February 18–19, 2023
421, Alserkal Arts Foundation, and New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) present Stepping Forward: Performance Research and Practice, Here, a convening that brings together artists, curators, academics, and practitioners to consider critical questions around performance practice emerging from the MENASA region. Taking place from February 18 to 19, 2023, the symposium features a program of talks, panel discussions, and performances that unpack, extend, and liberate contemporary performance practice towards frameworks that better serve regional contexts and concerns.
Presenting the work of artists and researchers outside the conventions of existing institutional models, Stepping Forward: Performance Research and Practice, Here serves as a collective ground on which to construct new models for performance beyond the hegemonic vocabulary of canon/outsider, center/periphery, or the “decolonial” as a blanket term. The symposium builds on conversations that took place in November 2021 during Stepping Away: Performance as Practice in the Non-West, an inaugural edition of the symposium which was hosted and produced collaboratively by 421 and Alserkal Arts Foundation. This earlier edition gathered a small group of artists, curators, and practitioners to think through a series of questions, unpacking keywords such as pedagogy, archive, practice, and support. These conversations became the impetus for the 2023 edition where conversations around performance practice no longer step away from, nor are they defined by antagonism to the west, but rather they step forward from the UAE and radiate across the region. For this edition of the symposium, 421 and Alserkal Arts Foundation have linked arms with NYUAD to expand institutional support for practice-led research fellowships that will potentially culminate in a publication.
An extensive public program will take place at 421 on Saturday, February 18 and at Alserkal Arts Foundation on Sunday, February 19, including talks and performances that are open to all. This will be preceded by preparatory closed sessions on at NYUAD that will mark the first half of the convening.
The program includes contributions from artists, performance practitioners, academics, and researchers including Ammar Al Attar (artist, United Arab Emirates); Mays Albaik (Programs and Community Initiatives Manager, 421); Lawrence Abu Hamdan (artist and researcher, Jordan/Lebanon/UAE); Nujoom Al Ghanem (artist and filmmaker, United Arab Emirates); Katia Arfara (Assistant Professor of Theatre & Performance Studies at New York University Abu Dhabi); Eva Bentcheva (art historian, Associate Lecturer at the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies, India); Nikhil Chopra (artist, India); Chinasa Vivian Ezugha (Assistant Arts Professor of Live Art/Art as Social Practice, NYU Abu Dhabi); Reem Fadda (Director Cultural Foundation at Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi); Alia Hamdan (artist and researcher, Lebanon); Mohammed Kazem (artist, United Arab Emirates); Abhishek Majumdar (playwright, United Arab Emirates); Rabbya Naseer (artist, Pakistan); Venuri Perera (artist, choreographer, and curator, Sri Lanka); Ugoran Prasad (researcher, Indonesia); Ho Rui-An (artist, Singapore); Pushpamala N. (artist, India); Sofiane Ouissi (Artist, Tunisia); Nada Raza (Director, Alserkal Arts Foundation); Tina Sherwell (Director, MFA Arts and Media, New York University Abu Dhabi); Joanna Settle (Professor of Theater and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Social Impact, New York University Abu Dhabi); Rattanamol Singh Johal (researcher, India/USA); and Tanzim Wahab (curator, Bangladesh).
The talks and performances are free to attend; however, prior online booking is required using the links provided above.
