The
These are some of the questions that this symposium loo
ks to investigate at a time when there is so much clamour from progressive
thinkers and activists to abandon the past and imagine the future, to leap
beyond the nightmare of the long twentieth century – the one that seems so
impossible to exit, that weights on the minds of the living like a tumour.
But what if the future was already in the past, lurking radioactively in ro
ads not taken, in failed appointments and missed opportunities? Perhaps art
ists, of all people, are the ones most keenly attuned to this disjunction,
aware, as they often are, that there is nothing new under the sun, that eve
rything is a recycling of something else.
If this is the case, then it seems crucial to explore how co
ntemporary artists engage with the idea of re-playing, talking with them ab
out their practices, experimenting with their diverse findings. The artists
and thinkers in the symposium have little truck with modernist and colonia
list notions of ‘originality’ – a kind of scorched earth policy, a spurious
, imperialist venture into terra nullius. Instead, they look to re-play the
past, stopping and stilling it, so that new possibilities can emerge from
the ‘shock of the old’. In this ethics of ruin, this politics of abandonmen
t, it may become possible to reconfigure how we ‘do’ the present so as to c
ontest the progress myths of modernity and imperialism. This would be a per
verse and playful mode of contestation that moves forward by going backward
s. In this ‘tactics of the re-play’, one uncovers the power to resist all t
hose reactionary notions of heritage and history that look to attribute eve
rything to its proper time and place. And through that – who knows? – it ma
y even be possible to breathe new life into that most seemingly defunct of
all concepts: the idea of revolution, conceived now as a geometric figure t
hat, like a compass, creates the new by rotating back on itself, coming ful
l circle.
Artists and think
ers who will be responding to these questions and showing work include Gera
rd Byrne, Delafontainetniel, La Compagnie Dodescaden, Sarah Browne, Conor C
arville, Minty Donald and Nick Millar, Graham Eatough, Ashanti Harris, Luke
Fowler, Lee Hassall, Emmanuel Grimaud, Kevin Leomo, Sarah Neeley, Vincent
Rioux, Farah Saleh, and Simon Starling.
Symposium organised by Carl Lavery, Dominic Paterson and Melanie La very.
Panel Descriptions
Replaying Lostness –
Wed 15 May, 16.00- 21.00 (Cinema)
This panel explores the relationship between re-playing an
d film. Luke Fowler and Sarah Neely discuss Luke’s film Being in a Place in
the context of what it means to re-play an unmade film project by Margaret
Tait; and Emmanuel Grimaud investigates how film is able to re-play the gh
osts and spectres of forgotten lives (historical and metaphysical) in the c
ity of Kolkota. The panel is bookended by Kevin Leomo’s new sonic piece, So
und space, based on a re-siting and rethinking of the German Klangraum, an
annual gathering of artists who participate in daily sharings of their work
. Kevin’s piece will return throughout the Symposium, but always in a diffe
rent form.
Re-Playi
ng Bodies and Gestures – Thursday 16 May, 9.30 – 14.15
This panel starts with a performance l
ecture by scholar, choreographer and dancer, Farah Saleh in which she think
s of how one can re-play an archive of lost Palestinian gestures. Artist Si
mon Starling and theatre maker Graham Eatough continue the theme by constru
cting a playful dialogue to reflect on a series of theatrical re-enactments
they have worked on together in past decade or so; and Lee Hassall perform
s a strange, ekphrastic hommage to Dorothy Wordsworth’s 1803 text, Recollec
tions of a Tour Through Scotland.
Re-Playing Beckett – Thursday 16 May, 15.00- 18.00
This panel investigates the
perennial appeal that Samuel Beckett has for contemporary visual artists a
nd film-makers. Gerard Byrne premieres a new work based on Beckett’s plays,
Conor Carville provides a critical introduction to Beckett’s relationship
with visual art, and Sarah Browne reflects on how Beckett’s texts can be re
purposed for non-neurotypical modes of sensing with reference to her public
art project Echo’s Bones.
