Welcome Letter 2023
Design by Surprise Media
Dear Flow Symposium Attendees,
We are thrilled that you have chosen to participate in the third symposium of Flow • embody in site 2023. The ethos of Flow is about creating an intimate community gathering with people tuning in online and in-person who are dedicated to public performance art practices. As we move to a hybrid format this year we are hoping to maintain the intimacy that we have created in previous years with more in-person gatherings. Flow is a space where you can connect with the world around you – be it with the natural environment or the city. World renowned performance artists lead practice-based workshops inviting you to embody the local environment where you live. What does it mean to feel connect, to unfold and be with nature and the earth we live with? How can our performance art practices be of a journey to deepen our relationship with the world around us?
Flow • embody in site is about exploring the depths and breadths of our human capacity to connect with our local public spaces. Public performance art practice is one of the many ways we can create balance in our lives. this is a space that invites you to slow down, to be present, to connect. The ethos and spirit of this symposium is to bring dedicated practitioners together who have a committed practice using embodied awareness, somatic movement practices, and socially engaged techniques that can open possibilities for each one of us.
We are a creative community dedicated to working in public spaces in cities and in rural communities. We believe in the power of joy to expand peace and hope. We need hope now more than ever as we collectively struggle to save our planet. Small actions of kindness, small actions of joy, and small actions of care have a greater capacity to mend and heal the current destructive trajectory we are currently on.
To bring the diverse international community together at Flow we have scheduled non- structured community gatherings in amongst the practice-based workshops and lecture program. These are generative conversations that we hope plant the seed for future creative collaborations between artists in the community and facilitate horizontal support systems to help us all thrive.
Last year we were thrilled to see many people return after experiencing Flow • embody in site the first year. The warmth and intimacy of this very special annual event is growing and we are thrilled to be expanding our program with in-person hubs in Chicago and Rotterdam this year. The thinking behind this move was to reduce traveling for attendees as we support two artists to travel. Odun Orimolade from Lagos, Nigeria will be giving a workshop @WORM in Rotterdam for the whole week paired with Yvette Teeuwen who is a local artist in the Netherlands. And for Chicago we have invited the Yaryna Shumska from Lviv, Ukraine paired with Ayako Kato who is a local artist transplanted from Japan in Chicago.
As Chicago deals with ongoing conflict we felt it was important to invite an artist engaged in a very real and current war zone to discuss intimately how we can constructively face the challenges of violence and conflict in our community. After Week 1 workshop participants doing the in-person workshops can opt-in to be mentored by one of the workshop facilitators to create a public performance in Week 3. It has been my dream for many years to support public performance festivals in multiple international locations popping up like little surprises for local communities. We were thrilled that WORM understood what we are trying to do and were totally up for our radical dream!
Attendees can register for Ebb & Flow which gives access to full suite of symposium prgamming inclusive of two workshops in-person or online and the full lecture/presentation program. The Steady Stream registration gives attendees access to the lecture/presentation program only. The recordings of all the lectures will be active for two months post the symposium. We will also be offering participants a 30% discount on the Performance Art Monograph catalog published by Intellect Books. Attendees will receive a special code in the welcoming email on Sept 11, 2023. The code is active for the three weeks duration of the symposium.
SPECIAL HIGHLIGHTS
The practice-based workshops are at the core of this symposium and this is where the intimate community is built. The jury carefully invites world renowned practitioners working in the field of public performance art to facilitate workshops so please check this out. On September 11 we will launch the program with a Guest Artist Lecture by Jelili Atiku and we have juried through an open call an exceptional range of artists who will present their work and ideas in unique ways. Some of these artists will create a performance lectures like Anette Friedrich Johannessen and others will facilitate a conceptual walk meandering through ideas and concepts that inform their work, like Beau Coleman.
Look out for the curated program by ieke Trinks and Carron Little where we have supported eight artists to collaborate to develop simultaneous live stream performances between Chicago & Rotterdam. This will start on September 23 supported by Chicago Park District, Nights Out in the Parks and WORM, Rotterdam.
We hope you are deeply moved by engaging in the experience of Flow • embody in site and that this builds affinities with others who are working in this specialist field. We also hope it motivates and challenges you to develop your work creatively in new and unique ways. We wish you an inspiring, soul-expanding, mindful Flow experience and we look forward to learning more about your work so we can continue to be part of a creative eco-system supporting public performance art practices.
In peace and hope with the warmest regards Carron Little (organizer of Out of Site)
