chrono/logos is a series of three podcasts focussed on the theme of time in and around performance art, invoking acoustic moments from the Brussels, Turku, Athens and Ljubljana Festivals, each associated with the “Time For Live Art” project.
This series of radio broadcasts sets out to report on various aspects of these festivals: recordings of performances, interviews and discussions with the festivals’ audiences.
The theme of time, which can be considered in practical, logistical, political and even spiritual terms, affords an opportunity for artistic encounters between artists and ideas. By their very nature, festivals are oftentimes the venue for such encounters, and these can be re-explored by listening to these podcasts.
The dearth of time does not spare either art practitioners or researchers; they, too, are aware of the issues at stake with how one uses one’s time. Subjected as they are to the frenetic pace required of them to eke out a living from their art, they have little choice but to swiftly respond to request for projects, to make themselves known and visible, to get involved in curatorial assignments or other jobs in their bid just to make ends meet…
Hence, this series of radio broadcasts is equally an opportunity to reflect on what it entails to be a professional performance artist. Taking into account the acceleration of time so characteristic of “late modernity” , one has to ask what degree of agency and creative imagination has been entrusted or is left to artists?
But also, how can performance art provide us with a different take on reality and on the ecocidal and liberticidal issues we are currently facing? How can we convey hope and demonstrate resilience and resistance when confronted with necro-political governance and the ensuing widespread decline in mental health?
The multiple meanings and interpretations of this all-encompassing theme of time will lead us to explore various underlying questions
- The notion of presentism, the uncritical adherence to present-day values, or instantaneity specific to the temporalities imposed by modernity and the technological tools underpinning this imposition.
- Treating history and geography as evidence of vestiges of the past, taking the example of Linnaniemi Bay in Turku, which will soon house the Museum of History and the Future.
- An attempt to recreate other forms of temporality, through slow, extended performances, at times proposing a non-linear conception of lived time. It can take the form, for example, of a journey lasting several days (Theano Metaxa), or a week-long performance in a newspaper kiosk (Emilio Lopez-Menchero).
- But also by experimenting with suspended time during a “Rest as Resistance ”workshop, which is offered regularly at festivals and includes a siesta. Stopping, as a form of resistance, understood as far as possible from a feminist, queer, decolonial and Marxist perspective, is not always tolerated in busy public spaces.
- The notion of presentism or instantaneity is specific to those temporalities which modernity has imposed upon us and those technological tools associated with this encroachment.
A podcast by thor colonna.
Production: Studio Thor, as part of the Time For Live Art project, with the support of the European Union’s Creative Europe programme. Co-produced and with the support of the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles (Paris) and Radio Fractale.