protoPLAY

Performance Art, Sound, Music, Video.

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‘Survival’: A DIY4 project.
A wilderness ritual - an invitation to step outside of one’s social and artistic comfort zone and move with the flow of the city itself.

Led by Orion Maxted and Al Paldrok.

When: Friday 15 June to Wednesday 20 June 2007.
Where: The Sussex Downs to central London.
Deadline: 6pm, Friday 11th of MAY

The Project

‘Survival’ is a six-day nomadic workshop moving from the Sussex downs to the London streets, whilst penny-less and sleeping outdoors. The first two days will be workshops in the rural environment exploring primitivism, whilst foraging for food. On moving into London, the outcomes of the workshops will form street actions responding to the context of the city. The focus will be on the activity, development and survival of the group, not the production of performances for passers by. Rather this artistic activity is a way to focus reflection on the activities in general, and mainly as a constituent part of the proposed fundamental needs: 1) Full stomach 2) Community 3) Art.

Together with six participants we will move with the flow of the city itself, nourishing ourselves and making art from its spare but healthy resources which will normally go to waste or are otherwise left inactivated. ‘Survival’ is as much about finding a contemporary evocation of an ancient ‘wilderness ritual’ as it is a workshop for exploring ideas about society and performance to help develop the professional practice of its participants. Consistent amongst these rites, is the action of being separated from one’s society and going to survive in the wilderness in order to find out about oneself, and hence about society.

‘Survival’ is anticipated to be a challenging yet life-affirming experience. Through it new understandings, new approaches, increased confidence and a renewed creative vigour may be gained.

 

About the Artists

Orion Maxted is an artist and member of the transdisciplinary collective protoPLAY, www.protoplay.net. Al Paldrok is an artist and member of the Estonian performance group Non Grata, www.nongrata.ee and lecturer at the Independent art school Academia Non Grata. The two of them have been collaborating and performing alongside each other since 2004.

 

For more info on DIY click here.

 

DIY 4 is a collaboration between the Live Art Development Agency, Artsadmin, and New Work Network, and is being developed with Nuffield Theatre/LANWest, New Work Yorkshire, Fierce Festival, Colchester Arts Centre, The Basement Arts Production South East, and Dance4. DIY 4 is part of Joining the Dots, a Live Art Development Agency initiative supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

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Images From Diverse Universe III, June 2007, Estonia and Finland.

“KILL KELL” (TIME DOES NOT EXIST), Tallinn.

>>>> go to DIVERSE UNIVERSE III <<<<

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Orion Maxted’s work is about the human condition. About living in a world dictated by our own cognition, a world of discreet infinity. In his performance, he questions the root of understanding through an exploration of circular and circuitous inquiry and action. In his words:

“The fundamental of the fundamental of the fundamental of the fundamental of the fundamental of the fundamental… If by taking apart and putting back together we gain understanding of the world; Then, By taking apart and putting back together: taking apart and putting back together, May we gain some understanding of understanding?!… It is as if re-asking a question to which we assume to have a definitive answer. It opens up a space of possibility… Its not about that, its much simpler, its much more than that, its much less… its just about taking things apart and putting them back together.”

Download: ORION MAXTED CV (03.2007)

Download dissertation: The Role of the Artist in Societies Dominated by the Knowledge of Science