Tag: Tomasz Szrama

10 artists. 10 score writers. A score is an old term for ‘twenty’ of something = A Score of Scores.

ARTISTS & SCORE WRITERS
Abedar Kamgari & Naseh Kamgari
Holly Timpener & Enok Ripley
James Knott & Francisco-Fernando Granados
Keith Cole & David Roche
Laura Paolini & Tomasz Szrama
Mikiki & Jan Peacock
Paul Couillard & Elvira Santamaría-Torres
Rita Camacho Lomeli & Alejandro Tamayo
SA Smythe & Autumn Knight
Tanya Mars & Myriam Laplante

Put together by Shannon Cochrane and Francesco Gagliardi

FADO’s spring performance art series invites 10 artists to perform the interpretation of a performance score, written for them by an artist of their own choosing. Artists from across a spectrum of practices grounded in live performance (including cabaret, music, experimental composition, intermedia, video and more) interpret a score designed for them by an array of Canadian and international artists. The duos have chosen to strategize their collaboration in myriad ways—from conspiring together to revealing the final score only moments before the live presentation.

Emerging in the early 1960s in the context of the FLUXUS movement and in conversation with the expanded compositional practices of John Cage and LaMonte Young, “event scores” relied on elements of collaboration, improvisation, and chance to challenge traditional understandings of originality and artistic creation. Often very short, event scores typically consisted of lists of prompts and instructions ranging from the mundane to the elusively abstract and were circulated among fellow artists with an open invitation to interpret and perform them however they wanted. 

A Score of Scores is an experimental back-to-basics platform for artists to create new small-scale work in a spirit of experimentation, collaboration, and agility.

May 12: Performances by James Knott, Tanya Mars
May 13: Performances by Keith Cole, Laura Paolini
May 18: Performances by Paul Couillard, Holly Timpener
May 19: Performances by Mikiki, SA Smythe
May 20: Performances by Rita Camacho Lomeli, Abedar Kamgari

© Tomasz Szrama, Give Me Heroes And I Will Unleash A Revolution, 2022. Photo Katarína Kováčová.

b. 1970, Poland / Finland
www.tomaszszrama.com

Tomasz Szrama graduated in 1998 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Poland. Currently he lives in Helsinki, Finland. Szrama shifts between multiple disciplines, including photography, video, action and other time-based works. Regardless of the medium, a dominant thread, common in his work is the use of his own body and methods of performance art, which he has practiced since 1993. Characteristic features of his actions are the use of spectators, active participation of the audience and improvisation. Such a strategy embeds his presentations into the tradition of understanding performance art as a process art, where the very moment of creation is essential. His work touches on themes of travel, trust in interpersonal relationships, and the ever present potential for personal failure.

Szrama has been regularly performing internationally in numerous events and festivals across Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America. He works both in institutional contexts, venues such as the Museum Reina Sofia, Göteborgs Konsthall, Scandinavia House NYC, Bangkok Art Centre, and in unique locations such as the deck of an aircraft, a ferry boat, a village in the Mexican desert, a yurt in the Mongolian steppe. 

Further, over the past 16 years, he has been an active performance art event organizer. In 2008–2016 he worked as a producer, technical manager and was responsible for organizing live art events at HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme.  

He is a working grant recipient from the Arts Promotion Centre Finland for the year 2016, the years 2018–2020 and the year 2022, from the Kone Foundation for 2017 and the Finnish Cultural Foundation for 2021. Currently gives lectures and offers workshops (i.e UNIARTS, SAMK, Art School MAA).

FADO Performance Art Centre presents new solo performance works by Tomasz Szrama (Poland/ Finland) and Macarena Perich Rosas (Chilé):

¿QUÉ SOY? by Macarena Rosas Perich
Enter Through the Emergency Exit by Tomasz Szrama

Macarena Perich Rosas lives and works in Punta Arenas. Located at the southern tip of Patagonia in the Magallanes and Antartica Chilena Region, Punta Arenas is, literally, situated at the end of the world, and Perich Rosas just might be the only performance artist from this part of the world. Macarena’s work is engaged with themes of territory, location and place, often employing materials unique to her region of the world, including skins and fur. Her presence is raw and intense, conjuring the animal world and a deep connection to geography and the uncharted environment. Since 2009, she has been organizing Confl!cta: Contemporary Art at the End of World. Confl!cta is a call to action, based on research and experimentation, providing education for audiences and residencies for performing artists, with a goal to work with structures, difficulties and tendencies that problematize the relationship between people and their environment. Through dialogue between the artist and the audience, the impact between the body and territory is acknowledged.

Tomasz Szrama’s practice shifts between multiple disciplines, including photography and video. Regardless of the medium, a dominate common thread in all of his work is the use of his own body and methods of performance art, such as action, gesture, and the physical manipulation of everyday materials. Szrama’s work is humourous and self-reflexive, often putting his own body into impossible and even ridiculous situations such as attempting to hang himself with helium balloons, covering his entire body in plaster cast making himself immobile and then waiting for hours in a busy tourist street, or attempting to board a plane with his own parachute. His work touches on themes of travel, trust, and the ever present potential for personal failure.

Tomasz Szrama and Macarena Perich Rosas’ appearances in Toronto are in partnership with VIVA! Art Action. Established in 2006, VIVA! Art Action is an international performance and live art festival presented once every two years in Montréal. The festival takes place in the of old bath St. Michel in Mile End, and with the participation of the network of artist-run centres in the city.

Macarena Perich Rosas’ appearance in Toronto is also in partnership with LIVE International Performance Art Biennale. Founded in 1999, LIVE has located Vancouver, Canada as an important and recognized node of local, national, and international performance art activity and critical study. 

© Macarena Perich Rosas, ¿QUÉ SOY?, 2013. Photo Henry Chan.
© Tomasz Szrama, Enter Through the Emergency Exit, 2013. Photo Henry Chan.

In September, FADO Performance Art Centre is pleased to present an instalment of our International Visiting Artists series. We welcome Macarena Perich Rosas from Chile; Tomasz Szrama from Poland, living in Finland; and Gustaf Broms from Sweden. Join us for a casual artist talk with these three amazing artists and hear them talk about their practices and the work they will be presenting during their time in Toronto.

Tomasz Szrama’s appearance in Toronto is in partnership with VIVA! Art Action (Montréal). Macarena Perich Rosas’ appearance in Toronto is in partnership with LIVE International Performance Art Biennale (Vancouver) and VIVA! Art Action.

LIVE International Performance Art Biennale was founded in 1999 and has located Vancouver, Canada as an important and recognized node of local, national, and international performance art activity and critical study.

Established in 2006, VIVA! Art Action is an international performance and live art festival presented once every two years in Montréal. The festival takes place in the of old bath St Michel in Mile End, and with the participation of the network of artist-run centres in the city.

© Tomasz Szrama, Enter Through the Emergency Exit, 2013. Photo Henry Chan.