I have been pondering over the last week about performance structures and approaches to performance. Been inspired (or even blow away) by Maurice Blok, whose performance I encountered at BIFPA15 in Belfast (organised by Brian Connolly) and Tomasz Szrama‘s work (which I’m yet to encounter, but I will – I will!). What Inspires me by their performances are the seemingly unstructured (though surely it is to a degree) and rather spontaneous elements in their work.
I really love this and I can see it working with my thoughts on Breath / Break – however, I’m still struggling to find a way to follow in their footsteps or let the inspiration they have given me be manifested in a form I like. I have tried a few time, but it hasn’t really settled or satisfied my stomach feeling.
Though I have been reading Sacha Kagan’s book over the last week or so, where he speaks about sustainability and (more interestingly) about patterns of complexity. Here he is through various sources speaking about cells, membranes, organisms, metabolism, energy and relations. Three elements, which are presents are: emergence, process and non-linear cognitives. When reading about this, I felt again inspired and reminded of by Blok and Tomasz’ work, who I feel embed exactly this. The performance is a process. of which things emerges and at the same time refrain from linear execution or thought patterns.
It is also a way to move away from performance making, with a fixed idea, but rather stepping into a process (or processes) of relation between site and body, desire, emotions and critical thinking. It inspires me to combine my joy of Blok and Tomasz’ work, with new ways of thinking and approaches, which I can begin to explore what they opened up for me.
