Course Leader: Rethinking Contemporary Performance

Royal College of Art School of Arts & Humanities

​

By having the human body as its raw material, performance art has been known for its potential to generate immediate affective responses from both the artist and their audience. This is why art movements of the avant-garde at the turn of the 20th century (e.g. Dada, Surrealism, Futurism) used performance art as their main medium, to introduce their art manifestos to a wider public. From the 1960’s onwards and up until the present day, whenever society finds itself in times of crisis, performance art has been employed as a medium of resistance, having the power to generate political and social change. Without doubt, the Covid-19 pandemic has introduced humanity to unforeseen situations where things that were supposed to be taken for granted (e.g. safety, health, financial and emotional stability, human rights) are now being threatened, without knowing what the future will hold. Art making, including contemporary performance, couldn’t stay unaffected by this new status quo. Performance art, in particular, has been severely wounded, when live events and academic courses keep being cancelled worldwide. Given the urgency created by the current socio-political situation, this five-day intensive online masterclass, led by renowned performance artist and academic Despina Zacharopoulou, is an opportunity to re-think contemporary performance art in times of pandemic.