]performance s p a c e [



]performance s p a c e [ was founded in 2011 with a singular mission: to facilitate the prime conditions for performance art(ists) in the U.K. We are commit­ted to supporting challenging and difficult practices that embrace performance art as an ever-evolving medium.

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Performance art offers us fluid ways of understanding our environments and experiences, through the mediums of time, space and ones body. It is a way of living - a mode of communicating, knowing/learning, remembering and dreaming. It reminds us that we are always in relationship with that which surrounds us - the human and non-human aspects making up our world(s).

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Founded in 2011 (in Hackney Wick, London by Bean and Benjamin Sebastian), ]ps[ remains an artist-led initiative drawing on anti-institutional lineages and DIY working practices. The organisation has always morphed in shape, size and location as a stratergy of continuity - mirroring the ephemerality and fluidity of our field. In 2022 ]ps[ returned to London (from Folkstone), entering a development phase of mobile programming, further exploring the potentials of ]ps[ as a conceptual space, finding temporary home(s) within the sites, programmes and buildings of partner organisations.

]performance s p a c e [ cultivates time-based work that critically pushes the boundaries of the body, time and space - while championing artists and practices that make the established genres and methodologies of the field more porous. We seek to be in community with those whom we may create new commons, to the side of mainstream art education and market structures. ]ps[ is committed to internationalism and the mobility of people and practices.

We initiate and participate in local, national and international networks, co-created with myriad communities of artists, producers, curators, researchers and audiences - maintaining close working relationships with organisations including the Live Art Development Agency, Live Art UK, Ugly Duck, Home Live Art and Venice International Performance Art Week to mention but a few.

Our curatorial programmes are regularly funded by Arts Council Engalnd from the National Lottery Project Grants scheme.





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Artists

(previously exhibited at ]ps[)





Alastair MacLennan

Martin O'Brien

Kira O'Reilly

Carlos Martiel

Julie Tolentino

Rubiane Maia

Anne Bean

Hollie Miller

Jade de Montserrat

Maria Jose Ajorna

Keioui Keijaun Thomas

Elvira Santamaria-Torres

Amanda Coogan

Rocío Boliver

Sandra Johnston

Yann Marussich

Boris Nieslony

Ron Athey

Sheree Rose

Vest And Page

Nina Arsenault

Jurgen Fritz

Julia Bardsley

Kelvin Atmadibrata

Helen Spackman

Ernst Fischer

Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi

Emilio Rojas

Ryan Jordan

Johannes Blomqvis

Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro

Victoria Gray

Fabiola Paz

Joana Cifre-Cerdà

Mark Greenwood

Helena Hamilton

Htein Lin

Scarlet Lassoff

Maria dos Milagres

Hugh O'Donnell

Roberto Sanchez-Camus

Nathan Walker

Jenna Finch

Jamie Lewis Hadley

Kiki Taira

Lyn Lu

Stephanie Hurst

Duncan Ward

Beth Savage,

Joseph Michael Patricio

Anna Marya Tompa

Rebecca Weeks

Jeff Adrioni

Arianna Ferrari

Nusa Pavko

Holly Keasey

Nicola Canavan

Richard Hancock

Rachel Parry

Otelo M. Fabião

Owen Parry

Elizabeth Short (performing as Nick Kilby)

Holly Johnson

Luci Fiction

Liz Clarke

Soriah

Samantha Sweeting

André Castro

Mary Babcock

Paul Hurley

Michael Mayhew

Noora Lobo

Ewa Rybska

Wladyslaw Kazmierczak

Tine Voeks

Maria Lucia

Isik met Knutsdotter

Liam Yeates

Kimbal Bumbstead

Marco Berardi

Kris Canavan

Nadia Salom

Jordan McKenzie

Sebastian Hau-Walker

Yejin Lee

Sandra Stanionyte

Antonio Branco & Riccardo T

Monstera Deliciosa

Chun Hua Catherine Dong

Léann Herlihy

Kate Stonestreet

SERAPHINE1369 (Jamila Johnson-Small)

Stosh/Pig Pen

Fausto Gracia

Traci Kelly

Surya Tüchler

Local Foreigner

Rita Marhaug

Lala Nomada

Lena Chen

Rhine Bernardino

Émilie-Christine P. Newman

Gemma Jones

Gareth Cutter

Gabriele Longega

Ro Hardaker

Helen Davison

Eleanor Dalzell Jenyns

Adriana Disman

Catherine Hoffman

Ria Righteous

Sara Zaltash

Kajoli Ilojak

Uhuru Moor

Tianna Nicole

Jasmine Nyende

Ayotunde Osareme

Salome Asega

Maria Lucia Cruz Correia


Bean

Benjamin Sebastian

Poppy Jackson

Alicia Radage

selina bonelli

Joseph Morgan Schofield

Liz Rosenfeld

Dominic Thorpe

Sinead O'Donnell

Dani Ploeger

Dani d’Emilia

Ash McNaughton

Anja Ibsch

Jade Blackstock

Frank Homeyer

Nicholas Tee

James Jordan Johnson

Máiréad Delaney

Diana J. Torres (pornoterrorismo)

