The Performance Conference at the School of Visual Theater returns for the 12th time. The three-day conference begins with morning workshops. In the afternoon we gather for sessions that include talks, discussions, and lectures. The evenings will include performances and live events. Some events require tickets. A daily ticket can be purchased, granting access to all performances on that day.
The force of life, liveness, the base and flow of a transformative act, the beating pulse of a deed. Vitality is a seed and initiation of action, it asks to be realized and utilized; it is the effective instant which brings to life bodies, emotions, camaraderie [...]
We ask: how can we “think” Vitality? We immerse ourselves into the biological-organic gaze, into thought, into performance. Vitality has no limit or border, it seeks to be actualized. It is busy with cyclical effectuations. Vitality is a malleable force, with no vector, never returning to its previous form. The Vital thought is characterized by movement, it moves only forwards, towards a bonding with action and effect.
We search and we perform, where is Vitality “in its place”? How is the Vital force arranged, takes form and leaves an impression? As an internal, imminent energy – what relations does Vitality keep with the outside?
We test boundaries: where does the force of life stop? What stops it, can we revive it? Deleuze thinks of Vitality as a confluence of force and form. Just like in language, where the force of expression is arranged through final forms (words, sentences, arguments, stories.) The Vital force brings life and movement into those forms: Vitality is hence moments in which language occurs, acts, constitutes communication and sense, expands empathy.
We look at our ability to dream: dreaming, in the sense of imagination and prophecy – as well as daydreaming – is an essential expression if Vitality. Rousseau describes daydreaming as wandering, allowing one to be charmed and to respond to observations; which, in turn, indicate an assessment, and allows one to share a private experience. Dreaming maintains a horizon, a future. The artist, in his artistic action, is realizing something in the present, standing at the edge of present-time, thus touching the future-to-come.
How can we comprehend and perform the driving force, the form and the expression, the limit and the effect, the dream and the horizon of Vitality? What is the performance of Vitality?
