Expanded Performance

For a period of three months this fall the program of Stroom Den Haag will be dedicated to performance art, in the broadest sense of the word. We will explore the practice of 'expanded' performance, breaking through the boundaries of the exhibition space and actively engaging the audience. On the day of the opening Expanded Performance will not present an exhibition in its finished form; over time the presentation will change, by means of performances, activities and visitor participation. The audience can follow these changes on our Tumblr blog and take a guided tour of the building along the interventions of the artists. Expanded Performance is characterized by a variety of speeds and layers. This will be explained below.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

- Reading group led by artist Maria Pask During the course of Expanded Performance this reading group led by Maria Pask is looking into the concept of 'expanded' performance, institutional working methods and audience engagement. A list of texts discussed can be found online.

- Architectural intervention by Thomas Heyer and Jakob Kunst These two young designers from The Hague will develop a concept linking the separate elements of Expanded Performance. People who visit Stroom will know that they have become part Expanded Performance.

- New work by five international artists Ruth Buchanan (New Zealand), Leidy Churchman and MPA (USA), Vlatka Horvat (Croatia/USA), Adrien Tirtiaux (Belgium). These artists take up a special position in the field of expanded performance.

Leidy Churchman and MPA have develop a project entitled Painting Rooms, composed of large paintings, walls and brass rods. The work also consists of a black and white video on a monitor notating the actions by the two artists with these materials.

Vlatka Horvat comes from the theater world. As a visual artist she is fascinated by the relationship between people and their surroundings. She loves to take the viewer by surprise, to make us laugh, and show the unexpected. During Expanded Performance she presents the new projects Replacements and Drift. For the former, each day for the duration of the exhibition a different member of Stroom staff chooses an object from anywhere in the building and relocates it to the exhibition space, replacing the object that had been placed there the day before. Drift is a two-part spatial intervention in two stairway corridors in Stroom's exhibition space

Adrien Tirtiaux was originally trained as an architect. Thus, his feeling for buildings and the way they are used is still very present in his work. Tirtiaux hardly ever leaves the viewer alone and expects, or simply forces the audience to adapt his or her behaviour in order to be able to see his work. This is also the case for the project The Great Cut which Tirtiaux developed for Expanded Performance. This project does not only deal with the exhibition space of Stroom, but with the whole institution and the people working there.

The work of Ruth Buchanan mobilises language in manifold ways, incorporating a combination of audio and printed matter. Often using her own voice, Buchanan's text-work operates as a form of choreography to navigate the viewer through a space, a set of objects or group of ideas. She works closely with the spatial parameters of any given situation, subsequently the viewer enters a subtly staged scenario: a large curtain, a wall, a group of chairs. Nothing is left to chance, yet nothing feels forced upon us.

Expanded Performance
Kuratoren: Capucine Perrot, Anne Holtrop

Künstler: Maria Pask, Thomas Heyer, Jakob Kunst, Ruth Buchanan, Leidy Churchman, MPA , Vlatka Horvat, Adrien Tirtiaux Nicoline van Harskamp, Nicoline van Harskamp, Louise Herve & Chloe Maillet , Lea Lagasse, Pierre Leguillon, Sarah Pierce, Alexandre Singh, Cally Spooner, The City School, Anthony Huberman, Pedro Gadanho