Amber Hawk-Swanson

Zierle Carter

Klara Schilliger

Valerian Maly

Leja Jurisic

Esther Neff

Kris Grey

Florian Feigl,

Jörn J. Burmester

Vivian Chinasa Ezugha

Vela Oma

Sikarnt Skoolisariyaporn

Theodoulos Polyviou

Michalina Musielak

Kimberley Emeny

Dominika Faryno

Ania Jochymek

Karolina Kubik

Paulina Penc

Emma Dixon

Lauren Brown

Season Butler

Ania Jochymek

Noemi Lakmaier

Barnaby Lambert

Jess Rose

Sergio Racanati

Marta Frank

Ian Whitford

Sofia Misma

Karolina Kubik

Anne Quail

Pauline Cummins

Ann Maria Healy

Chrissie Cadman

Frances Mezzeti

Áine O’Dwyer

Áine Phillips

Helena Walsh

Michelle Browne

Tim Bromage

Jordan Wayne Long

Lorena Lo Pena

Ram Samocha

Andre Verissimo Braga

Evamaria Schaller

Marita Bullmann

Brian Patterson

Brian Connolly

Laura Graham

Christobal Yanez

Katrina Sheena Smyth

Daniel Lackey

Johanna Linsley

AMAE

Gerald Curtis

Colm Clarke

Leo Devlin

Dominik Lipp

Valentina Chirita

Teja Reba

Christopher Mollon

Lindsay Tunkl

Teena Lange

Robin Bale

Dolanbay

Li E Chen

Brian McCorkle

Kaia Gilje

Carlos Salazar-Lermont

Aliza Shvarts

Rory O'Connor

Johanne M Hauge

Alison Ballance

Chelsea Coon

Pablo Pakula

Karlina Nieduza

Gabi Bila (Lady Gaby)

Mika Hockman

Al Hurfi

Brian Loughran

Andreas Louca

Killian Reimers

Claudia Kappenberg

Nicola Woodham

Barbara Monteiro

Jasmin Lee

Anna Kosarewska

Vaida Tamoseviciute

Daina Pupkeviciute

Eva Martino

Geraldine McEwan

Ximena Alarcon

Justyna Scheuring

Mel Donohoe

Rebecca O'Brien

Charlotte Law

Vivian Druga

Orinta Pranaityte

Collette Patterson

Matt Mahony-Page

Giulia Mattera


johnsmith (Eleanor Fogg)


Pepe Dayaw






Manifesto




I AM AN OPEN COMMUNITY

I AM SENSITIVE NOT CENSORED

I TAKE RISKS

I CHALLENGE

I DO NOT SEEK PERMISSION, I WILL NEGOTIATE CONSENT

I AM A PLACE OF DISCUSSION & DISSEMINATION

I QUESTION & WANT TO BE QUESTIONED

I CULTIVATE LIVE WORK THAT CRITICALLY & PHYSICALLY PUSHES THE BOUNDARIES OF TIME, BODY & SPACE

I AM A SPACE FOR PROCESS, A PLACE FOR DIFFICULT, UNRESOLVED & EVOLVING WORK

I EMBRACE PERFORMANCE ART AS AN EVER EVOLVING MEDIUM

I WILL COLLABORATE BUT NOT ALWAYS CO-OPERATE

I AM OF NO DESCRIPT ABILITY, RACE, AGE, GENDER, CLASS, SEXUALITY OR FAITH

I AM YOU

I DO NOT BELIEVE IN FREE LABOUR

I PAY ARTISTS

I BELIEVE IN MOBILITY

I AM A PLACE OF ACTION

I MAKE SPACE

I OCCUPY

I AM EMOTIONAL

I AM IN FLUX

THIS MANIFESTO WILL CHANGE, I WILL CHANGE






Team

︎︎︎ about ]performance s p a c e [





Benjamin Sebastian:
Co-founding Director & Curator

(2011-current)



Benjamin Sebastian, 2022. Video still from film by Baiba Sprance & Marco Berardi.

