Andrew Kerton

Fiona James and Andrew Kerton are presenting performative talk and workshop, ‘Gutless Speech (and other impossible thoughts)’ at London’s Kunstraum on August 11.

This will be the first edition of For that Rare Diagram Freak series, a collective research project set to develop over four live events throughout the next year. ‘Gutless Speech’ will feature an 80-minute physical workshop guided by London-based Kerton and a performative talk by Kent-based James.

Kerton’s workshop draws on a various somatic practices like Body Mind Centering, Middendorf Technique and Embryology with the intention of “exposing inherent patterns that manifest in the flesh”.

James’ performative talk is informed by Austrain psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich’s theories on the orgasm, Radical Feminist Schulamith Firestone’s notion of the technical, and Catherine Malabou’s use of epigenetics. It will provide points for a discussion that will influence the research’s direction, while the workshop as a whole will serve as conceptual material for consideration, while also “influencing the physical conditions that participants bodies can receive and respond to”.

See the FB event page for more details.**

Fiona James & Andrew Kerton @ Kunstraum, Aug 11

Fiona James, ‘Split Three: The Dredger God’ (2007-2008). Installation and performance. Courtesy the artist.

The First Summer Fest of Western Liberation is on at Zurich’s Réunion, running June 3 to 5.

Organised by artist Keren Cytter together with Natalie Keppler and Andreas Wagner, the weekend event looks to open up the idea of “art-space, art-event and time” in a summer festival that includes music by group, Ravioli Me Away, a brunch-time performance by Dafna Maimon & Hanne Lippard and a curated library by Motto Books.

Also taking part in the event is London- and Basel-based artist-poet Sophie Jung, and Andrew Kerton, who has previously worked with Cytter in a performance called ‘Poker Face’, as well as at the 2009 Serpentine Gallery’s Park Nights where he performed his own, ‘Artism or Autism’.

Maggie Lee will screen a film, as will Kerstin Cmelka, whose video works, like Cytter’s and perhaps many of the participants in The First Summer… make the artist the protagonist within a extensively imagined and assembled narrative.

See the FB event page for more details.**

Fiona James + Andrew Kerton @ Kunstraum, Aug 11

The First Summer Fest of Western Liberation @ Réunion, Jun 3 – 5