anti art / gift

The following texts emerged from an invitation to attend the ANTI Festival in Finland (27 September - 2 October 2011) as a visiting writer, and to respond to the festival. After a short introduction below, subsequent posts focus on five of the festival's performance events - by Blast Theory, Lone Twin, Gaëtan Rusquet, Juha Valkeapää and the 100 Year Old Rock'n'Roll Band. These texts were first published as a review essay in Performance Research 17:1 ('On Failure'), alongside a series of photographs by Pekka Mäkinen.  

Since its inception in 2001, the ANTI-Contemporary Art Festival in Kuopio, Finland, has become known internationally for its commitment to site-specific and contextual live art practices. Its ongoing brief has been to displace art from galleries and other conventionally designated spaces, and to root it in public and social spaces, making it available and engaging to new audiences as small invitational frictions in the civic everyday. One of the meanings of the word ‘anti’ in Finnish, I am told, alongside its more familiar oppositional associations, is ‘gift’.

The festival’s 10^th anniversary programme, ANTI 2011, was curated by joint artistic directors Johanna Tuukkanen and Gregg Whelan in loose relation to the theme ‘Remake Rebuild Renew’. In part, this ‘ANTIversary’ festival offered an opportunity to invite a number of artists to return to Kuopio, and to revisit sites and develop earlier projects for a city in transition. In addition, ANTI was seeking artists’ engagements with and responses to changes in the political culture and material fabric of the city. During the festival itself, most of the expansive city centre square remained inaccessible, fenced off around a cavernous pit. The void sculpted out of the earth during this long-term excavation down to the city’s bedrock fractured the rhythms and flows of the city centre, and left a number of buildings and public walkways propped precariously on its edge; this hole is to be the location of – surprise, surprise - an underground car park. 

In what follows I have chosen to focus on five performance projects from ANTI 2011. Taken together, perhaps they reflect something of the curatorial flavour and dynamic of this most civic, emplaced and human-scale of international festivals. In the print version for Performance Research, my short account of each project sits alongside and in dialogue with photographs by Pekka Mäkinen, who has documented every artist and project at ANTI over the past ten years. As part of ANTI 2011, date-stamped prints of Mäkinen’s images from past festivals were on display in diverse locations around the city. Furthermore, a wide range of images from his remarkable photographic archive of hundreds of ephemeral events hosted by ANTI in Kuopio over the past decade animate a lavishly illustrated new book launched to mark the festival’s anniversary (1). Mäkinen’s fine photographs provide glimpses and traces that perhaps enable us to revisit and remake something of a startling array of artists’ actions, processes, images, encounters, situations and exchanges, each of them now disappeared from locations that are themselves in process.

Finally, I have listed the awards presented to these artists by a roving jury of local children from Kalevalan koulu who attended almost all of the performances at this year’s festival in Kuopio. The Children’s Choice Awards, coordinated by members of the Toronto-based company Mammalian Diving Reflex, were staged in the main chamber of the city hall as the final event of ANTI 2011. 

(1) Johanna Tuukkanen, Laura Tervo, Minna Jaakkola and Gregg Whelan (eds), ANTIVERSARY - Performance, live art and site-specificity: a decade of ANTI Contemporary Art Festival, Finland: ANTI, 2011. The book contains contributions by Jennie Klein, Anna-Reetta Suhonen, Juha-Heikki Tihinen, Helen Cole, Kira O’Reilly, Dee Heddon, Rosie Dennis, Kirsi Pitkänen, Simon Whitehead, Richard DeDomenici, Juha Valkeapää, Eungyung Kim and Shoji Kato, as well as an interview with the festival’s artistic directors.

instar

'People thrown into other cultures go through something of the anguish of the butterfly, whose body must disintegrate and reform more than once in its life cycle.In her novel Regeneration, Pat Barker writes of a doctor who "knew only too well how often the early stages of change or cure may mimic deterioration. Cut a chrysalis open, and you will find a rotting caterpillar. What you will never find is that mythical creature, half caterpillar, half butterfly, a fit emblem of the human soul, for those whose cast of mind leads them to seek such emblems. No, the process of transformation consists almost entirely of decay". But the butterfly is so fit an emblem of the human soul that its name in Greek is psyche, the word for soul. We have not much language to appreciate this phase of decay, this withdrawal, this era of ending that must precede beginning. Nor of the violence of the metamorphosis, which is often spoken of as though it were as graceful as a flower blooming ... The process of transformation consists mostly of decay and then of this crisis when emergence from what came before must be total and abrupt'. (Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Edinburgh: Canongate, 2006, 81-3)













'But the changes in a butterfly's life are not always so dramatic. The strange resonant word instar describes the stage between two successive molts, for as it grows, a caterpillar, like a snake ... splits its skin again and again, each stage an instar. It remains a caterpillar as it goes through these molts, but no longer one in the same skin. There are rituals marking such splits, graduations, indoctrinations, ceremonies of change, though most changes proceed without such clear and encouraging recognition. Instar implies something both celestial and ingrown, something heavenly and disastrous, and perhaps change is commonly like that, a buried star, oscillating between near and far'. (Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, 83).