Benjamin Sebastian (b. Cairns*, AU. 1980) is a trans-disciplinary artist-curator based in London, whose practice spans: curating, installation, writing, image making, sculpture, new media & performance. Some of their most recent projects have included; speaking on the panel ‘Queer Art; Past, Present & Future’ at London city hall for LGBTQIA* History Month - taking part in the symposium; ‘Art, Memory & Place’ at Turner Contemporary - curating ‘PSX: A Decade of Performance Art in the U.K.’ on behalf of ]performance s p a c e [ - exhibition of their solo show; ‘Working With Entities//Setting Intent’ at VSSL Studio - activating their live installation; ‘3 Reflections²’ as part of FUTURERITUAL at the Institute of Contemporary Art - as well as collaborating with the Live Art Development Agency as guest curator on the ‘INTERSECT’ series (platforming embodied practices that reflect intersectional ways of being through contemporary performance & live art). 

*The Gimuy Walubara Yidinji and the Yirrganydji peoples are the traditional custodians of Cairns and surrounding district. Gimuy is the traditional place name for the area Cairns City now occupies. Sebastian wishes to pay respect to the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji and Yirrganydji Elders, both past and present, and extend that respect to all Indigenous Australians.

Benjamin is co-founding director & curator at ]performan s p a c e [. They lead on all aspects of ]ps[ in dialogue with the associate director (Ash McNaughton).

benjamin@performancespace.org
benjamin-sebastian.com



Ash McNaughton:
Associate Director 

(2023-current)



Ash McNaughton. Image curtesy of the artist.

Ash McNaughton (UK 1990) is a Folkestone based contemporary artist & facilitator. They are an active member of the international performance collective; Anam Cara and regularly lead workshops centring performance art methodologies at institutions such as: TATE, Whitechapel Gallery, and Middlesex University. In addition, Ash is a trustee of Folkestone Pride, co-director of SITE, and co-founding organiser of Last Fridays Folkestone. They obtained their BA(Hons) in Sculpture from Gray’s School of Art (2013) and an MA in Performance (Contemporary Art Practice) from the Royal College of Art (2018). Ash has performed extensively in the UK and Europe including: The Aberdeen Art Gallery (Aberdeen, Scotland, UK), Haddo House Arts Festival (Ellon, Scotland, UK), Tramway (Glasgow, UK), Venice International Performance Art Week (Venice, Italy), Electrocamp Festival (Mestre, Italy), Revolve Festival (Uppsala, Sweden), Whitechapel Gallery (London, UK), Tempting Failure (Croydon, England, UK), Salvage Festival (Folkestone, England, UK), and Performance Platform (London, UK).

Ash is Associate Director at ]performance s p a c e [ and co-leads on all aspects of ]ps[ in dialogue with the director (Benjamin Sebastian).

ash@performancespace.org 
ashmcnaughton.com



Mine Kaplangi:
Associate Arts Producer (freelance)

(2023-current)


Mine Kaplangı (and friend) - Original image by Eda Sancakdar (dino courtesy of the ]ps[ team).

Mine Kaplangı is an independent curator and art mediator based in London. They are the co-founder of the curatorial collective Collective Çukurcuma (2015) and KUTULU (2021). Together with Collective Cukurcuma, they have been curating public programmes of exhibitions and running their reading group events as an ongoing transdisciplinary project since 2016. Mine received their bachelor's degree in Philosophy at Istanbul University and (Certificate Programme) in Philosophy of Arts & Aesthetics at Bologna University/ DAMS Faculty. Currently working as a project manager at VSSL Studio, and co-curating the online gallery of Queer Art Projects, qap.digital.

Mine is Associate Arts Producer (freelance) at ]performance s p a c e [ working closely with the the director & associate director on various aspects of ]ps[.

mine@performancespace.org
minekaplangi.com




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Previous Team Members




Bean:
Co-founding Co-director
(2011-2020)



Bean: ‘A Body’. Performed at Profound Sound Festival and Steakhouse Live Festival. Image by Manuel Vason.

“I am an interdisciplinary artist, working across performance & time-based media, writing, curating & design. These seemingly disparate areas of my practice are connected through a fascination of making & creating spaces, demolition & undoing of structures, both psychologically, socially & physically. I am interested in the synthesis and friction between gender constructs, capitalist power structures, ecology & permaculture. My practice explores the interconnections of these through a fiercely political body & heart, rooted in the land and deep listening to people & communities.” - Bean 

Bean co-founded ]ps[ & was co-director from 2011 - 2020. Bean curated & co-curated major ]ps[ programmes including; Regimes of Hardship (Martin O’Brien), ]performance e c o n o m i e s [, Performance Art Faction, DRAWN, WAKE and PAUSE&AFFECT. Bean remains a member of ]performance s p a c e [’s informal advisory board. 

www.beaninthearchive.com



Joseph Morgan Schofield:
Associate director 
(2020-2022)



Joseph Morgan Schofield, 2020. Photo by Fenia Kotspoulou.

