For the second time the Performance Lab and Improv Sessions integrate to a joint event of 'The Fierce Urgency of Now! - performance sessions'

Welcome to a night of experimental performance and improvised music, sound and Jam, at Museum of Impossible Forms.

Program:

18:00 PERFORMANCE LAB
Congratulations: A performance by Parsa Kamehkhosh
1 9 1 7 : A performance by Rogério Nuno Costa

19:00 IMPROV SESSIONS
Kaisa Mäenpää. Clarinet 
Grisell Macdonell. Double bass 
Elisa Wistuba. Cello 
+ 
Laponia Improvisations 

20:00 BLIND DATES FOR IMPROVISORS 
Open session for improvisations, all musicians welcome.

About the performances:

Congratulations: Parsa Kamehkhosh

Congratulations is a life-long project including a series of performances/practices through which I prepare myself for death. During this performance—which is the sixth one of this series—I will be sitting for one hour on a chair, trying to comprehend and internalize the absolute reality that I might die at any second. Next to me, there will be an elaborate list of things that need to be done in the event that I die during the performance. This list is maintained based on the situation of my life on the days that I perform and will be updated before each performance accordingly.

1 9 1 7 : A performance by Rogério Nuno Costa
(open rehearsal)

In 1917, Marcel Duchamp writes “1917” in an upside-down urinal, and, by doing so, stating: I prefer not to. One hundred years later, we still don’t know how to deal with that radical endeavour. More than a clever attempt to revolutionise, shock or transgress the art world (or to prophesy the End of Art, some might have said), the historical epiphenomenon hide a more obscure quest for a self-imposed ostracism and loneliness, as if it was impossible to do anything more after having obliterated almost everything. Duchamp spent decades doing nothing at all, the reason why Vila-Matas dedicated some footnotes to him in his Bartleby & Co., a non-book of “negative authors”, those who have decided to stop pushing the pen and let their silence do the talking instead. One hundred years later, I want to reformulate Duchamp’s questioning, assuming self-neglect and oblivion as an act of resistance. How can I reactivate a centennial gesture while facing my own ephemerality? For this first work-in-progress presentation at the Museum of Impossible Forms, I will test the presence of silence and invisibility in the performance’s dramaturgical structure. For a humble materialization of Duchamp’s dream of a society built on the refusal of work, or the conceptualization of Laziness™ as the ultimate avantgarde.

Concept, Text, Performance: Rogério Nuno Costa
Production: Ballet Contemporâneo do Norte (Associated Artist)
Residencies: Rua das Gaivotas6 (Lisbon), Là-Bas Studio at Kaapelitehdas (Helsinki)

Rogério Nuno Costa is a Portuguese performance artist, theatre director, actor, dramaturgist, researcher, teacher, curator and writer. His work gravitates around the major concept of documentation when applied to ephemeral performative actions. His performances, lectures, installations and texts explore the fields of theatre, dance, visual arts and literature, interconnecting public and private contexts, erudite and pop culture, autobiographical discourses and informational/communicational strategies. Has been teaching, lecturing and directing workshops and master classes in academic institutions such as Escola Superior de Artes e Design (Caldas da Rainha, Portugal), Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema (Lisbon, Portugal), Faculdade de Belas Artes (Lisbon, Portugal), Hogeschool voor de Kunsten (Arnhem, The Netherlands), Faculdade de Letras (Coimbra, Portugal) and Universidade do Minho (Guimarães, Portugal). Apart from his own performance work, often writes and directs theatre and dance performances for other artists and companies, also working as a dramaturgist, artistic consultant and editor. Currently developing a series of meta-academic activities concerning his project “University/Yliopisto“. Member of the Performance Studies Research Group at CEHUM (University of Minho, Portugal). Curator at Armazém 22 (Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal). Active collaborator of the theatre company Estrutura, taking the roles of artistic consultant, dramaturgist, co-director and performer. Has been leading, since 2015, the Documentation Management (archival and editorial direction) at Ballet Contemporâneo do Norte, contemporary dance company where he is also an Associated Artist. Prepares for 2019 the curating of the performance art program “€TRASH” (Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal). 

www.rogerionunocosta.wordpress.com
www.facebook.com/rogerionunocosta.art
www.vimeo.com/rogerionunocosta

Picture: “Nude Laying Down On A Couch, D’Après Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending A Staircase”, performative photograph by © David Pissarra with Rogério Nuno Costa. First residency for (1917) at Pólo Cultural das Gaivotas, Lisbon, 2017.