Co- (lab) / Serde: collaboration and collectivity

led by Jasmin Schaitl (AT) and William "Bilwa" Costa (US)

(3) Labs and (1) Performance Series during the month of May, 2015

at SERDE Residency Centre, Aizpute, LV-3456, LATVIA

Serde is seeking artists to participate in Co- (lab) / Serde: collaboration and collectivity, an interdisciplinary lab, comprised of: performance, performing, dance, movement, theater, sound, and visual artists of various disciplines and levels, from university to professional.

Led by artists in residence Jasmin Schaitl (AT) and William “Bilwa” Costa (US), participants will experiment with interdisciplinary collaboration, and will create site-relative scores and structures for performance and performance/installations, both inside and outdoors. Previous performance experience is not required.

Participants are welcome to join one or more labs. All participants will have the opportunity to perform, or show, group and/or solo works during the Performance series.

Participation in Co- is FREE.

Daily Schedule: 11:00 – 18:00 each day, with one hour lunch break

Fri. May 8 – Sun. 10 // LAB 1 (10 participants max.)

Fri. May 15 – Sun. 17 // LAB 2 (10 participants max.)

Tues. May 19 – 20 // LAB 3 (10 participants max.)

Fri. May 22 – Sun. 24 // LAB PERFORMANCE SERIES

For more info, please visit their site:http://collaboration.jasminschaitl.com/

To participate, please email Bilwa: williambilwacosta@gmail.com

Note: Accommodations at Serde are available for visiting artists at a very reasonable price. http://serde.lv/?q=node/19

Visiting artists are responsible for their own travel and living expenses.

For accommodations please inquire: smg.serde@gmail.com

DESCRIPTION

Co- (lab) / Serde: collaboration and collectivity

Led by: Jasmin Schaitl and William “Bilwa” Costa

EMAIL: williambilwacosta@gmail.com

WEB: collaboration.jasminschaitl.com

Co- (lab) is a site-relative lab, comprised of: dance, movement, performance, sound, and visual artists of various disciplines and levels, from university to professional. Working solo, in small groups, and as an entire group, we will develop scores and performance material addressing the topics of collaboration and co-elaboration, or simultaneity.

During the lab, we will focus on the specific physical characteristics of the studio, and other indoor and outdoor spaces; and how we, individually and as a group, relate and respond to them. We will use this research to create graphic scores for task-based movements, sound, and visual performances. Individually, and collectively, we will develop understandings of these scores, and how they can manifest into performances in different places. Using techniques of reduction and refinement, we will compose final scores that is based on all of the material generated during our lab. We will work individually, and as a group, focusing on the topic: collaboration and collectivity.

We will begin by asking questions including:

-How do we create and/or perform collaboratively and collectively?

-How does collaboration and collectivity influence, apply, or translate into a performance?

-Can we perform collaboration and collectivity, literally and/or metaphorically?

-Do they translate the same separately as they do conjoined?

In addition to performances at the end of each lab, the project will culminate in a series of solo, duo, and group performances by participants, of both labs, on Fri. May 22, Sat. May 23, and Sun. May 24.

Participating artists are welcome, and encouraged, to join one, two or all three labs, as well as the performances.

ABOUT CO-

Co- is a series of working groups, or labs, led by William “Bilwa” Costa and Jasmin Schaitl in which we employ methods from our solo, duo, and group practices, including Collective (3), as well as exercises derived from our workshop Performance as Practice, which originated as a semester-long workshop at University of Applied Arts In Vienna. Focused on a specific topic or topics, each group develops scores and performance material, which manifest in public performances at the end of each project.

ABOUT ARTISTS

In July 2013, Jasmin Schaitl and William “Bilwa” Costa began a collaborative duo. Since then they have performed, led workshops, and have been artists in residence klockor kopior in Europe, US, and UK including: Vienna, Berlin, Opava, Helsinki, Turku, Pori, Tallinn, Tartu, Oslo, Poznań, Nürnberg, Bristol, Istanbul, New York, Philadelphia and Boston.

Their work is a continuous process of: practice, assessment, reflection, accumulation, and reduction. The two artists have an ongoing series of performative actions, as well as interest in further research through leading workshops. Their performances address the physical relationship between two performers while exploring the correlation between, and potentials of: duration – ephemerality, proximity – distance, transformation – alteration, and duality – unison. Their goal is to reduce, minimize, and find the essence of each action.

This project is supported by Bundeskanzleramt Österreich Kunstsektion, State Culture Capital Foundation