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[Introduction] |
Postscript: Y Rhwydwaith - The Network'It is this isolation of everything not on the map that so potently naturalizes what's on it.' (Wood 1992, 87) No map is complete without a consideration of that which remains unmapped, in this case the increasing number of artists' collectives and networks in Wales. The Artists' Project (one of the longest-established of the groups), the Umbrella Group, fourchette and Trailerpark are all artist-led collectives that organise collaborative exhibitions and performance events. Dempseys, an old Cardiff pub, has become the venue for a regular meeting of experimental music and sonic art, The Quarter. Other networks are devoted to discourse rather than display: Bloc is a virtual forum for art and technology, which organises seminars and conferences to raise the profile of digital media in Wales. The 2nd Wednesday Group is a loose network of around a hundred artists, writers, teachers and students with an interest in performance, cross-disciplinary, live and time-based art in Wales. It was founded in December 2001 as a forum for discussion, to share information and to develop advocacy in an area of artistic practice that in this country has notoriously lacked sustained critical attention and incisive theoretical reflection, a lack that has often hindered its development.
From left: Carlos Cortes and Cat Powell, Umbrella's Big Stage event, Crosskeys 2002, Photos: Matt Clark; Sarah Archdeacon, Umbrella's Catalyst event, Cardiff 2003, Photos: Umbrella.. Some of this reflection is provided by Performance Research, a peer-reviewed academic journal that aims to promote innovative connections between scholarship and practice in the field of contemporary performance. Although published in England by Taylor and Francis and international in scope, the journal maintains close links with Wales through one of its editors, Richard Gough. Gough is Artistic Director of the Aberystwyth-based CPR Centre for Performance Research, at its roots a theatre organisation devoted to training and the reflection of practice, which organises workshops, festivals and symposia, publishes theatre books and runs a multi-cultural performance resource centre. The CPR's decidedly intercultural approach to theatrical performance has from very early on brought it into contact with the emerging academic discipline of Performance Studies, which it has helped to promote in Britain through a range of international conferences. The CPR assisted in establishing the Performance Studies network PSi Performance Studies international, a world-wide membership association for scholars and artists working in the field of performance, and co-hosted the 5th Performance Studies Conference in Aberystwyth in 1999, which brought several hundred artists and scholars to West-Wales, among them Peggy Phelan, Richard Schechner, Rebecca Schneider and Guillermo Gomez-Peña, for an exploration of the rapidly shifting definitions at play within the field. These networks may take temporal possession of a site, but otherwise remain largely virtual, nomadic and decentralized. Yet even the most 'sited' of the Welsh arts initiatives mentioned above find themselves engaged in a multitude of networks, acting locally as much as internationally, putting collaboration and exchange at the heart of their activities. It is thus Y Rhwydwaith (The Network) that emerges as the true heterotopia of Welsh performance art. Literature cited: [Introduction] [Y Maes/The Field] [Y Tir/The Land] [Y Ddinas / The City] [Y Ty / The House] [Postscript]
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