A body/word Course originally designed for MFA Students
 | How may body/word offer a contemporary way into curatorial practice? What does dramaturgy mean in the context of Visual Arts? Do you need to write with words? How does Performance Writing allow personal practices and updated theories to blend in a unique methodology? |
Christina Shiakola is a Visual Artist who took my year long body/word and Performance Writing classes, while believing she “does not write”. We since became friends and dear collaborators. The occasion this time was her Curatorial Studies module in the frame of the MFA at Frederick University Cyprus. A lovely collaboration, almost all of which online.
One of the principles of body/word, in the ethical frame of Performance Writing as practiced in Dartington College of Arts, is transferring modes of one field into the other. Christina invited me to design for her a bespoke class to complement her studies in the frame of the MFA. In response, I initially offered some core questions:How may body/word offer a contemporary way into curatorial practice? What does dramaturgy mean in the context of Visual Arts? Do you need to write with words? How does Performance Writing allow personal practices and updated theories to blend in a unique methodology?
The point was to allow existing knowledge and new information to blend and create an original proposal. It is true Christina was already very familiar with my view, from the previous body/word classes she had attended, and we had already worked together for my body/word-Performance Writing project, Is This My City? Nicosia. That helped us immensely with taking the whole educational process some steps further down the road of creative investigation, by means of exploring co-authoring and mutual mentoring of creative and curatorial practices. And, it worked. Both for the thesis and the practical work required by the postgraduate program. Look for similar courses here and don’t hesitate to add your own defining factors when you get in touch.
Course duration & Venue:October 2016 – May 2017, Online and Athens, Greece