Myriam Lefkowitz
Practising Attention
Myriam Lefkowitz, ‘Practising Attention’, workshop, presented by If I Can’t Dance at de Tagerijn, Amsterdam, 17 November 2017. Photo: Coco Duivenvoorde.
Friday 17 November 2017
‘Practising Attention’, first workshop, at If I Can’t Dance
2–6pm / Huiskamer van de Buurt de Tagerijn, Amsterdam
This is the first in a number of workshops that will constitute Lefkowitz’ commission with If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution. Through these, Lefkowitz will collectively search, invent, and exchange practices and idea that address contemporary modes of attention, and which are guided by the enquiry: What practice to be could create conditions for our attention to shift? What practice to be could dig into the intimate connections between perceiving and imagining, opening them as resources to perform other forms of relationships?
In the workshop, Lefkowitz will share sensorial, perceptive, and imaginary tools that she has developed over the years of her practice. These tools predominantly use touch, different modes of seeing, states between sleep and wakefulness, and silent forms of communications, which are activated in the city and indoor spaces. Across the workshop, these practices will be opened up and mapped via the collective conversations that the experience of them produces with the participants, and the issues that emerge from these modified states of attention.
No prior performance training is required to participate in the workshop, though participants should be comfortable with relating to others through touch, as well as working in darkened spaces.
The workshop has been developed in partnership with La Ferme du Buisson, Paris where Lefkowitz is currently on residency until the end of the year, and will also be presented by Bulegoa z/b, Bilbao on 13 December 2017. It is presented at If I Can’t Dance as part of its unfolding programme of introductions to the artists and researchers of VII (2017–2018), Social Movement, which see the commissioned artists present an existing work and the Performance in Residence researchers an introduction to their project.