Starting from Friday 15th June, artistic collective Present Attempt invites everyone to participate in a full weekend of cross-disciplinary performances at the Rich Mix: SHOW TiME#3.
We want to know more!
Before starting to explore the festival’s highlights, please, introduce us to Present Attempt.
Present Attempt is James Bush, Alex Eisenberg and John Pinder. Since 2007 we have been making interdisciplinary performance works. We met when we were studying collaborative performance at Central School of Speech and Drama. Back then we were a bigger group and mainly making performances mainly in a studio context. Over time, the group changed and we became a smaller entity, which also transformed the form of our work. Over the past three years we have made a lot of work outside of a studio context. These include site-specific audio guides, videos, performative interventions, writing and research. Regardless of the form, working as a group remains important to us and we try to give attention to both how we make our work and the work that we make.
The current SHOW TiME is the culmination of a series of successful events that took place during 2011. Tell us the story of the festival.
SHOW TiME started from an opportunity to use the studio space at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, historically a home for experimental performance. We are interested in presenting experimental performance work in spaces that don’t usually give it space. Initially we were also interested in finding ways to utilise space that would otherwise sit empty. We were also keen to create our own context for showing work, for us, as artists to take the intuitive and work with our peers to create our own event.
In the past we have been involved with work in progress nights, and whilst there is always some value in showing work, the wider framework of the events can sometimes be underwhelming. So we wanted to mix new work with more recently ‘polished work’, and we decided to do this in double and triple bills. This broadens the scope of the night for the audience and the artists get some time and space to meet one another, share practice and share audiences.
With each event the program has grown and we have had the privilege to work with over 25 artists in the past year and a half. Mostly the work has been studio based but this time we are also very excited to be presenting a durational and site specific piece (‘Occupy’ by Yoko Ishiguro), as well as a film screening in collaboration with New Work Network and Artquest ‘Mixing it up: An intergenerational Perspective’.
What is the aim of SHOW TiME? What has been the selection process of the participant artists?
The main aim is to give artists a much needed space in venues to present experimental performance work. Its important to us to provide a collaborative and safe space for artists to do this and we work hard to try and create the right atmosphere. For the audiences we hope that the event will facilitate, playful, critical and engaging encounters. Going back to the roots of Present Attempt’s collective practice, one of the things we aim to do with SHOW TiME is also to make space for work made in bigger groups and ensembles, which is somewhat of a rarity currently for a variety of reasons. We are delighted to be hosting the work of Seke Chimutengwende and Friends who bring a particular sensibility around the notion of ensemble. We are also presenting an emerging international group of six performers called Head of a Woman who specifically interrogate the idea of the collective in their work.
Another aim is to bring together younger and more experienced artists. Mischa Twitchin and octogenarian Penny Francis will be part of the same bill as the emerging artists Lisa Jeschke & Lucy Beynon. This intergenerational meeting is also reflected in the screening programme which is a series of dialogues between younger and older artists and is an attempt to contextualise histories of art and performance now. Finally, another aim of SHOW TiME is to present work across performance disciplines. Each SHOW TiME has hosted works from a diverse range of artists making experimental theatre, performance, dance and live art. In terms of inviting the artists we work with, it starts with seeing as much work as is possible. A lot of the time, of course, it’s impossible to see everything we want to see but we do our best! We build friendships. We talk to people, conversation is vital, especially if we have not seen the work and then we invite them. We have had really good responses from everybody and also now that the event is a little better known people do get in touch with us as well which is really useful. Although there is not a curatorial theme as such, the work that we have selected to be part of the programme is carefully considered. This is both in terms of artists that we think are great but also what might sit well together.
What should the audience expect from SHOW TiME’s programme?
The audience can expect SHOW TiME’s program to be fantastic! The artists involved are all of a very high quality and will certainly stimulate and challenge you. Relating more to the form of the event, it is important for us to create a hospitable space where audiences will feel welcome and willing to take part. The weekend long nature of the event is important in instilling the possibility of dialogue between audiences and artists as it is in the moments between the shows that people meet, mingle, get talking and exchange ideas about the work or whatever else it might provoke in them.
What do you think the contribution of the festival will be to the contemporary London experimental art scene?
SHOW TiME is still young but the feedback we are getting is that it’s contribution and mark is already being felt by artists who want to show their work in contexts fostered by their peers. SHOW TiME is also trying to make a space for experimental art in venues that do not usually present this sort of work. Hosting the event at Rich Mix is important to us – its in East London and is well placed to be a hub for experimental. We hope that our contribution there is the beginning of a more regular event and destination for artists and audiences interested in experiments.
To conclude, what is Present Attempt going to propose to the public in the coming months?
We plan to continue work on our current performance project called M.O.U.S.E which we are presenting as part of SHOW TiME. The project explores questions around the hidden, the interruption and the invisible. We will also be presenting M.O.U.S.E in September as part of HATCH a performance platform in Nottingham. In terms of the future of SHOW TiME we will take some time to reflect on our work in the past year and continue to build partnerships. There are plans for more events which focus on research and artist development.
Leave a Reply