Research Festival and Exhibition "Conserving Performance, Performing Conservation," September 14-29, 2024, at institutions across Switzerland

This is a first glimpse into the schedule for our long-awaited research festival and exhibition, "Conserving Performance: Performing Conservation," which is currently in its final planning phase. Please save the dates and join us this fall in Zurich, Geneva, Lausanne, Aarau, and Bern!

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This research festival and exhibition celebrates the ongoingness of performance in its social, material and epistemic networks by bringing together practitioners of performance, dance, museums and conservation with researchers across disciplines. Examining performance through the lens of conservation, the festival showcases the outcomes of four years of research “Performance: Conservation, Materiality, Knowledge” (Swiss National Science Foundation, 2020-24) to a wider audience. A series of thematically connected interactive workshops, demonstrations and discussions including artist talks will take place in established visual arts, dance and performance institutions across Switzerland. An accompanying exhibition at HKB will probe, in an experimental way, the endurance of performance in a deep time of conservation.

September 14, 2024
Yet to Come: Experiments in Conserving Performance. Opening of the exhibition.
Location: Hochschule der Künste Bern, Fellerstrasse 11, Directors Hall, 3027 Bern.

DAY 1: September 15, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–19:00 p.m.
The bodily transmission of knowledge.
Speakers: Sara Wookey, Megan Metcalf, Peter Pleyer, Andrej Mirčev, Hanna B. Hölling, Catja Loepfe, Declan Whitaker, Joanna Leśnierowska and others.
Location: Tanzhaus Zürich, Bühne 2, Wasserwerkstrasse 129, 8037 Zürich.

DAY 2: September 19, 2024, 6:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
Conserving absence: Florence Jung in conversation.
Speakers: Florence Jung, in conversation with Hanna B. Hölling, Emilie Magnin and the curatorial team of Aargauer Kunsthaus.
Location: Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aargauerplatz, 5001 Aarau.

DAY 3: September 21, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m.
Archiving and documentation.
Speakers: Cori Olinghouse, Rachel Mader, Thomas Plischke, Joanna Leśnierowska.
Location: ADC, Maison des arts du Grütli, Rue du Général-Dufour 16, 1204 Genève.

DAY 4: September 22, 2024, 4:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
REVISITATIONS: Eszter Salamon, Dance for Nothing (Revisited, 2024).
Speaker: Eszter Salamon.
Location: MCBA I Muséee cantonal des Beaux-Arts, PLATEFORME 10, Place de la Gare 16, 1003 Lausanne

DAY 5: September 28, 2024, 10:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m.
Collecting and preserving as an act of care.
Speakers: Saša Asentić, Nina Mühlemann, Rebecca Gordon, Muda Mathis, Andrea Saemann, Dorothea Rust, Chris Regn, Gisela Hochuli, Sabine Gebhardt Fink, Tabea Lurk, Julia Asperska.
Location: Dampfzentrale Bern, Marzilistrasse 47, 3005 Bern.

September 29, 2024
Yet to Come: Experiments in Conserving Performance.Closing of the exhibition.
Location: Hochschule der Künste Bern, Fellerstrasse 11, Directors Hall, 3027 Bern.

Detailed information about the festival: https://performanceconservationmaterialityknowledge.com/events/research….

The research festival and exhibition has been orgnaized by the research team of the SNSF-project “Performance: Conservation, materiality, knowledge”: Hanna B. Hölling, Joanna Leśnierowska, Andrej Mircev, Emilie Magnin and Charles Wrapner.

With generous support of Tanzhaus Zürich, ADC Genève, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Muséee cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne, PLATEFORME 10, Dampfzentrale Bern, HKB Bern Academy of the Arts Research Division and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Please note that this is a preliminary schedule of the festival.

Image credit: Sara Wookey performing Trio A at Palazzo Grassi. Photo by Matteo De Fina. Courtesy Sara Wookey.