performance protocols

Nordic Sessions II, May 2021


performance protocols Nordic Sessions # 2: Walking Protocols II – "Gå-protokoller happened on May 8th and 9th 2021 at Lokale, Griffenfeldsgade 27, 2200 Copenhagen (DK) and featured performative processes by the artists: Mette Kit Jensen – Kristoffer Ørum – Tomas Skovgaard – Anette Friedrich Johannessen (score). Curated by Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen / performance protocols.

This second part of Nordic Sessions had a focus on artistic "walking protocols" as a continuation of the topic from the first performance protocols online exhibitions Walking Protocols I from 2019. The event took place over two days in the Nørrebro-part of Copenhagen with the exhibition venue Lokale as its anchoring point. Mette Kit Jensen, Kristoffer Ørum and Tomas Skovgaard created walking protocols based on the senses, local places and movement in the urban space around Griffenfeldsgade 27, where Lokale has its address. Similarly, the score 'Active Body-Lazy Mind' by the Norwegian performance artist Anette Friedrich Johannessen was presented. A score which was a part of performance protocol's first online exhibition Walking Protocols I (2019), here adapted to Folkets Park situated next to Lokale. All walking protocols functioned in this way on several levels, with lines of flight into the city, online, and even in the local newspaper. After the offline event the works continue to live online here on the performance protocols website, where most of them can be experienced in your own time and pace.

Kristoffer Ørum’s 'According to the Nose' provided opportunities to consider what life would look like if you were a nose, where you literally could become a nose and borrow a nose-shaped mask with a built-in audio guide for a walk in the area around Lokale. For the online edition of the project, Ørum has created fold-yourself noses which you can print at home and use together with the guided walk which was also used at the event. Ørum's online protocol, mask and audio can be found here....

Mette Kit Jensen's 'Outside Oneself' focuses on being someone else – to stand out on the street and become a new and different figure among others. You can visit the protocol and documentation here...

In Tomas Skovgaard's 'Untitled' chewing gum is introduced as an oropharyngeal stimulation of a ruminative action while walking. The critical potential of chewing gum while walking is investigated in three steps. Skovgaard's protocol can be found here....

Anette Friedrich Johannessen's 'Active Body-Lazy Mind' is this editions "remote score", which means that it is a performance protocol created by an artist who was not physically present in-person, but who distribute their ideas through offering a means of participation to others. Johannessen participated with this score in performance protocol's first online exhibition Walking Protocols I (2019). It was here adapted to Folkets Park situated next to Lokale and accessible as a QR-code on the wall outside the space. Hand-outs of the score were also offered in Lokale and spontaneously to people in Folkets Park. Johannessen's score can be found here....

Another part of the event was a collaboration with the art and philosophy network Outside Collective, with a two hour Collective Art Talk on Sunday May 9. outside in Folkets Park and the areas around Lokale, It was a walk initiated and curated by founder of performance protocols Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen and initator of Collective Art Talks Emil Bach Sørensen (Outside Collective). Documentation from the walk and the text fragments can be found here....

Thomas Gniben from Radio Storbyen came by Lokale to have a chat with the participating artists Mette Kit Jensen, Kristoffer Ørum, Tomas Skovgaard, and performance protocols' Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen. You can listen to the broadcast "Kulturprogrammet Gniben" here (in Danish):




About the participants:

Kristoffer Ørum (DK, lives and works in Copenhagen) is an interdisciplinary creature who has produced a long series of demonstrations, acts and wireless transmissions both in and outside of our solar system. Based in a basement, he works in the intersection between daily life and hypothetical digital physiognomies. He holds dual degrees from Nasal University of London and the Royal Danish Academy of Speculative Arts in Copenhagen. He believes that all artist’s biographies are works of fiction and should be read as such.

Mette Kit Jensen (DK, lives and works in Copenhagen) takes in her works departure in public space. She is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg and operates internationally. For the past 10 years, she has used strolling as an artistic method. These include the audio guide “Flâneuse de l’Europe” at Museum of Contemporary Art (DK) in 2014. Her focus is social and relational, and allows chance to play along. She challenges the notion of free movement through the city and often uses self-imposed challenges to transcend unconscious structures, habits and her own gaze.

Tomas Skovgaard (DK, lives and works in Copenhagen) is an architect with an interest in modern culture and interdisciplinary practices.

Anette Friedrich Johannessen is a performance and video artist living in Bergen (NO). She holds a BFA from Camberwell College of Arts, London. Johannessen is head of board of Performance Art Bergen and is one of the co-organizers of public performances in Bergen and Open Sessions. Her artistic practice is highly inspired by Opens Sessions, where the main concept is that art in public space is an expression of democratic thought, where art can, and should, be a shared experience.

Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen (DK, lives and works in Aalborg) is a Danish artist, researcher and curator, educated from the Seminar for Crafts and Design (DK) and holds a MA in Art History from Aarhus University (DK). Madsen is currently a doctoral candidate at Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Art (FI). Madsen has been curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Roskilde (DK), and teaches for Node Center for Curatorial Studies in Berlin (DE). In 2019, Madsen founded performance protocols.

Outside Collective is an independent network which draws on the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.

Due to Covid19, the event was adapted to the health restrictions currently in place, which became performance protocols in their own way. E.g. all masks in Kristoffer Ørums According to the Nose were thoroughly cleaned and sprayed with disinfectant after each user, and Mette Kit Jensen's project included a registration process.

Link to event announcement on: performance protocols
Link to facebook-event: https://www.facebook.com/performanceprotocols

Credits and support:
performance protocols Nordic Sessions is supported by the Nordic Culture Point, Nordic Council of Ministers, and Nordic Culture Fund (Opstart).

Kristoffer Ørum’s According to the Nose is supported by The Danish Art Council and “Københavns Kommunes Råd for Visuel Kunst”.

Mette Kit Jensen is collaborating with make-up artist Anne Cathrine Saurberg (styling of the audience) in the project Outside Oneself, which is supported by The Danish Art Council, ”Rådet for Visuel Kultur, Københavns Kommunes” and ”Byens Puls, Nørrebro”. Thanks to Cité Internationales des Arts Paris, Josephine Sommer, and Karina Mosegård.

Photos by Malte Steiner and Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen.

Walking Protocols II/Gå-protokoller: Copenhagen (DK)