Marilyn Arsem, Voices, 6-hour durational performance at Future Ritual: Ceremony [I], London, 2024. Photo by Fenia Kotsopoulou.
Intensive Workshop
20th - 25th April 2025, London
Apply here, deadline 3rd March,
Tickets: £240 (concession £180)
The workshop includes discussion as well as performance exercises. An important component of the workshop will be private reflection and writing in response to a series of questions.
We begin with participants introducing their work by presenting documentation of a selection of their past performances. A set of questions are distributed in advance of this introduction to which participants are expected to write answers, and those questions help shape the conversation. The workshop unfolds through a series of performance exercises that dissect our methods, examining different aspects of the strategies and approaches that we use to create and evaluate performances.
Some topics that are covered include: How do you define the notion of “presence” in your performances? In what ways are you different in them than you are in your everyday life? What allows you to enter the work fully, and what interferes with it? What kind of preparations must you make in order be able to perform? What rules do you follow, consciously or unconsciously? Or, said in reverse – what do you never allow yourself to do in a performance? What is the role of the viewer/witness in your performances?
We begin with participants introducing their work by presenting documentation of a selection of their past performances. A set of questions are distributed in advance of this introduction to which participants are expected to write answers, and those questions help shape the conversation. The workshop unfolds through a series of performance exercises that dissect our methods, examining different aspects of the strategies and approaches that we use to create and evaluate performances.
Some topics that are covered include: How do you define the notion of “presence” in your performances? In what ways are you different in them than you are in your everyday life? What allows you to enter the work fully, and what interferes with it? What kind of preparations must you make in order be able to perform? What rules do you follow, consciously or unconsciously? Or, said in reverse – what do you never allow yourself to do in a performance? What is the role of the viewer/witness in your performances?
Retour à la terre (Return to earth), 6-hour durational performance by Marilyn Arsem, 2024. Rencontre Internationale D'Art Performance De Québec (RiAP) at Le Lieu centre en art actuel, Québec City, Québec, Canada. Photo by Charles-Frederick OuelletAn element of the workshop is to create a performance unlike what you normally do. In the safety of a workshop setting, you have the opportunity to make work that challenges your boundaries, that pushes you into unfamiliar realms to experiment with a new approach to performance. Continued discussion, as well as writing about the differences and similarities to your usual work should further illuminate and expand upon the initial questions about your practice.
Participation
Who is ‘On Practice’ for?
The workshop is for ‘experienced’ performance artists who are ready to enter an intensive, process driven workshop facilitating critical reflection upon their performance practice. There are, of course, many ways to define experience. We imagine you would have been practicing as an artist for at least 3 years outside of educational settings.If you have queries, please do email us - producing@futureritual.co.uk.
The workshop is offered in English.
Logistics
‘On Practice’ is offered as part of CEREMONY: a festival of performance, which takes place in Peckham (London). Artists joining the workshop can access heavily discounted tickets to all performances.We will work every day from Sunday 20th to Friday 25th April. We will begin at 10am prompt each day, and finish by 4.30pm.
The workshop will take place in two spaces in South East London.
Travel to and from the workshop, food and accommodation in London are the responsibility of the participants. Future Ritual can write letters in support of mobility grants.
To Participate
We are now accepting applications for the workshop, until Monday 3rd March at 9am (GMT). The six day workshop is priced at £240 (£180 concession). This is a subsidised price and all income goes towards the cost of putting the workshop on.If you are interested in participating in the workshop, please complete this form, which asks for a brief statement outlining your interest in and experience of the workshop themes. If you would rather send a video or voice recording please note the link and any password in that same space. Please DO NOT send wetransfer or expiring download links.
We aim to communicate all decisions by Friday 7th March. Marilyn Arsem and Future Ritual will assess applicants’ suitability, with consideration given to the assembling of a productive collective and artists’ statement of intent.
If any spaces remain available after this process, these will be filled on a rolling basis following the initial deadline. Our intensives are typically fully booked so please do apply in good time.
A deposit of 25% of the ticket price will be requried to secure your place on the workshop, with the balance payable by April 5th.
> apply now
Marilyn Arsem
Marilyn Arsem has been creating and performing live events for more than forty years and has presented her work in thirty countries around the globe. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, she also teaches performance art workshops internationally.
Many of her works are durational in nature, minimal in actions and materials, and have been created in response to specific sites, engaging with the immediate landscape and materiality of the location, its history, use or politics. She incorporates a broad range of media, and often engages all the senses. Her performances are designed to implicate the audience directly in the concerns of the work, to create an experience that is both visceral and intellectual. Sites have included a former Cold War missile base in the United States, a 15th century Turkish bath in North Macedonia, an aluminum factory in Argentina, the grounds of an abandoned tuberculosis sanatorium in Poland, the site of the Spanish landing in the Philippines, and an abandoned Russian mining outpost in the Arctic Circle.
Many of her works are durational in nature, minimal in actions and materials, and have been created in response to specific sites, engaging with the immediate landscape and materiality of the location, its history, use or politics. She incorporates a broad range of media, and often engages all the senses. Her performances are designed to implicate the audience directly in the concerns of the work, to create an experience that is both visceral and intellectual. Sites have included a former Cold War missile base in the United States, a 15th century Turkish bath in North Macedonia, an aluminum factory in Argentina, the grounds of an abandoned tuberculosis sanatorium in Poland, the site of the Spanish landing in the Philippines, and an abandoned Russian mining outpost in the Arctic Circle.
Arsem is a member of Mobius Artists Group, an interdisciplinary collaborative of artists, which she founded in 1975. Arsem taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for 27 years, establishing one of the most extensive programs internationally in visually-based performance art.
She has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, awards and grants since the 1980s. She was awarded the 2015 Maud Morgan Prize from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for which she created 100 Ways to Consider Time. The work consisted of 100 different six-hour performances by Arsem on the nature of time, performed in 100 consecutive days.
A book on her work, Responding to Site: The Performance Work of Marilyn Arsem, edited by Jennie Klein and Natalie Loveless, was published in 2020 by Intellect Books of the UK.
https://marilynarsem.net
She has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, awards and grants since the 1980s. She was awarded the 2015 Maud Morgan Prize from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for which she created 100 Ways to Consider Time. The work consisted of 100 different six-hour performances by Arsem on the nature of time, performed in 100 consecutive days.
A book on her work, Responding to Site: The Performance Work of Marilyn Arsem, edited by Jennie Klein and Natalie Loveless, was published in 2020 by Intellect Books of the UK.
https://marilynarsem.net
Adrift, durational performance by Marilyn Arsem. First Biennial Festival of Performance Art and Sound, Contemporary Arts International, Acton, MA, USA. September 7, 2013. Photo by Chelsea Coon.
Future Ritual presents
The workshop is offered as part of CEREMONY, a year long programming cycle curated by Future Ritual, exploring how performance and art making can function as modes of gathering, communion and ceremony amidst the fragmentation of contemporary life.
> about Future Ritual: Ceremony