In this lecture Marilyn Arsem will describe her approach to creating performances with reference to ten performances made in 2018 and 2019, discussing how she creates work in response to particular sites. Arsem will also take the opportunity to talk about using performance to consider issues in our world today, to understand one’s own thinking process, and as a way to engage with and learn from others. She will speak on risk, on failure, on challenging oneself to step into unknown territory, and on finding ways to always continue learning.
Marilyn Arsem has created hundreds of live events since 1975, ranging from solo performances to large scale, site-specific works. Arsem has presented work at festivals, conferences, alternative spaces, galleries, museums and universities in 30 countries in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Oceania and Asia.
Arsem is a member of Mobius, Inc., an interdisciplinary collaborative of artists which she founded in 1975. Arsem taught for 27 years at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in partnership with Tufts University, establishing one of the most extensive programs internationally in visually-based performance art. Still based in Boston, she continues to teach performance art workshops nationally and internationally.
A book on her work, Responding to Site, the performance work of Marilyn Arsem, edited by Jennie Klein and Natalie Loveless, is being published by Intellect Press, and will be available in Spring 2020.
Knut Knaus Auditorium
Fakultet for Kunst Musikk og Design, UiB