Re-Playing the City – Friday 17 May, 9.30-12.30
This panel asks what does it mean to
re-play a city? The architect-artists delafontainetneil respond to the prov
ocation by creating a short, time-lapse film in which two very different im
ages of Paris are juxtaposed in the single time-space of the screen. By con
trast, Minty Donald and Nick Millar seek to re-play the city of Glasgow by
encouraging participants to engage in a process of ‘re-scoring’, a method b
ased on the performance ‘scores’ of avant-garde practitioners from the 1950
s onwards.
Re-Playi
ng Dance – Friday 17 May, 14.30 – 16.00
This panel consists of two dance performances that en
gage with the idea of re-playing in different ways. Ashanti Harris extracts
a segment from her dance work Dancing a Peripheral Quadrille for the physi
cal space of the CCA and in the premiere of Jellyselfish, the Marseille-bas
ed company Dodescaden re-work their previous re-rendering of Jean Rouch’s 1
955 film Les Maîtres Fous.
Re-playing the Re-play – Saturday, 18 May, 9.30 – 13.00
This panel starts with a perf
ormance lecture by French artist Vincent Rioux, which meditates on the func
tion of entropy in In Absensia, a previous collaboration with La Compagnie
Dodescaden. Rioux’s ‘re-playing of a re-play’ is continued in a specially c
urated discussion led by the organisers in which all participants (artists
and audience) in the ‘Re-Play It Again’ symposium are invited to return to
any theme or image that enthused them and to re-play it in present time. Th
e panel ends with Kevin’s Leomo’s sonic score.Cinema Film Loop – 16 and 17 May
There will be a selection of films pla
ying on loop in cinema on 16 and 17 May. These are free.
;
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:
The Re-playing It Again symposium is the
culmination of a 4 year research project led by Baptiste Buob, Christophe
Triau, Carl Lavery and Nathalie Cau and is part of a larger Labex research
programme, Les Passés dans le présent :
&n bsp;
These are some of the questions th
at this symposium looks to investigate at a time when there is so much clam
our from progressive thinkers and activists to abandon the past and imagine
the future, to leap beyond the nightmare of the long twentieth century – t
he one that seems so impossible to exit, that weights on the minds of the l
iving like a tumour. But what if the future was already in the past, lurkin
g radioactively in roads not taken, in failed appointments and missed oppor
tunities? Perhaps artists, of all people, are the ones most keenly attuned
to this disjunction, aware, as they often are, that there is nothing new un
der the sun, that everything is a recycling of something else.
If this is the case, then it seems cruc
ial to explore how contemporary artists engage with the idea of re-playing,
talking with them about their practices, experimenting with their diverse
findings. The artists and thinkers in the symposium have little truck with
modernist and colonialist notions of ‘originality’ – a kind of scorched ear
th policy, a spurious, imperialist venture into terra nullius. Instead, the
y look to re-play the past, stopping and stilling it, so that new possibili
ties can emerge from the ‘shock of the old’. In this ethics of ruin, this p
olitics of abandonment, it may become possible to reconfigure how we ‘do’ t
he present so as to contest the progress myths of modernity and imperialism
. This would be a perverse and playful mode of contestation that moves forw
ard by going backwards. In this ‘tactics of the re-play’, one uncovers the
power to resist all those reactionary notions of heritage and history that
look to attribute everything to its proper time and place. And through that
– who knows? – it may even be possible to breathe new life into that most
seemingly defunct of all concepts: the idea of revolution, conceived now as
a geometric figure that, like a compass, creates the new by rotating back
on itself, coming full circle.
Artists and thinkers who will be responding to these questions and show
ing work include Gerard Byrne, Delafontainetniel, La Compagnie Dodescaden,
Sarah Browne, Conor Carville, Minty Donald and Nick Millar, Graham Eatough,
Ashanti Harris, Luke Fowler, Lee Hassall, Emmanuel Grimaud, Kevin Leomo, S
arah Neeley, Vincent Rioux, Farah Saleh, and Simon Starling.