All photos from the Butterfly Farm at Buckfastleigh, Devon
© David Williams 2008

acts of public dreaming (2)

To mark the ending of Donna Shilling and Tim Vize-Martin's walk from London to Dartington (see my earlier post from 27 August here), they asked me to say a few words while they laid out objects and traces from the walk: their route maps, sticks, compass, water bottles, and other items from their rucksacks. The following text is a version of what was said. More than 100 people had gathered to greet them, and to launch the Dartington MA show. An hour or so earlier, about 50 others walked with them up the hill from Totnes, visiting various sites at the college in silence before finally stopping in the evening sunshine behind Lower Close; they were guided by Augusto Corrieri and Pete Harrison, and included Mary Bartlett, Joe Richards, Simon Murray, Alan Boldon, Tracey Warr, Emilyn Claid, Paul Clarke, Sue Palmer, Claire Donovan, Bob Whalley, Misri Dey, Teresa Grimaldi, Klaus Kruse, Mary Southcott, Vicky Major, Emma Bush, and Giles Brokenshaw. En route through the college we encountered elusive fragments of ongoing work being rehearsed and other processes: Andy sitting with an electric guitar and amp in a storeroom doorway, plectrum poised; Ellen's moving shadow projected on to the wall of a studio; the sound of a piano on the breeze by the music studios; familiar black & white cows drifting and munching in the fields. Life goes on, apparently oblivious to the knowledge that soon we will all be gone from here. The layerings of present and past(s) at every turn, as we looped through buildings and courtyards and fields on a perfect late summer's evening ...

So, 222 miles in 21 days, from London to Dartington. The mirror image in reverse of a walk Donna first made in 2001 as part of a remarkable 3rd year project. En route this time, Donna and Tim have been joined by a number others, to accompany them on sections of the walk and to share conversation: thoughts about Dartington, memories, associations, anecdotes, perceptions of its pasts and possible futures. These co-walkers have included former and current staff and students, as well as others with a close association with the college. And now many of you here on this last leg from Totnes …

In some ways, the closing of a loop, an ending of a cycle. A slow, embodied and mindful return for Donna to a very different Dartington, itself, as we all know, about to migrate in some unknowable form or other a little further south-west. And an almost-ending of Tim’s MA. A gathering before a dispersal. A farewell. But the walk itself has also been – and remains - an invitation to new meetings, exchanges, reflections into the future about location, context, community, change as the only real constant, about ‘home’, displacement, new beginnings, and at its heart, focused questions about what is important. Perhaps above all it invites us to inhabit something of the paradox of change: hold on tightly, let go lightly.

When Goat Island were here a year or so ago, as part of their last tour of their last piece The Lastmaker, they talked with us about endings and about how one might go about managing one’s endings. The Goats said: “As a company, we came to the conclusion that it was time to come to a conclusion … We needed to take control of our ending before our ending took control of us. We considered the possible endings we did not want to define us, endings of burnout, internal conflict, self-repetition, or diminished quality. We wanted to reject these, and to reject the notion of their inevitability. Thus we decided to approach our ending as we have tried to approach all our changes: creatively”. At that time many of us at Dartington felt we had no ownership of our 'ending' here, it didn’t belong to us and it was both disorienting and painful. After a while we started to look for ways to approach this ending creatively. Donna and Tim’s walk is a brilliant example of one such creative approach; and as an event it resonates strongly with Dartington’s longstanding engagement in acts of walking as a reflective, creative and performative practice.

