Call for Performance Proposals – Precarious Assembly
We are looking for artists to participate in Accumulations’ second gathering, titled Precarious Assembly, which is due to take place at the Whitworth Gallery on the evening of 4th August 2016 between 6-9pm.
We welcome proposals from artists or groups who are interested in creating or adapting a performance for a specific location within, throughout or around the Whitworth building, that responds to our project brief and to the history of female-artists and curators who have exhibited in the Whitworth throughout its history.
Accumulations is an Arts Council England funded research and development project led by four movement-based artists (Amy Voris, Sara Spies, Hannah Buckley and Dani Abulhawa). Over the course of a year we have been investigating each of our female genealogies of artistic practice, through an engagement with our family histories, the range of artists, activists and philosophers who shape each of our artistic practices, and explorations into existing organisations and groups that support and develop research into women’s work, play, art, and legacies.
Our activities have been organised around four main themes that relate to each of our practices: ‘women’s work’, ‘archival practices’. ‘intergenerational exchange’ and ‘gendered spaces’.
Brief
> We would like to work with artists whose practices are broadly located within movement/dance/performance, and with artists who can articulate a lineage or assembly of female/feminine influences as inherently connected to their proposed work.
> We are particularly interested in pieces that integrate with, respond to and specify a location within the Whitworth Gallery or its surroundings, and that engage with the practices of female artists and curators who have exhibited within the Whitworth building* (alongside any other female artists relevant to your practice).
> The proposed work does not have to be slick, completed or clear.
> The proposed work can represent a challenge to conventional spectatorial practice or to the categories of movement/dance/performance and to notions of lineage, assembly, and female/feminine.
> We have very limited technical/material resources, so the proposed work should be very low-fi/DIY in its approach.
> In return, we can offer travel expenses and accommodation, if you are from further afield (nothing fancy, it would be lodging with an artist based in Manchester), and a small honorarium of £100 per artist/group.
The written statement produced by each artist contextualising their work will be collated into a catalogue and professionally designed and printed in Manchester.
We would like each artist or group to send the following information to accumulationsproject@gmail.com:
> Name of artist or group and telephone number and email address for one person as main contact
> A biography of no more than 75 words for the artist/group or for each member of the group
> A statement of 300 words articulating your proposed performance as a response to the brief above (this will be used in the catalogue)
> A practical description of the proposed performance work (How it will be placed within a particular part of the gallery or surrounding area, and any technical/costume/props you will bring)
> One web link to a website, images or video that are indicative of the work you would like to present.
Deadline for receipt of proposals is Saturday 11th June, 5pm.
Artists will be informed of the outcome by the end of June. Any questions about the project or the brief can be directed to the Accumulations email address above.
For details of the Whitworth’s current and past exhibitions and events, and for opening times, please see the website: http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk
* Aside from the wealth of work by women currently and historically presented within the Whitworth that might be referred to, from 11th June – 31st October, the gallery are presenting an exhibition curated by Elizabeth Price, titled In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive and You Were Full of Joy. This will be located in the main galleries and will be a major presence within the site on the evening of Precarious Assembly.