Live Laboratory Symposium, Performances, Exhibition and Publication
Co-curated with the Marina Abramovic Institute for Preservation of Performance Art

22 to 24 January 2010
At The Slaughterhouse, Royal William Yard
Plymouth City Market and Plymouth Arts Centre

Artists: Davide Balliano (US), Tellervo and Oliver Kalleinen (Finland), Snezana Golubovic (Serbia), Eva and Franco Mattes (US/Germany), Performance Re-enactment Society (UK)

Speakers: Marina Abramovic (live link), artists from the performances, Ron Athey, Maria Balshaw, Paul Clarke, Helen Cole, Geoff Cox, Adrian Heathfield, Tehching Hsieh, Dominic Johnson, Nick Kaye, Alastair MacLennan, Lee Miller, Andrew Mitchelson, Roberta Mock, Hayley Newman, Hans Ulrich Obrist (live link), Paula Orrell, Kira O’Reilly, Helen Pritchard, Jovana Stokic, André Stitt and Lois Weaver.

Plymouth Arts Centre collaborated with artist Marina Abramovic to produce a performance event that explored the history and future of the artist’s work. This was the first international exhibition of works by The Marina Abramovic Institute for Preservation of Performance Art and explored documentation and preservation of performance art. The programme included a festival weekend of performances, exhibition, symposium, workshops, and artist-led events. 

Durational performance has been the defining aspect of Marina Abramovic’s work for the past forty years. The artist now looks to encapsulate this art form and provide space for the future of such practice. Through this project Marina Abramovic challenged concerns of how performance art is curated and documented, and how such work is presented when created in real time. Marina Abramovic was awarded an honorary decorate in 2009 by the Faculty of Arts, University of Plymouth. As a collector of its artefacts and materials through dance, film, theatre, music, rituals and performance, she intended to examine performance art from its constituent parts, as an archaeologist “preserving an art form that is, by its very nature, ephemeral”. The exhibition was not only a site for preservation and interpretation but, as an active generator of performance art, continued her work as a vanguard of one the most provocative and radical art forms of the 20th century.

Marina Abramovic unconditionally intends to assist artists and audiences in the future of this practice. The weekend event took place offsite from Plymouth Arts Centre at Royal William Yard, a 17th century Navy Victualling Yard, from 22 to 24 January, 2010. Over three days, seven internationally renowned young performance artists were commissioned to produce new durational works. The diversity of contemporary performance art was explored through the work of Davide Balliano (US), Tellervo and Oliver Kalleinen (Finland), Snezana Golubovic (Serbia), Eva and Franco Mattes (US/Germany), Performance Re-enactment Society (UK). These new commissions considered long durational and performance techniques, including forms of storytelling, virtual worlds, audience participation, sound, the use of the body and avant-garde performance. Each piece performed was documented and represented for the duration of the exhibition.