PART I. Welcome, get chairs into auditorium-style seating [25-30 mins]

 

1. 0.  Entry and welcome

'Joker Instruction 1': If you need me to repeat that, raise your hand.

'Joker Instruction 2': ‘If you are bored and are thinking when is the coffee break, raise your arms and shake your fists’

– doors open, people start coming in. Print artwork (Paul’s and Rohanne’s print posters hung on one wall of the theatre), a few stacks of chairs. Soft lighting/ house lights on –

 

PAUL+LORENZA (no mics) say ‘welcome’ to each person entering the room, and:

1) Hand out programmes

2) Say where to put bags/coats

3) Photography and video consent: sign.

4) Sign up to the walking session or to the movement session at 2.45pm (x2 sign up sheets)

P+L (no mics): ‘When the next person comes in, will you be the host and ask them all these things’.

 

– when there are enough people in the room – 

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LORENZA

Welcome, I am Lorenza, I am the co-host today, and this is Paul, he is the co-host.

 

P+L (now with mics) say ‘Welcome’ reprise all the rules above using mics (in case people missed them)  [maybe don’t need to say this]

 

1. 1. Social choreography

 

- ‘If you see someone you know [or you came with someone you know], go next to them and start walking around the room with them’....’You are allowed to say hi to each other’

 

- ‘if you see someone you don’t know but would like to talk to, go near them, about an arm’s length’. ‘Now, you can walk along together’....’you may also speak to them’
 

- ‘you can leave and find another person when you want’.

 

- ‘stop where you are’

 

PAUL

Take a look around the room.

- Point at someone who you think works in a museum and gallery.

- Point at someone who you think is an artist. 

- Point at someone who you think is a student, or an academic. 

- Point at someone who you think has no professional engagement with the arts.

- Point at the person in the room who you think has the most power in the art world.

 

3.20

 

1. 2. Chairs

 

LORENZA

- ‘Walk around the room/ As you’re walking, look at the stack of chairs…[after a while]...like in a procession’.

- ‘Contemplate’.

- ‘Walk up to someone, start to have a conversation about the stack of chairs. Explain to each other what the work means’. 

 

[- ‘Indulge into more and more artistic words’]

 

PAUL

[interrupting]

- If you think participation is awkward, or boring, take one of the chairs, take it somewhere in the room, and sit down on it.

- If you’re fine with participation, but want to express solidarity with people who don’t like participation, then go get a chair and also sit down.

- If you don’t care about people who don’t like participation, but would like to sit down, just because you want to sit down, then take a seat.

- If you’re still standing, and enjoy standing, that’s great. But you’re welcome to grab a chair whenever you want.

 

1.  3. Meetings

 

PAUL

 

This afternoon is about thinking about what it’s like to be in institutional spaces, and how they shape our bodies and movements. 

 

So, right now, we’re in a particular arrangement. Without speaking, let’s try and rearrange ourselves and our chairs, as if we were in: 

• An open-plan office.

• Let’s arrange ourselves as if we were at a dance performance.

• Finally, let’s organise ourselves, as if we were going to listen to a couple of presentations, from some industry experts, who will be standing over ______. 

 

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PART II.  A choreographic survey

 

LORENZA

As some of you might have noticed, our introduction was an homage to Bojana Cvejic’s work Spatial Confessions. In the same spirit of making public spatial confessions, we would like to ask you to take part in a short ‘choreorgaphic survey’. 

 

with these 10 (11?) divisive questions about politics of bodies/hosting/institutions/etc.)’

 

PAUL

1. In general, on average, do you feel welcome in art institutions? Yes or no? 

2. Is it possible for a museum or gallery to be too welcoming? Yes, or no?

LORENZA

1. Do you think museums and galleries should collect data on gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status and sexual identity?

2. Do you think true racial and gender equity in art institutions will be achieved within your lifetime? 

 

1. Do you think the architectural container of the museum produces effects of  disembodiment related to the dematerialised forms of global capital?  [quote, read quickly]   

PAUL

1. Have you ever touched something that you have been told not to touch?

2. Do you think the ICA offices are up the stairs of this building?

 

LORENZA

1. Have you ever been paid to spend 7 hours in a day in the same room of a museum or gallery?

2. Have you ever felt forced to copy someone in a work email?

3. Have you ever pretended you have a bad internet connection as an easy way to get out of a work meeting? 

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– end –