Earlier this week, Sue Palmer and I joined Tim & Donna for one leg of the walk, 11.5 miles, much of it on the coastal path, from Sidmouth to Starcross; near the end of the day Josie Sutcliffe joined us on the esplanade in Exmouth. Many things came up for me on this peripatetic day of walking and reflecting and talking in the sunshine. In particular, a focused sense of some of those colleagues and students who have been closest to what’s really important about Dartington for me: as possibility, as open invitation, as human encounter, as continuous and sometimes precarious unfolding. Some of them are here today. Some aren’t, but in other ways of course they always are. And secondly, some clearer perceptions about what I have valued most and still do: perhaps in particular, the ways in which sometimes here at Dartington teaching has become so much more than some dumb claim to possession of knowledge to be conveyed – at those times it has been about not knowing, about experiencing, being present and attentive and open to the extraordinary and often unpredictable creative possibilities of other human beings. In the best of times I have been utterly inspired by the engagement of some students, completely blown away by the quality of their work: unsettled, knocked over, rearranged, lifted up. It has changed me. What could be better than a teacher wide-eyed and joyous at something really taking place, and at the knowledge that after all he knows bugger all, and is only just beginning …?

So, I want to thank you, my teachers, my friends – Donna and Tim, Augusto, Pete ... You are beautiful. You practice hope, it’s a thing you do with imagination, attention, and grace. And as Patti Smith once wrote, the air – this air - is filled with the moves of you. Our conversations will go on and on, I know.

In a moment I will invite you all to share a cup of tea and a home-baked Persighetti scone, and to talk, with Donna and Tim and with each other. But before that, some final words from the Goats, on the work of ending:

“There is much to do: the work of ending. At the moment we find it difficult to imagine work more rewarding than that. Isn’t it, after all, the work of our lives? ... We will try to live up to the words we have spoken to you today: to keep our promises, to be the people we said we were, to stage what we know in the stillest hour of the night to be true, to remind ourselves of the impossible, the historical, to choreograph a dance to repair the world, to say, “We have become human again””.

5.30 p.m., Thursday 25 September 2008, Dartington

(For further details on Donna and Tim's walk, see the 'walking to dartington' blog here).

acts of public dreaming (1)

Starting in early September, two friends - Donna and Tim - are walking 222 miles in 21 days, from London to Dartington College of Arts in Devon. It is the mirror image in reverse of a walk Donna first made in 2001 as part of a remarkable final-year student project. Donna and Tim have invited others with a connection to Dartington to share sections of this new journey with them: ex-students, existing and former members of the teaching staff - their perceptions, memories and associations will be gathered in conversation en route. The final arrival at Dartington, timed to coincide with the opening of this year's MA Festival, will involve a collective farewell, for Dartington is changing, merging, moving - metaphorically and literally.

Here is an extract from a letter of invitation sent out to a wide range of people by Donna:

The walk is a reverse-tracing of the route I took as a third-year theatre student in October 2001. In the context of the, then very recent and, dramatically disorienting events of September 11th, I decided to walk home. I was exploring the idea of walking as a measure of space and time - a way of negotiating both geographical and social landscapes. And so along the way I asked those I encountered; "What is Important to You?” Collecting these voices as a measure of feeling and opinion at a very confusing and troubling time.

Seven years later Dartington College is undergoing a major transition. Officially it has already merged with [University College] Falmouth; within two years Dartington College of Arts, at Dartington, will cease to be. Like many others, I feel a need to acknowledge this ending/transition, to reflect on what Dartington is, and has been, and to try to better understand what a change like this means.

It is difficult to know what will be lost and what will be transplanted; it is difficult - not only because of the political and practical complexity of moving an institution - but because Dartington is so many things; its multiplicity and contextual specificity are essential to the experience of its students and intrinsic in its pedagogical approach. And so, walking back ‘home’ to Dartington, we will be asking our companions; "What is important about Dartington College of Arts?" perhaps by simply asking people like yourself "What IS Dartington College of Arts?"

We would like to invite you to join us for a day or a morning to walk and talk about your experiences of Dartington and the significance of the college from your own unique perspective. With your permission we would like to record these conversations to use in an installation at the Dartington MA show at the end of the walk (25th – 27th Sept) and with a view to later using the material as part of a documentary film about the college.

I have pasted below a schedule outlining our route. If you are able to join us please suggest a day that would be best for you, and if possible a second choice in case everyone suggests the same day! On the last day (Day 21) we are expecting a fairly large group to walk with us. We will arrive at the college in silence and perform a simple collective action, as a gesture of goodbye. This will coincide with the launch of the MA platform and we will encourage our fellow walkers to stay and see the MA work. You will be very welcome to re-join the walk with us on this last day – please let us know if you would like information about this final event.

Very much looking forward to walking with you.

