On March 19 and 20 2010, If I Can't Dance, I Don't Want To Be Part of Your Revolution presented the final episode of Edition III - Masquerade in the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. The programme 'From Dusk Till Dawn' included installations, performances and lectures by a.o. Ruth Buchanan, Yann Chateigné Tytelman, Keren Cytter, Yael Davids, Jon Mikel Euba, Olivier Foulon, Luca Frei, Aurélien Froment, Joachim Koester, Suchan Kinoshita, Lars Bang Larsen, Maria Pask, Peggy Phelan, Sarah Pierce, Jimmy Robert, Suely Rolnik and Stefanie Seibold. In the Van Abbemuseum's clock tower, a live radio programme covered the whole event from dusk till dawn.
Visit the archive to listen to interviews with the artists, and to view photo slideshows of this event.
The aim of this edition was to explore an alternative conceptual framework of the masquerade. This can be read in the light of If I Can't Dance 's continuing exploration, since its inception in 2005, of paradigms such as theatricality (Edition I, 2005) and feminism(s) (Edition II, 2006-2007). Edition III - Masquerade touched on aspects such as ritual, gesture, normalized as opposed to transgressive behaviour, covert as well as manifest action and differing approaches to role playing, power positions and appearance.
The artists Keren Cytter, Jon Mikel Euba, Olivier Foulon, Suchan Kinoshita, Joachim Koester and Sarah Pierce were invited to produce new projects: to be developed within a two-year time frame; to be presented at the subsequent moments when If I Can't Dance visited international partner institutions.
'To navigate, in a genuine way, in the unknown necessitates an attitude of daring, but not one of recklessness (movements generated from the Magical Passes of Carlos Castaneda)', Joachim Koester, 16mm film - March 19 and 20, 2010, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
As a counterpoint to the Edition's long-term artists' projects, unfolding within an international geography, If I Can't Dance... presented a programme of performances with a monthly rhythm in collaboration with Frascati Theatre in its hometown Amsterdam. This programme is titled If I Can't Dance Tonight. The artists invited to participate in this programme were encouraged to reflect on, and to respond to, the current interest in the notion of the masquerade. Their singular perspectives punctuated the edition's 'ongoing story'. The artists who have presented performances in Frascati theatre, and reinterpreted them for the final episode in the Van Abbemuseum, were a.o.: Ruth Buchanan, Yael Davids, Luca Frei, Aurélien Froment & Youri Dirkx, Maria Pask, Jimmy Robert and Stefanie Seibold.
Why Masquerade?
If we understand the cultural history of masquerading as an accessing of alterity in a situation of social conformity, then we think it is interesting to readdress this notion today precisely because there has never before been such an intense reinforcement of the cult of the individual. Despite years of serious questioning of the construction of subjectivity through feminism, post colonialism, post communism and other intellectual and activist strategies, we seem to have been over taken by events. Consumer culture strategically reinforces individualism - the channels of new media provide endless possibilities for intense selfarticulation and yet where does this bring us in relation to the complex understanding of the constructions of singularity and other emancipatory possibilities? Reading the mask right now and addressing a sense of alterity in a moment of unilateral governmentality or status quo seems prescient.
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mailinglist. Trajectory
After episode 1 in De Appel arts Centre (Amsterdam) and episode 2 in Sala Rekalde (Bilbao), Edition III had a sequel in episode 3 in Project Arts Centre (Dublin). The fourth and final episode took place at the Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven) on 19 - 20 March 2010.
The prologue of Edition III took place in Copenhagen on the 23rd of August 2008. In a daylong programme in Overgaden, the artists involved presented their ideas on the projects to be developed. In Karriere Bar the stage was set for a performance of planningtorock.
Read more » Episode 1 of Edition III - Masquerade took place in de Appel in Amsterdam, from September 26 to November 9, 2008. This episode included an exhibition, an archival presentation and a performance programme. The performances took place in de Appel, as well as in Frascati Theatre, SMBA and OT 301.
Read more » Episode 2 of Edition III - Masquerade took place in Sala Rekalde in Bilbao, from December 18, 2008 to March 9, 2009. This episode included an exhibition and a performance programme.
Read more » Episode 3 of Edition III - Masquerade took place in the Projects Arts Centre in Dublin, from June 11 to June 13, 2009. If I Can't Dance... presented the third episode of the long-term project Masquerade at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin.
Read more » Episode 4 - VAN ABBEMUSEUM
Episode 4 of Edition III - Masquerade, entitled 'From Dusk Till Dawn' took place from 17:00 hrs on Friday 19 March to 11.00 hrs on Saturday 20 March 2010 in the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. The programme included installations, performances and lectures. Read more »
Invitation for book launch (Mis)reading Masquerades. Click image to preview.
Book launch (Mis)reading Masquerades
with Sylvère Lotringer
25/06/2010, 17:00 hrsOn Friday the 25th of June the book launch of our most recent publication (Mis)reading Masquerades took place at our headquarters at Westerdok 606-608 in Amsterdam.
On this occasion Prof. Sylvère Lotringer gave a lecture titled Capital Carnival, followed by a conversation hosted by researcher Steven Ten Thije.
Sylvère Lotringer, founder of Semiotext(e), is widely credited for introducing "French Theory" in America. He is professor emeritus of French Philosophy at Columbia University, Jean Baudrillard professor at the European Graduate School, and visiting professor at SciArc in Los Angeles. His most recent publications are Fous d'Artaud (Paris: Sens et Tonka, 2003) and Overexposed (New York: Semiotext(e), 2007).
(Mis)reading Masquerades is the result of a two year exploration by If I Can't Dance of the cultural, social and political meanings of the concept of masquerade, in collaboration with more than fifty artists, curators, writers and theoreticians. Read more ».
Prof. Sylvère Lotringer. Photo credits: Iris Klein
