Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm

Being a spectator is often considered a leisure activity.  Attending performances activates a certain way of looking at things that can be trained and performed.
Blurring the act of watching with an idea of labor creates the notion of the professional spectator.
How does a highly-saturated format like the Tanzplattform open up a space to conceptualize spectatorship as work? At Work is a group of international artists engaged to discuss these questions.

Exercising attention
What kind of work do we do when we watch a performance? Is a “professional spectator” only a well informed spectator? In the attempt to answer these questions, prior to certain performances we will offer tasks for exercising attention. Further on, we will articulate ways of noting this experience collectively during our At Work sessions.
The method of tasks is often used in performance-making, something that all of us are “professionally” engaged with while at work. Inverting this logic and making it a principle of watching offers a potentially fruitful way of dealing with “professional spectatorship”. This way we are enhancing our engagement as spectators and (re-)open the question of the labour of the spectator, a question that seems all that relevant in the contemporary performing arts.

The performances we will watch with tasks are:
Not Punk, Pololo –  2.3. 20.00h @ Schauspiel Frankfurt
Isabelle Schad: Collective Jumps – 3.3 6pm Bockenheimer Depot
Ian Kaler: o.T. – 4.3. 6pm Frankfurt LAB

The sessions will take place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 10am in the SALON.

with: Rose Beermann, Anja Bornšek , Nina Gojic, Mila Pavicevic, Diana Meheik, Jonas Silva Lopes , Filipe Jorge de Oliveira Pereira, João Alexandre dos Santos Martins, Flora Detraz, Kaja Klaudia Kolodziejczyk, Inge Gappmeier, Jason Jacobs, Romain Thibaud-Rose, Janina Arendt