< span style="color: #000000;">Symposium organised by Carl Lavery, Dominic Pa terson and Melanie Lavery.
Panel Descriptions
Replaying Lostness – Wed 15 May, 16.00- 21.00 (Cinema)
This panel explores the relationship
between re-playing and film. Luke Fowler and Sarah Neely discuss Luke’s fil
m Being in a Place in the context of what it means to re-play an unmade fil
m project by Margaret Tait; and Emmanuel Grimaud investigates how film is a
ble to re-play the ghosts and spectres of forgotten lives (historical and m
etaphysical) in the city of Kolkota. The panel is bookended by Kevin Leomo’
s new sonic piece, Sound space, based on a re-siting and rethinking of the
German Klangraum, an annual gathering of artists who participate in daily s
harings of their work. Kevin’s piece will return throughout the Symposium,
but always in a different form.
Re-Playing Bodies and Gestures – Thursday 16 May, 9.30 – 14.15
This panel starts
with a performance lecture by scholar, choreographer and dancer, Farah Sal
eh in which she thinks of how one can re-play an archive of lost Palestinia
n gestures. Artist Simon Starling and theatre maker Graham Eatough continue
the theme by constructing a playful dialogue to reflect on a series of the
atrical re-enactments they have worked on together in past decade or so; an
d Lee Hassall performs a strange, ekphrastic hommage to Dorothy Wordsworth’
s 1803 text, Recollections of a Tour Through Scotland.Re-Playing Beckett – Thursday 16 May, 1
5.00- 18.00
This p
anel investigates the perennial appeal that Samuel Beckett has for contempo
rary visual artists and film-makers. Gerard Byrne premieres a new work base
d on Beckett’s plays, Conor Carville provides a critical introduction to Be
ckett’s relationship with visual art, and Sarah Browne reflects on how Beck
ett’s texts can be repurposed for non-neurotypical modes of sensing with re
ference to her public art project Echo’s Bones.
<
span style="color: #000000;">Re-Playing the City – Friday 17 May, 9.30-12.3
0
This panel asks
what does it mean to re-play a city? The architect-artists delafontainetnei
l respond to the provocation by creating a short, time-lapse film in which
two very different images of Paris are juxtaposed in the single time-space
of the screen. By contrast, Minty Donald and Nick Millar seek to re-play th
e city of Glasgow by encouraging participants to engage in a process of ‘re
-scoring’, a method based on the performance ‘scores’ of avant-garde practi
tioners from the 1950s onwards.
Re-Playing Dance – Friday 17 May, 14.30 – 16.00
This panel consists of two dance
performances that engage with the idea of re-playing in different ways. As
hanti Harris extracts a segment from her dance work Dancing a Peripheral Qu
adrille for the physical space of the CCA and in the premiere of Jellyselfi
sh, the Marseille-based company Dodescaden re-work their previous re-render
ing of Jean Rouch’s 1955 film Les Maîtres Fous.
<
span style="color: #000000;">Re-playing the Re-play – Saturday, 18 May, 9.3
0 – 13.00
This pan
el starts with a performance lecture by French artist Vincent Rioux, which
meditates on the function of entropy in In Absensia, a previous collaborati
on with La Compagnie Dodescaden. Rioux’s ‘re-playing of a re-play’ is conti
nued in a specially curated discussion led by the organisers in which all p
articipants (artists and audience) in the ‘Re-Play It Again’ symposium are
invited to return to any theme or image that enthused them and to re-play i
t in present time. The panel ends with Kevin’s Leomo’s sonic score.<
br />
Cinema Film Loop – 16 and
17 May
There will be a s
election of films playing on loop in cinema on 16 and 17 May. These are fre
e.
DTSTAMP:20260513T191828 DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris;VALUE=DATE:20240515 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris;VALUE=DATE:20240519 SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:OPAQUE END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR