeral. As well, the increasing uses of
digital media, telepresence, electronic networking, and virtual presence in
performances have complicated questions of the "Re-do", embodiment,
presence, and virtuality in performative practices. Because by definition
performance art usually is live, experiential, ephemeral, site- and
occasion-specific, many scholars have argued that performances should not,
and some times cannot, be repeated or documented, as that would negate the
very nature of live presence art and its "you have to be there to
experience it" aura.
Re-Do It? examines and discusses these and other perplexing questions
raised by re-presenting experiential, "live" art, and the many
un-categorized practices that are commonly gathered under the sign of
"Performance Art."

SYMPOSIUM SPEAKERS AND SCHEDULE:

Thursday, March 16, 6:00 PM,
Keynote Address: "Performance Returns," Peggy Phelan, Ann O'Day Maples
Chair in the Arts, and Professor of Drama at Stanford University.
280 S. Columbus Dr. Auditorium, SAIC. Open and free to School and public.

Friday, March 17, 9:30-4:30 PM
Symposium, Performance Space, 012, 280 Columbus Dr.
*Participation by prior registration only (See registration information below).

9-9:30 Coffee and bagels.

9:30-12 Panel One: Do it Again? Re-Presenting Bodies
"Waiting for History," Welcome and Introduction, Faith Wilding, Chair and
Associate Professor of Performance, SAIC,
Panelists: Lin Hixson, Allan deSouza, Faith Wilding, Tania Bruguera.
Respondent: Peggy Phelan
Moderator: Ellen Rothenberg

12- 1:30 PM Lunch on your own in Museum, Sunny's, or elsewhere

1:30-4:00 PM, Panel 2: Documenting the Performative: Ephemera,
Repetition, and the Problem of the Archive.
Panelists: Matthew Goulish, Sharon Hayes, Jane Blocker, Simon Anderson
Respondent: Jennifer DeVere Brody
Moderator: Terri Kapsalis

4-5 Coffee Break and Wrap-Up Discussion Audience response and questions.

6:30 - 9:30 Feast of the Un/re/do/able. **(See registration information).
Feast and Performances, Screenings, and Actions by
Students/Faculty/Guests/Ghosts.

Presenters/Panelists Biographies:
Simon Anderson, Associate Professor of Art History, Theory, and Criticism,
SAIC. Specializing in modernist performance histories and practices.
Jane Blocker, Associate Professor of Art History, University of Minnesota,
USA. Author of Where Is Ana Mendieta? Identity, Performativity and Exile
(1999, 2002), and What the Body Cost:Desire, History, and Performance (2004).
Tania Bruguera, Arte de Conducta artist, Cuba/USA. Interdisciplinary
faculty,SAIC. Recent venues: Documenta XI, Venice Biennale, Sao Paolo
Biennale, Centre Pompidou, Kunsthalle Wien.
Allan deSouza, artist, writer, London/USA. Visiting performance faculty,
SAIC F05, F06. Recent Exhibitions include at REDCat, LA: International
Center for Photography, NYC; Mori Museum, Tokyo. Contributing editor,
X-TRA, Contemporary Art Quarterly.
Jennifer DeVere Brody is the Weinberg College Board of Visitors Research and
Teaching Professor at Northwestern University where she holds appointments
in English, African American Studies and Performance Studies.
Matthew Goulish, writer, member of Goat Island collaborative performance
group. Adjunct Assoc. Professor, MFA Writing Program and Liberal Arts Dept.
SAIC; Recent venues: Venice Biennale; Links Hall, Chicago; Eurokaz
Festival, Zagreb, Croatia; Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany.
Sharon Hayes, artist (performance, video). Visiting Performance faculty,
SAIC, S06. Recent venues: PerformA 05, NYC, Art-in-General, NYC, Swiss
Institute, NYC, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow.
Lin Hixson, writer, Artistic director, Goat Island collaborative
performance group; Professor, Performance Dept, SAIC. Recent venues: Venice
Biennale; Links Hall, Chicago; Eurokaz Festival, Zagreb, Croatia;
Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany.
Terri Kapsalis, artist, writer, health educator. Assoc. Adjunct Prof. and
Chair, Visual and Critical Studies, SAIC. Author of Public Privates:
Performing Gynecology From Both Ends of the Speculum. She is at work on a
study of hysteria.
Peggy Phelan. Professor of Drama, Stanford University. Author of Unmarked,
The Politics of Performance (Rutledge, 1993) and Acting Out: Feminist
Performances (co-editor), Mourning Sex: Performing Public Memories (1997),
and with Helena Reckitt, Art and Feminism (2001). From 1997 to 1999 Phelan
was a Fellow of the Open Institute's project on Death in America. 2005
Fellow, Ghetty Museum, Los Angeles.
Ellen Rothenberg, artist (performance, installation). Assoc. Adjunct Prof.
Fiber and Material Studies and MFA Writing Program, SAIC. Venues: Rona
Hoffman Gallery, Washington Project for the Arts, Contemporary Arts Forum,
Santa Barbara.
Faith Wilding, interdisciplinary artist, writer, educator. Assoc. Prof. and
Chair, Performance Dept. SAIC; member, subRosa cyberfeminist artist
collective. Recent venues: Skopje, Macedonia; NBGK Gallery, Berlin;
InteractivA Festival, Merida, Mexico; "BioDifference," Perth, Australia;
Aberystwyth, Wales; UC Irvine, CA.

Acknowledgements and Thanks
This event was made possible largely because of the generous support of
Carol Becker, Dean of Faculty, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and
her staff; and the faculty, students and staff of the Performance
Department, SAIC. Many thanks for support to Romi Crawford and Denenge
Akpem, Visiting Artist Program, Terri Kapsalis, Visual and Critical
Studies, and Trevor Martin, Director, Betty Rymer Gallery. Special thanks
to Meg Leary for her inspiration, intelligence and enthusiastic assistance.


Registration and Reservations:
*Symposium seating is limited to 125 people. Walk-ins will be accommodated
if space permits. You can register for the Symposium and reserve the
Feast/Performance by Email: performancesaic@artic.edu
Or send requests for reservations to: Performance Dept. SAIC, c/o Faith
Wilding, 280 S. Columbus Dr., Chicago, IL 60603-3103.
For registration and reservation purposes we need your name, phone #, email
address, SAIC ID, affiliation (if any), number and names of people you are
reserving for, and whether you plan to attend the feast/performance.
Reservation Deadline is Monday, March 13th.

** Admission to the Feast of the Un/doable is by reservation only. The
Feast includes food and performances. Costs are $7 for SAIC students with
ID, $10 for SAIC faculty/staff with ID, and $15 for all other guests.
Payment in cash at the door or you will not be admitted.

For further information: 312 443-3782