Conference
December 19, 2015 / 14:30
As part of the program “Music Embodied” parallel to the exhibition This is Not a Love Song: Video Art and Pop Music Crossovers, Pera Museum presents a series of talks about performance art and its interdisciplinary collaborations in collaboration with biriken. William Easton brings together a meandering and personal account of histories of performance art and their relevance to contemporary practice at the conference titled "Post Crisis - Performance and the importance of forgetting".
Easton suggests that in the light of new technologies and our current seemingly limitless access to information that the models of change that we have invented may need to be reappraised. The myths of the avant-garde, the professionalization of performance and performance studies, the tropes of renewal, regeneration and revolution can all be challenged by questioning our apparent faith in memory and knowing. Drawing from diverse fragments of performance works from the last fifty years the lecture hopefully constructs an argument that we are at a fascinating moment in time where we might be able to see beyond the concept of crisis as an instigator for change and instead look at the willful and discursive use of forgetting as a way to overcome our often obsessive enthusiasm with reconstruction and the straightjacket of history.
About William Easton
William Easton is an artist, writer, curator and teacher who has over a number of years moved incongruously between many different areas of art, education and performance. He was the head Tensta Konsthall in Stockholm, and rector of Berghs School, one of Sweden’s leading universities of design and communications. He has written extensively, for magazines in the US, Sweden, UK, Poland and elsewhere and is the author of several works including “Gifts of Intimacy” in 2011 and a recent collection of poetry “Johan Antonsson Changed His Name” in 2015. His own performance works have been shown at the ICA in London, Bornholm Art Museum in Denmark, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Warsaw, The Kemper Museum in Kansas City and at the Bronx Museum and the Kitchen in New York.
About biriken
biriken is formed by Okan Urun and Melis Tezkan in 2006 in Istanbul with the aim of conceiving stage performances, installations and videos. Among the venues and the festivals where biriken performed: De Keuze International - Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Under The Radar Festival - La MAMA Theater, Stückemarket’11 - Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, iDANS Festival, French Institute of Istanbul, Ankara International Film Festival, garajistanbul, Galata Perform.
Free of admissions, drop in.
This event will take place in the auditorium.
Conference language is English with Turkish simultaneous translation.
in collaboration
In his book exploring the cultural history of souvenirs, Rolf Potts discusses how such objects assume meaning through personal stories: Objects turn into memories with the stories they hold.
Pera Museum Blog is launching a new series of creepy stories in collaboration with Turkey’s Fantasy and Science Fiction Arts Association (FABISAD). The Association’s member writers are presenting newly commissioned short horror stories inspired by the artworks of Mario Prassinos as part of the Museum’s In Pursuit of an Artist: Istanbul-Paris-Istanbul exhibition. The third story is by Murat Başekim! The stories will be published online throughout the exhibition. Stay tuned!
Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Pera Museum invites artist Benoît Hamet to reinterpret key pieces from its collections, casting a humourous eye over ‘historical’ events, both imagined and factual.
Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 - 19:00
Friday 10:00 - 22:00
Sunday 12:00 - 18:00
The museum is closed on Mondays.
On Wednesdays, the students can
visit the museum free of admission.
Full ticket: 300 TL
Discounted: 150 TL
Groups: 200 TL (minimum 10 people)
