Manuel Vason Becoming an image Workshop

Becoming an Image Workshop Description: This workshop is mature as a natural development of my practice. Since 1999 I have been collaborating with a number of artists. Each collaborations was different but the objective was to create one or more images that would capture the artist essence and presenting it in a new format During this year I have build a methodology of working based on dialogue and process where ideas where shaped to fit mutual concern. The starting point of every collaboration is the body and its power of expression. Im interested in photography as language and I have been very excited to explore the limits and the contradictions of this art form. Im interested on the transition between a live action and its transformation into an image or an object. Becoming an image is a natural progression from movement to stillness. This workshop intends to draw a line between pure photography -which aims to frame the live event as it reveals itself- and actual image making which aim is to memorize the event, to analyze each element and reinterpret them. The workshop is a complete formula. Each participant becomes subject, object and image-maker at the same time. Each participant is an individual artist and becomes anonymous within the group. Each participant can determine the final result and each participant becomes audience and witness. During the project there will be time for group and individual exercises. While the individual activity aims to push the individual artist practice, the group activity is conceived to create a connection amongst the different artists/participants and promote exchange. The workshop has an elastic structure that welcomes improvisation and unexpected coincidences. It is structured with the intention of becoming the perfect situation, where to generate new material or where to test yet undeveloped ideas. This is a site-specific experience; the place can be altered and modified, but the place does alter and modify each action. I have a dual role within this project as both a facilitator/leading artist and a participant; this role stems from the intrinsic role that collaboration plays in my practice. This project aims to introduce participants to the process of image making, to provide them with an opportunity to view their work through different artforms such as sculpture and photography and to offer them a platform to create new material. At the end of the project each participant will be given a dvd including all the material/images from the group activity and their individual activity within the project

Artist Statement:
Manuel Vason sees his work as a life long research project on Representation. He is interested on the concept of becoming an image and its consequences on an artistic and social policy. He has been using photography as his tool of expression and he has since been fighting against its limits. For years he has been working hard to bridge photography and performance. He considers photography a truly performative medium and an autonomous performative practice. A key element of his work is the relation with the subject, a sort of partnership based on mutual respect, a sense of reciprocal trust and a joint desire for creation. The foundation of every new image is a collaboration (of indeterminate duration) with a performance artist. During the collaboration Vason exchanges ideas and points of view with the artist and then they together construct images with embedded messages and shaped aesthetic. Vason is not so much intrigued of documenting an existing performance but he is interested on pushing the artist to present a new piece of work devised for the camera.

Vasons pratice is constantly evolving and due to the intrinsic collaborative nature of his practice and his unprecedented approach to the representation of Live Art, he has over the past years been receiving an increasing number of invitations internationally to undertake residencies, where he works with either individual artists or groups of artists. In the form of workshops, Vason and his collaborators explore ways of creating new work.

www.ManuelVason.com www.ArtCollaboration.co.uk www.StillMovil.com

HIGHER EDUCATION:

Vason has also been regularly receiving invitations to deliver workshops within the most prominent theatre, performance, dance and Live Art BA and MA courses in universities in London such as Queen Mary University, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and Central School of Speech and Drama. He has also regularly mentored postgraduate students of Performance and Drama and he has also led workshops in Middlesex, Kingston and Metropolitan Universities, merging Departments of Media/Photography and Drama. These workshops are a useful investment for the professional development of the students as they go on to use the images produced to represent and promote their own artistic

practice for years after graduation.

Workshop Aims

This workshop aims to explore the relationship and transition between artforms and more specifically from performance into photography. With the transition from one art-form into another a loss of information is inevitable, but the acquisition of a new artistic vocabulary opens up a variety of modes of artistic expression. It intends to draw a line between pure photography which aims to frame the live event as it reveals itselfand actual image making. The aim of image making is to memorise the event or the action, to analyse each element and reinterpret them.

Structure

The session starts with a seminar presentation/introduction to Vasons practice. (This seminar can be also offered independently to the practical workshop) The practical workshop has an elastic structure that can be modified for the needs of each individual course.

Each participant becomes subject, object and image-maker at the same time. Each participant is an individual artist and becomes anonymous within the group. Each participant can determine the final result and each participant becomes audience and witness. During the project there will be time for group and individual exercises. While the individual activity aims to push the individual artist practice, the group activity is conceived as the first stage of the project with the aim of promoting exchange. It is structured with the intention of becoming the perfect situation, where to generate new material or where to test yet undeveloped ideas.

Previous participants feedback

The workshops really made me think carefully about my performance in terms of images; how some of my work might translate to a single or multiple images and negotiating what is added and what is left behind in

the creation of a collaborative and performative image...

I found the produced images very inspiring and they actually helped me to develop my performance further and add a different edge to it. Through the images, I was able to find a performance persona which I will no incorporate in my piece. More generally, I have always been interested in working with photo and film, and the workshop has inspired me to do more and different things

I have came away feeling enthused and invigorated, both artistically and critically, with a shifted awareness and sensitivity to image making, whether for camera or for live work:

WORKSHOPS / RESIDENCIES

2011 - Transition Residency collaboration with Alexandra Zierle and Paul Carter The Exchange, Penzance, Cornwall - Becoming an Image workshop photography workshop for photographers interested in body and movement based practices Centro de Fotografa [CMDF] / Intendencia de Montevideo, Uruguay - STILL_MVIL project coordinated by the Red Suramericana de Danza. September 2011 residencies in Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia and Chile. collaborations with 20 artists. - STILL_MVIL project coordinated by the Red Suramericana de Danza. May 2011 residencies in Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia collaborations with 13 artists. - Chisenhale Dance Space Workshop with Artist Led Group En Suite, London, UK. - Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance MA Dance Theatre: The Body in Performance, Workshop with MA students - Central School of Speech and Drama - MA Theatre Studies, Workshop with MA students

2010 - STILL_MVIL project coordinated by the Red Suramericana de Danza. November 2010 residencies in Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil collaborations with 17 artists.

- DIY7, Professional development projects BY artists FOR artists Becoming an Image Workshop, Lancaster, UK. (a Live Art Development Agency initiative developed in collaboration with Nuffield Theatre & LANWest amongst other organisations) - Rifrazioni International site-specific Festival of Performance, Visual Arts and Music, Residency, Lazio, Italy. - Chisenhale Dance Space Workshop with Artist Led Group En Suite, London, UK. - Queen Mary University of London, MA in Theatre and Performance, Workshop with MA students, London, UK.

2009 - Becoming an Image, Workshop with a selection of invited Australian artists. Organised and supported by Performance Space, Sydney, Australia - Thessaloniki Performing Arts Festival, Residency, Thessaloniki, Greece

2008 - Festival Panorama de Dana, Residency, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. - Central School of Speech and Drama - MA Theatre Studies, Workshop with MA students

2006 - Residency during Fierce Festival, Birmingham. - Residency at Preset Gallery, Nottingham, NottDance Festival - Residency at Arnolfini, Bristol, In Between Time Festival