Introduction Claire Bishop Is Everyone a Performer?

ARE YOU ALIVE OR NOT?
Looking at ART through the lens of THEATRE

was a conference-festival organised by the Gerrit Rietveld Academie that took place from 18-22 March, 2015 at theatre De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam.

Gabriëlle Schleijpen, curator in chief of the Studium Generale Rietveld Academie invited, Claire Bishop (art historian, writer New York), Claire Tancons (curator, researcher, writer New Orleans), Joanna Warsza (curator, Berlin) & David Weber-Krebs (theatre maker Brussels) to each inaugurate a discursive and performative program of one day.

MARCH 22: IS EVERYONE A PERFORMER?
Curated and presented by Claire Bishop
Artificial Hells proposes that participatory art aspires to a utopian collapse of artist and audience, turning everyone into co-producer of the work of art. But hasn’t Web 2.0 already made this argument obsolete? The non-stop creation and consumption of self-image in social media means that today we are all photographers, models, curators, filmmakers, poets and DJs. Such amateur performances arguably turn our entire lives into theatre, with no need for a mediating artist, stage or gallery.

This day focused on the intersection between such amateur performances and de-skilling. If amateurism is undertaken for love, and without any disciplinary training, then de-skilling denotes the conscious rejection of your education in favor of a simpler, rougher way of doing things. The invited speakers all responded to the central question of whether de-skilling opens up to inclusive new aesthetic possibilities or just heralds the end of any competence and virtuosity whatsoever.

With Gavin Butt, Annie Dorsen, Alexandra Pirici, Jesse Darling and student-interventions empowered by Mårten Spångberg.