Joseph Morgan Schofield (UK 1993) is a performance artist. Understanding acts of gathering and communing as central to their practice, Joseph’s work incorporates curating, producing, facilitating, mentoring and teaching. Joseph organises FUTURERITUAL, a performance and research project considering ritual and queer futurity. They co-produce move close and Live Art Club [London], and are a co-founder of The Sunday Skool for Misfits, Exprimenters and Dissenters. They are the co-founder (along with Benjmain Sebastian) of VSSL studio (London, UK) and work for The Place (London, UK) as Programme Producer.

Joseph was associate director of ]ps[ from 2020 - 2022. Joseph supported strategic, governance & financial matters at ]performance s p a c e [ and co-curated PSX: A Decade of Performance Art in the U.K. (2021) and TIDING (2022).

www.josephmorganschofield.com




Development Update

December 2023

︎︎︎ about ]performance s p a c e [


]ps[ has returned to London. Having said a long and tender farewell to Folkestone’s Creative Quarter - through our hybrid and offsite programming of both ‘PSX: A Decade of Performance Art in the U.K’ (2021) and ‘TIDING’ (2022) - we have returned to the capital and rooted into our administrative home at VSSL Studio in Deptford. In late 2022 we hosted Rocío Boliver at VSSL for their symposium, ‘Decrypting Perfromance Art’ and throughout 2023 have sustained our ongoing relationship with the Live Art Development Agency, guest curating the Intersect Series with, ‘Kelvinatmadibrata in conversation with selina bonelli’ and ‘An oracular practice sharing by SERAFINE1369 and Daniella Valz Gen’.

Drawing 2023 to close, we returned to Ugly Duck in a new partnership with Queer Arts Projects as part of their Pretty Doomed programme, to present live and documented work from our directorial team (Benjamin Sebastian and Ash McNaughton - more on this development below) - as well as archival documentation from our former director, Bean and ]ps[ alumini, Keioui Keijaun Thomas

As part of our ongoing developement we have decided that ]ps[ will remain - for the time being - a mobile platform. We currently imagine ]ps[ as a conceptual space - mirroring the ephemerality and fluidity of our field. A mobile ]ps[ is a framework which can better hold our programming, producing and network building activities while we are in development. Much of the most dynamic work ]ps[ has engaged in across the last few years has happened offsite, site specifically and out in the Land. In committing to this mobile model for now, ]ps[ can lean into a more nuanced relation to site, seeking out idiosyncratic spaces better suited to the exceptional ephemeral performance works our communities create.

Our team has also under gone a continued restructuring over recent years. Benjamin continues in their role as Artistic Director, leading ]ps[’s artistic & curatorial vision while managing day to day activities. Ash McNaughton has stepped in and succeeded Joseph Morgan Schofield as Associate Director, collaborating with Benjamin on curatorial planning, artistic vision, strategic development & partnerships. We have also welcomed Mine Kaplangi into the ]ps[ fold as Freelance Arts Producer, to support onging collaborations with artists and new partners. 

]ps[ has continually reshaped its working practices throughout various geographies across the last 13 years. This contemporary model seems to currently best serve both our organization and communities. Benjamin, Ash & Mine now maintain a hybrid (onsite/remote) working patern out off VSSL studio in Deptford (which also houses the ]ps[ archive). We welcome coffee dates and face to face encounters when in Deptford. While ]performance s p a c e [ operates its administrative home out of VSSL, our programming will largely happen elsewhere in London and further afield.

Our development activities will continue throughout 2024.

We continue to develope a number of collaborative relationships in which the ]ps[ team work as creative producers, mentors & guest curators. We continue to welcome approaches from performance artists to work in wild and wonderous ways - as well as from institutions wishing to centre performance art within their galleries, museums and public programmes. 


︎︎︎ Previous Organisational Development Update: Feburary 2022





Kajoli Ilojak, Salvage Festival, 2019. Photo by Manuel Vason.


finding us...

In 2022 ]ps[ returned to London and entered a development phase exploring how best to continue our mission (cultivating the prime conditions for performance art(ists) in the U.K.)

While continuing to scout for a physical London premesis, our current administrative home is:

VSSL Studio
50 Resolution Way
Deptford. SE8 4AL

For mobile programming collaborations, you will find locations & directions on the relevant offerings pages, and we can otherwise be reached online:

︎︎︎mailing list
︎︎︎benjamin@performancespace.org
︎︎︎ash@performancespace.org
︎︎︎mine@performancespace.org
︎︎︎instagram: @performance_space
︎︎︎facebook: @performancespace