All best,
Donna and Tim

Prelude: Rotherhithe - Westminster
Day 1: Westminster - Heston 11.5 miles
Day 2: Heston - Runnymede 11 miles
Day 3: Runnymede - Bracknell Forest 13 miles
Day 4: Bracknell Forest - Hook 15.5 miles
Day 5: Hook - Overton 15 miles
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Overton - Longstock 14 miles
Day 8: Longstock - Salisbury 14.5 miles
Day 9: Salisbury - Fovant 11.5 miles
Day 10: Fovant - Shaftesbury 12 miles
Day 11: Shaftesbury - Horsington 11.5 miles
Day 12: Rest
Day 13: Horsington - Illchester 14 miles
Day 14: Illchester - Crewkerne 12 miles
Day 15: Crewkerne - Fordwater 10 miles
Day 16: Fordwater - Beer 12 miles
Day 17: Beer - Sidmouth 9 miles
Day 18: Rest
Day 19: Sidmouth - Starcross 11.5 miles
Day 20: Starcross - Kingskerswell 14 miles
Day 21: Kingskerswell - Dartington MA Show 10 miles

London to Dartington route: - 222 miles

Amongst those who have accepted Donna and Tim's invitation to walk with them are members of Propeller and Deer Park (Donna was a founding member of the latter company), Alan Read, Gregg Whelan & Gary Winters (Lone Twin), Dan Gretton & James Mariott (Platform), Emilyn Claid, John Hall, Simon Persighetti, Misha Myers, Josie Sutcliffe, Peter Kiddle, Simon Murray, Joe Richards, Claire Donovan, Alan Bolden, Tracey Warr, Jerome Fletcher, Sue Palmer and me. That's quite a collection of feet. And there's a substantial history of walking as part of a creative practice at Dartington over the years.

Unfortunately my old friend Ric Allsopp, who I've known for almost 25 years - he was one of the core reasons for my own return to Dartington from Australia in the late 1990s - will not be able to take part; he's working elsewhere throughout this period. Yesterday Ric emailed me a copy of his response to Donna's invitation:

Dear Donna, Thank you for your invitation which David also had mentioned to me. I had hoped to be able to join you to walk and talk - but I'm afraid the dates just don't work out for me. So - best of luck with the project. I'm not sure if I actually have anything to say about Dartington - a thirty year involvement in the College leaves me with the feeling that it is time to walk on. 'Dartington' will remain as it always was - an unstable set of ideas and acts of public dreaming; an opportunity to engage with some extraordinary people who more than occasionally managed to share a radical educational and arts ethos and way of doing things which gave rise to challenging, absorbing and uplifting work - work that will continue to define and disturb and resonate with contemporary arts practice. Best wishes, Ric

Today I received a map of the route from Sidmouth to Star Cross. Mainly along the South West Coastal Path - past Chit Rocks, Tortoiseshell Rocks, Big Picket Rock, North Star, Otterton, Aqueduct, The Warren, South Farm, Nature Reserve, Budleigh Salterton, Otter Cove, Dangerous Area, Straight Point, Sandy Bay, Orcombe Rocks, Conger Rocks, The Maer, The Point, and finally the ferry across the Exe (floating over something underwater in mid-estuary called Great Bull Hill) to Starcross ... I'm looking forward to these 11.5 miles already.

In the winter of 1973-4, Werner Herzog undertook a three-week solo walk from Munich to Paris, in order to try to prevent his friend the film historian Lotte Eisner from dying ('Our Eisner must not die, she will not die, I won't permit it. Not now, no, she is not allowed'). When he finally met Eisner at the end of his journey, he said to her: 'Together, we shall boil fire and stop fish ... Open the window, from these last days onward I can fly' (Of Walking in Ice).

During September, I'll post more about Donna and Tim's walk as it unfolds across southern England. I wish them big skies, energy, cool feet and open hearts.
________________________________________

P.S. I've just been to the local village library to drop off a book I've had for over a year and still haven't read. It's an eccentric library, locked in a previous age; and it's dominated by a surprisingly large crime section. No computer, no library membership card, just an elderly volunteer hunched over a desk in the old school room - she records transactions longhand in a ledger. You tell her what you've got, then your name, and she flattens out the page of the ledger with a papery hand before writing it down very very slowly. The name of the woman in front of me in the queue was Julie Andrews; Julie had an Ian Rankin novel called Exit Music. And the previous borrower, as registered in the ledger, was D. Copperfield, who had taken a book called Wild Walks.

© David Williams

Photos: top - Blundstones ('since 1870'); middle - tech rehearsal of Deer Park's see you swoon, Junge Hunde Festival, Antwerp, 2004; bottom - Joseph Beuys, La rivoluzione siamo noi, 1972