To Perform an Exhibition with Agora Collective 

CAIQUE TIZZI, JESSICA FERTONANI COOKE, MARCELA DONATO AND RENATA HAR

The month of performance art,
Berlin, Germany, 2012 Location: L’ateliê Kunst Spiel Raum Duration: 9 hours (3 days - 3hrs/day)

Team - Performers: Caique Tizzi, Jessica Fertonani Cooke, Marcela Donato, Renata Har, Jasmin Schaitl, Todd McQuade, Alexandra Sebag and Judith Lavagna

- Designer: Carmem Saito

- Tech and photography: Joana Dias

The collective occupies the basement of the gallery while a group show part of L’atelier Kunst Spiel Raum program takes place on the floor above. The performance is prompted by a research based methodology created by the collective named ‘Methods to diagnose an exhibition’ along with a video system, live streaming the gallery’s exhibition down to the basement for the collective to voyeur. This outsourced visual and conceptual information is the departure point to investigate how to performs an exhibition into a meta-natured collective performance.

Scroll down to view the collective’s 
‘Methods for diagnosing an exhibition’


The Agora artists performs collective actions in response to the individual works presented by the artists participating in the L’Atlier’s program, as well as to the relational behavior of the spectators and the general frame of the gallery itself. 

Drawing on the skills and concerns of its individual members, collective response takes the form of non-verbal communication, interpretative action and improvised choreographies. Topics relating to constructed societal systems, systematic control, scientific methodology, the art market, surveillance, media, absence and presence of a western post-industrial collective body continually appear and guide the research. 









METHODS FOR DIAGNOSING EXHIBITION



THE LONG METHOD

- OBSERVATION OF SOURCE
- PERSONAL RESEARCH:

orientation of research: body
orientation of research: materiality
orientation of research: free

  - PRODUCTION OF COMMON GROUND ACTION



THE SHORT METHOD

- OBSERVATION/RESEARCH/COMMON GROUND ACTION OCCURS AS IMMEDIATE, SPONTANEOUS FEEDBACK IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE OBSERVED SOURCE.



TRANSMISSION METHOD

- INDIVIDUAL ENVOY CONDUCTS RESEARCH IN THE EXHIBITION FIELD:
         amount of study time is pre-determined
         mission is defined, purpose/intention is pre-stated
- COLLECTIVE OBSERVES THE ENVOY IN THE FIELD ON SOURCE MONITORS
- INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE PROCESS THE TRANSMITTED INFORMATION TOWARDS COMMON GROUND ACTION.



INTERVIEW METHOD

- SERIES OF QUESTIONS ARE PRE-DETERMINED
- ENVOY IS DISPENSED TO THE FIELD OF EXHIBITION OR BASEMENT TO COLLECT RESPONSES FROM PARTICIPANTS.
- THE COLLECTIVE PROCESSES THE ACQUIRED INSIGHT



INCORPORATIVE ANALYSIS

- TEXT IS PRODUCED THAT SITUATES THE PHENOMENON OF EXHIBITION ALONGSIDE CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES.
- TEXT IS PRINTED
- TEXT ENTERS COMMON GROUND ACTION, DISSEMINATED, AND/OR ARCHIVED.



THE QUANTITATIVE METHOD

- PROCEDURES OF COUNTING AND MEASURING BEHAVIOR IN THE FIELD OF EXHIBITION ARE RENDERED INTO  STATISTICAL AVERAGES.



DOCUMENTATION METHOD

- DOCUMENTATION IN THE FORM OF IMAGES IS SOURCED FROM THE FIELD OF EXHIBITION
- DOCUMENTS ARE COMPILED AND COMMON GROUND ACTION TAKEN IN RESPONSE TO THEIR INDICATIONS.



THE ARCHIVE

- RESOURCE MATERIALS FROM WITHIN THE ARCHIVE ARE ACCESSED TO PRODUCE COMPARISONS OF EXHIBITION
- PHENOMENON OBSERVED IN THE PRESENT TO THAT OBSERVED IN THE PAST.



FREE

- MOMENT
- NON-OBJECTIVE, PERSONALLY, DEFINED PERIOD OF TIME/INTENTION



BACK TO THE SOURCE

- CUE TO RETURN TO THE MONITOR SOURCE MATERIAL AND RESTART RESEARCH PROCESS ANEW.



THE SWITCH METHOD

- EXCHANGE BETWEEN TWO PERFORMERS TO DELVE INTO THE OTHER’S PROCESS



STOP METHOD

- RANDOM THROW OF FIREWORK ON THE GALLERY FLOOR TO RECONNECT THE COLLECTIVE.