#endurance performance

"Gunduz, a performance artist and left-Kemalist, began to stand still in Taksim Square on Monday [17 June, 2013] at 6pm local time. He stood, facing the Ataturk cultural centre, until 2am. It was a silent, stubborn and dignified protest against the brutality of the police response to demonstrators, which had culminated in a sinister weekend assault whose targets included medics and staff who treated the wounded. Indeed, the ministry of health went so far as to threaten to withdraw the licences of medical personnel who treated protesters injured by police. "The "standing man" exemplifies some features of the tradition of passive resistance. First, the ability to meet overpowering physical force with a determined, but passive, feat of defiance has sometimes been the death knell of recalcitrant regimes, whether it is the Shah or Marcos – because it points to resources that the protesters have which can overwhelm the state's repressive capacities. Second, passive resistance is not merely symbolic; it confuses and derails the calculations of the rulers. When the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia, part of the resistance involved painting over street signs and mysteriously shutting off infrastructure." (Source)

A very special thanks to all who came out to experience it live. This was the first transmission for our new collective space, CON_plex.

“Sitting quietly for seventeen hours, Abramovic and Ulay were connected to each other by means of their hair. They spent the first sixteen hours doing this alone, but visitors were allowed in to witness the final hour.”

Hold a lighted match in your mouth… until the roof of your mouth is burnt. - Mike Parr

“Nightsea Crossing is a series of twenty-two performances that took place between 1981 and 1987 in very different locations around the world. The setting (often a museum, sometimes an open-air environment), the date, and the colour of their clothing varied, but they always used the same mahogany table and the same two chairs. The artists described the performance as follows: ‘Nightsea Crossing is an epic 90 days work in which a period of fast and silence is involved, prior to and during the actual performance. The performance consists of seven daily hours of concentration while sitting motionless in a state of tranquillity.’”

“3 day and night continuous performance. Nomadic condition. Triangular structure for sleeping in - transported by the figure in and around the entrance to the Musee d'art Moderne... Communications with the homeless who spent the nights in the covered section of the entrance among the columns. Little or no contact with the visitors to the exhibition during the day.”

Ennoia - Monika Weiss

“Danica Knezevic cleans, gardens and executes everyday labour for her performance Ready to hand, at Woodford Academy. The echoes are of the stories and lives that have pasts but aren’t concrete in the archive. Remembering the repetitive domesticity is highlighted through the space, and its history of maintenance throughout it’s time as an inn, and place of education. “Wearing her grandfather’s clothes, she imparts her own autobiography. Her grandfather, an immigrant to Australia, was a worker of land in his homeland and maintained their family home: everything outdoors was his thing, taking care of the garbage, making sure the house was secure and safe while growing vegetables in the garden.”