I was invited by the artist, Nathalie Talec, to teach a performance workshop to her students at ESBAT. Over the course of four days: I did 15 studio visits, gave an artist talk to the school, and gave the students daily exercises and research assignments to introduce them to different modes of performance. On the last day, the students prepared their own performance piece that was intended to be site-specific.
First Assignment: Bring in a personal object. Chose an object that is not yours and create a work in response to the object. Works and ideas for works produced included: actions, paintings, videos, poems and a screenplay for a film.
Second Assignment: Think of an action that you can do repetitively for 10 minutes straight. This is what the classroom looked like:
Third Assignment: Develop a performance piece for the class that utilizes the abandoned apartment space. Use whatever materials are present in the space and/or bring in your own objects. Duration can vary. Most of the students utilized what materials were present in the space and created work that was specific to the space. Here are some images from works that were produced.
