Presentation

The seminar "Figuration and representation of the body in outdoor performances in public spaces" is organised as part of ZEPA 2, a cross-border European project bringing together arts organisations and universities in France and in the UK. It aims to
explore the presence of the body and how it is staged in public spaces, on the
streets or outdoors.

The outdoor space is now the place where not only the art work but also the
body is inscribed, often becoming the framework of dramaturgy but also the
subversion of artistic, scenic and social rules. The placement of bodies outside of enclosed spaces and the institutional framework that defines the creative process provides fertile territory for spatial transgression and a heightened ways of writing the body.

The aim of this seminar is to explore what is at stake in representations, body experiences, and the mise-en-scène of bodies in spaces not typically defined
for and by the creative process.
It will question the way artists re-build urban landscapes through which
new types of bodies pave the way for new types of representations.

The seminar will focus particularly on issues around the placement of the body
and the way it is established in a space. Proposals should explore the creative process, the protocols required when writing for the street and building live
performances, while considering the relationship between the work and the
bodies as represented. How can bodies be placed before spectators in such a way as to create unsuspected forms of reception ?

In addition to contributions from researchers, this seminar will also involve talks
by artists, in order to share and compare the way the body is staged in outdoor
spaces, with reference to anthropological, sociological and aesthetic approaches.