Testing Ground: Live

Building on the success of Testing Ground: Curating, which attracted large audiences in 2009, it will include events organised by students from the Masters degree courses in curating at Goldsmiths and the Royal College of Art; live art mentoring workshops by Junto, a collective of recent arts graduates; projects by theatre and experimental performance groups based in London and installations and screenings of works from the Zabludowicz Collection. Testing Ground will also host an Empty Gallery Interview about The Library of Babel / In and Out of Place, the upcoming exhibition by Zabludowicz Collection curator-in-residence Anna-Catharina Gebbers.

Testing Ground will host the UK premiere of a feature film by internationally acclaimed artist Laurel Nakadate, first presented at the Sundance Film Festival 2009.

Students from the Royal College of Art and Goldsmiths MFA Curating courses have been offered the building at Zabludowicz Collection as a testing ground for events and talks to explore ideas and practices of contemporary performance and live art.

Testing Ground is part of Zabludowicz Collection's ongoing commitment to participation and education, which involves inviting local residents, students and community groups to engage with contemporary art and works from the Zabludowicz Collection. Each exhibition at Zabludowicz Collection is accompanied by a programme of talks, hands-on workshops, live performances and events. The library is available to members of the public for research about artists and to view film and video works from the Collection.

EVENTS

8 January, 7.45pm, 9 January, 2pm & 6.30pm Drama Centre London, in association with The Vakhtangov Studio London, presents the UK premiere of The Forty First, directed by Oleg Mirochnikov

Drama Centre London is one of the leading conservatoires in the UK with MA programmes in acting and screen studies, anchored in Russian teaching traditions. The Centre occupied the building at 176 Prince of Wales Road for four decades beginning in the 1960s. http://courses.csm.arts.ac.uk/drama/

For information and booking please contactthe41st@hotmail.co.uk, or 0207 514 8760

23-24 January 2009

Testing Ground: Live at 176
Saturday 2 - 10 pm
Sunday 2 - 6pm

Performances and events curated by students from Goldsmiths MFA Curating and Royal College of Art Inspire MA.
Artists include:

Lucy Beech & Edward Thomasson / Sophie Lisa Beresford / Jonny Briggs / Leah Capaldi / Lucienne Cole / Mark Essen / Iulia Filipovscaia / Eloise Fornieles / Rinat Kotler / Grace Morgan Prado / Nicolas Vass / Nadia Visram

Daily Programme

Saturday 23 January 2-10pm

Throughout the day:

Iulia Filipovscaia
The "O" Project, 2007 - 2010
Performance

Mark Essen
Record Exchange and Celebration

Installation

Nicolás Vass
Diegetic Sound Design 5
Installation

Eloise Fornieles
Cupboard Love
Performance
Click here for a text about Eloise Fornieles's performance, by Paul Pys

Timed Events:

4-6pm Jonny Briggs
Untitled. Performance, 2 hrs

5pm Lucienne Cole
Is That All There Is? / I Only Want To Be With You (Let's Keep Dancing).
Performance 10 minutes

5.45 Edward Thomasson and Lucy Beech
The Cigarette Game. Performance, 10 minutes 6-8pm Rinat Kotler
Cipher (Work in progress). Performance

8-10pm Music and dancing
with DJ set by artist Lucienne Cole

Sunday January 24th 2-6pm

Throughout the day:

Mark Essen
Record Exchange and Celebration

Installation

Nicolás Vass
Diegetic Sound Design 5
Installation

Eloise Fornieles
Cupboard Love
Performance

Timed Events:

2pm Grace Morgan Prado
Alterpiece. Performance, 15 minutes

2.20 Edward Thomasson and Lucy Beech The Cigarette Game. Performance, 10 minutes 2.30

Nadia Visram
Pendulum. Performance, 15 minutes

3 - 4pm Leah Capaldi

InTo this. Performance, 60 minutes

5 - 6 pm Rinat Kotler
Cipher (Work in progress). Screening of film made from performance on Saturday

28 January, 7pm

UK Premiere of Stay the Same Never Change (2009) by New York based artist Laurel Nakadate alongside an installation of her recent work.

29 January, 7-10pm

HamletZar: A Journey. A multi-media performance event

HamletZar is an international performance project running from 2008 to 2011. In addition to a performance, it includes a documentary, music and a book devoted to research and performance techniques developed through a series of residencies and seminars. Fusing Shakespeare's Hamlet and the Middle Eastern Zar ceremony, HamletZar explores issues of immigration and citizenship, and their relation to personal and political identity.http://www.goossun.com/hamletzar

30 January , from 3pm, talk at 4pm

Empty Gallery Interview with Anna-Catharina Gebbers, current Zabludowicz Collection curator-in-residence

The Empty Gallery Interviews is a series of live conversations in empty galleries across London. Art writers Claire Nichols and Altair Roelants interview exhibitors ahead of their exhibitions to reveal dialogues between exhibitors and their exhibition space.http://www.theemptygalleryinterviews.com/

31 January, 3pm

David Blandy presents an interactive performance by theShaolin Temple UK, followed by a screening of The Shaolin Temple (1980)

Throughout January at Zabludowicz Collection:

Junto:Mentor live art and performance mentoring workshops for recent graduates
Junto is a group of recent arts graduates who offer peer-to-peer mentoring for emerging artists in the areas of live, visual and sound art. As part of Testing Ground, Junto:Mentor will run four workshops for emerging artists working with live art practices. http://juntomentor-at-176.tumblr.com/