Helen Stratford and Diana Wesser : Performative Architectures

Helen Stratford (artist/architect) and Diana Wesser (artist/performer) participate in an open discussion to explore concepts of performance in ways of researching, working within and producing public space and architecture. Addressing power structures, alternate practices, performativity and participation.

Guest speakers include Kathrin Bohm (Artist /Director, Public Works), Doina Petrescu (Architect/Activist/Educator), and Jane Rendell (Writer and Architectural Historian/Theorist/Designer.)

Performative Architectures is part of a collaborative research project with the same name by Helen Stratford and Diana Wesser. Working with artists, curators and publics, the project aims to open up future possibilities for exchange and dialogues, to extend existing networks and to develop new practice directions working between concepts of architecture/public space and performativity.

Performative Architectures is supported by Arts Council England as part of the Escalator Live Art programme.

Helen Stratford’s practice draws upon architecture, writing & performance to explore the role everyday objects/activities play in supporting certain ways of being or placing. Member of feminist art/architecture collective taking place, she has recently presented work at Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, Škuc Gallery, Ljubljana, ICA London, The Opera House, Leipzig, Academy Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Tate Modern London and at the École des Beaux Arts Paris. She is based at Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridgeshire. www.wysingartscentre.org / www.takingplace.org.uk

Diana Wesser’s performances, walks and videos investigate social and cultural codes, how they become apparent in the body and its relation to space; providing a critique of performativity and theatrical aspects of everyday life. Her current focus lies on active audiences and community-based participatory art. She recently presented works at CerModern Contemporary Arts Museum, Ankara (2011), EXPO 2010, Shanghai and the National Gallery, Dhaka (2009). In addition is a curator for performance in public space, most recently for the conference/performance festival ‘play! LEIPZIG –Movement in Public Space’ (2010). She lives in Leipzig (DE). www.dianawesser.de / www.playLEIPZIG.de

Diana Wesser and Helen Stratford have been working collaboratively since 2005 as artist duo urban (col)laboratory realising projects that combine performance/ architecture, practice/theory, intervention/lecture. To date, outcomes of this interdisciplinary collaboration include public art projects, performative walks, exhibitions, spatial and audio interventions, lectures and discussions, published papers, films, artist’s books and articles in architectural/art journals, presented at local, national and international events. www.urbancollaboratory.net