Development Update
December 2023
︎︎︎ about ]performance s p a c e [
]ps[ has returned to London. Having said a long and tender farewell to Folkestone’s Creative Quarter - through our hybrid and offsite programming of both ‘PSX: A Decade of Performance Art in the U.K’ (2021) and ‘TIDING’ (2022) - we have returned to the capital and rooted into our administrative home at VSSL Studio in Deptford. In late 2022 we hosted Rocío Boliver at VSSL for their symposium, ‘Decrypting Perfromance Art’ and throughout 2023 have sustained our ongoing relationship with the Live Art Development Agency, guest curating the Intersect Series with, ‘Kelvinatmadibrata in conversation with selina bonelli’ and ‘An oracular practice sharing by SERAFINE1369 and Daniella Valz Gen’.
Drawing 2023 to close, we returned to Ugly Duck in a new partnership with Queer Arts Projects as part of their Pretty Doomed programme, to present live and documented work from our directorial team (Benjamin Sebastian and Ash McNaughton - more on this development below) - as well as archival documentation from our former director, Bean and ]ps[ alumini, Keioui Keijaun Thomas.
As part of our ongoing developement we have decided that ]ps[ will remain - for the time being - a mobile platform. We currently imagine ]ps[ as a conceptual space - mirroring the ephemerality and fluidity of our field. A mobile ]ps[ is a framework which can better hold our programming, producing and network building activities while we are in development. Much of the most dynamic work ]ps[ has engaged in across the last few years has happened offsite, site specifically and out in the Land. In committing to this mobile model for now, ]ps[ can lean into a more nuanced relation to site, seeking out idiosyncratic spaces better suited to the exceptional ephemeral performance works our communities create.
Our team has also under gone a continued restructuring over recent years. Benjamin continues in their role as Artistic Director, leading ]ps[’s artistic & curatorial vision while managing day to day activities. Ash McNaughton has stepped in and succeeded Joseph Morgan Schofield as Associate Director, collaborating with Benjamin on curatorial planning, artistic vision, strategic development & partnerships. We have also welcomed Mine Kaplangi into the ]ps[ fold as Freelance Arts Producer, to support onging collaborations with artists and new partners.
]ps[ has continually reshaped its working practices throughout various geographies across the last 13 years. This contemporary model seems to currently best serve both our organization and communities. Benjamin, Ash & Mine now maintain a hybrid (onsite/remote) working patern out off VSSL studio in Deptford (which also houses the ]ps[ archive). We welcome coffee dates and face to face encounters when in Deptford. While ]performance s p a c e [ operates its administrative home out of VSSL, our programming will largely happen elsewhere in London and further afield.
Our development activities will continue throughout 2024.
We continue to develope a number of collaborative relationships in which the ]ps[ team work as creative producers, mentors & guest curators. We continue to welcome approaches from performance artists to work in wild and wonderous ways - as well as from institutions wishing to centre performance art within their galleries, museums and public programmes.