Day of the Figurines

What is performance? 31 performative programs to confuse the question.

Both in English and Spanish.

The global crisis of our time involves a complex of ecological, economic, technological and migratory challenges that no state is able to control. The result is a provincialisation of our democracies with respect to the new planetary powers confronting humanity. It is from this that our increasingly impotent and rabid politics stems.  Paradoxical as it may seem, it is precisely the decline of the nation-state that is the source of the great nationalist uprising of our time.

We need a new planetary vision that is able to reclaim and liberate our world, starting today and engaging each of us. This is the task of philosophy as much as it is of politics, of theory as it is of activism. Connecting with a new generation taking to the streets across the globe, this book tells the story of the ever-closer union of our world, from the age of empire to the climate crisis, and presents a plea and a roadmap to step beyond the mental and material boundaries of our nations.

Jacques Derrida deftly guides us through an extended meditation on remembrance, religion, time, and technology-fruitfully occasioned by a deconstructive analysis of the notion of archiving. Intrigued by the evocative relationship between technologies of inscription and psychic processes, Derrida offers for the first time a major statement on the pervasive impact of electronic media, particularly e-mail, which threaten to transform the entire public and private space of humanity. Plying this rich material with characteristic virtuosity, Derrida constructs a synergistic reading of archives and archiving, both provocative and compelling.

This book proposes a provocative interpretation of the relationship between the normative imagination defined as a cognitive mode characteristic of the era of affective capitalism. Porta analyzes gender, fashion, artistic creation, and surveillance from the perspective of a regulatory drive, a continuously renovated and imperative push for normalcy that now comes not from the state or mass media, but from citizens themselves. These, united in a spontaneous popular court, armed with smartphones, and driven by a juridical compulsion, become the axes of societies of control. In this way, the distinctive pathology of our times gives rise to a globalized game: normopathy for all.

Audio documentation of a conversation on Live Art and Gaming, led by Symoné on 30th November, 2024, at The Garrett Centre.

Symoné shared her process of creating her work Dream Within A Dream and then opened up to a group discussion about how Live Art, technology and gaming intersect with queerness and alternative narratives. This event was part of a Study Room Session on Live Art and Gaming. Find out more

This is an audio file. A captioned version is available as a video on our vimeo channel 

Can Taiwan performing/performance art be an avant-garde strategy for cultural exchanging with Shanghai e-Art Festival?

-Referring to the changing face of British Live Art.

Research study by Catherine Jiang.

Issue no 5 of Substanz featuring text by Marc Mouci.

This performance arts issue is published on the occasion of Acción|MAD17-XIV Encuentro de Arte de Acción Madrid, November 2017.

Text in German and English.

Kindly Donated for the Swiss Live Art Study Room Guide.

Materials from the activation day against the Hostile Environment policy. Organised by Migrants in Culture and Keep it Complex.

This item can be found on the Orange Oversized Shelf.

Publication about the project which brought questions of archiving performance art to a broader public. In German and English.

Investigates critical approaches to performance, ultimately aiming to stimulate new discussion between theorists and practitioners.

The curator who founded MoMA’s video program recounts the artists and events that defined the medium.