Performing Spaces — Exploring urban struc­tu­res and their inner-narratives

KWP production

Since 2016, Sana has been devel­o­ping her research pro­ject Performing Spaces — Exploring urban struc­tu­res and their inner-nar­ra­ti­ves. What began as a, now Brussels based, con­ti­nu­a­ti­on of the poe­ti­cally dis­rup­ti­ve, in-situ per­for­man­ces she star­ting explo­ring at the research group for Relational Architecture at Umeå Uni­ver­si­ty of Fine Arts and Architecture, slow­ly expand­ed into a lay­e­red, trans­dis­ci­pli­na­ry prac­ti­ce influ­en­ced by archi­tec­tu­re, visu­al arts, per­for­man­ce, his­to­ric research, the­a­tre, sto­ry­tel­ling, and poetry.

Poetic Disruption — Public Interventions

These unan­noun­ced per­for­ma­ti­ve inter­ven­ti­ons in public spa­ces explo­re how small, well-known gestu­res can be sub­ver­ted to turn pas­sers­by into spon­ta­neous audien­ces asked to poe­ti­cally re-ima­gi­ne their sur­roun­dings. The inter­ven­ti­ons were docu­men­ted to func­ti­on as research mate­ri­al alongsi­de Sana’s the­o­re­ti­cal rea­dings and as visu­al nar­ra­ti­ves pre­sen­ted in video-installations.

a selec­ti­on of some public inter­ven­ti­ons and sha­red research practices:

The boat is sai­ling away (@Metro green line, Milan 2015)

Trams are cir­cling the city taking peo­p­le from whe­re they enter to whe­re they get off. 
Their soli­ta­ry flow gets dis­rup­ted when a beg­gar goes round, dis­tri­bu­ting a pie­ce of paper to each of the pas­sen­gers. Before arri­ving, the beg­gar goes round again, col­lec­ting the pie­ces of paper he dis­tri­bu­ted. This per­for­man­ce uses the same metho­do­lo­gy. The per­for­mer wri­tes down a dream they had the night befo­re on the papers. This small poe­tic con­fes­si­on ques­ti­ons the pos­si­ble exchan­ges and inter­ac­ti­ons amongst the peo­p­le who inha­bit this moving spa­ce as a brief collective. 

The clo­sing time (@Gare du Midi Sunday Market, Brussels 2016)
In col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with Juan Duque

Looking to open up, sha­re, and make tan­gi­ble the empo­we­ring sen­sa­ti­on of resis­tan­ce expe­rien­ced by per­for­ming the­se small poe­tic inter­ven­ti­ons, a sco­re is devel­o­ped and per­for­med by the par­ti­ci­pants of the a.pass post­mas­ter for artis­tic research. 

Gather at the mar­ket around clo­sing time on Sunday, remain still in the same spot as long as the dyna­mic of the con­text allows. 

- Find your own posi­ti­on in the spa­ce, your own point of view.
 — From your own prac­ti­ce pose ques­ti­ons that you find rele­vant to the place.
‑Use inputs from your sur­roun­dings as data for a new sub­jec­ti­ve map of the place. 

The playground (@Touhid metro sta#on, Teheran, Iran 2016)

It is a fami­liar and prac­ti­cal rule to keep to one side of the esca­la­tor when wan­ting to stand still, and to keep the other side free for tho­se in a hur­ry. It makes a line, each per­son facing front, faces beco­ming invi­si­ble. Some esca­la­tors come in pairs. One goes up, the other down.

If a per­for­mer step­ped on the esca­la­tor, facing a per­son coming up or down the other way, would it then be pos­si­ble, by turning very slow­ly whi­le stan­ding still, to keep facing them the enti­re way? Would eyes meet for a second or lon­ger, what would their reac­ti­on be?

Rhyme the tem­po­ra­ry wall (@Port de Neuve, Brussels, Brussels 2017)
in col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with Esther Rodriguez 

During this gui­ded walk a col­lec­ti­ve attempt is made to map the bright blue and yel­low, cor­ru­ga­ted fen­ce that sur­rounds a con­struc­ti­on site. The works have been going on for so long, the fen­ce has been here see­min­gly end­less. Bends and cracks in the metal have star­ted to appear, through the­se vie­w­points emer­ged. At the end of the walk we gather and sha­re the map­pings of the­se views we each discovered. 

Evoking Places — Staged Performances 

A shift occur­red in Sana’s artis­tic prac­ti­ce fol­lo­wing an exten­si­ve stu­dy of the prac­ti­ces devel­o­ped by Forensic Architecture, a research agen­cy focus­sed on devel­o­ping, employing, and dis­se­mi­na­ting new tech­ni­ques, methods, and con­cepts for inves­ti­ga­ting sta­te and cor­po­ra­te vio­len­ce com­bi­ning the exper­ti­se of archi­tects, soft­wa­re devel­o­pers, film­ma­kers, inves­ti­ga­ti­ve jour­na­lists, sci­en­tists, and lawy­ers. Inspired by their trans­dis­ci­pli­na­ry cre­a­ti­on of legal nar­ra­ti­ves with real world impact, Sana star­ted explo­ring wether reports of diver­se public gestu­res could be woven together into a sto­ry­tel­ling prac­ti­ce that could trans­mit the poe­tic expe­rien­ces and acts of sub­ver­si­on, resis­tan­ce, and empo­wer­ment inhe­rent in the kind of subt­le gestu­res she had pre­vious­ly used in her public interventions. 

This sto­ry­tel­ling prac­ti­ce intertwi­nes spa­ti­al map­ping prac­ti­ces, poe­tic anec­do­tes, con­cre­te descrip­ti­ons of gestu­res, per­so­nal memo­ries, and per­so­nal fic­ti­ons, with rigorous research into the his­to­ry of spe­ci­fic public spa­ces. Supported by resi­den­cies in KWP, Sana fur­ther devel­o­ped seve­r­al per­for­man­ces that she had been wor­king on in gal­lery and stu­dio set­tings during the past years. Now sta­ged in a the­a­tri­cal set­ting, but wit­hout acting, Sana’s sto­ries slow­ly lay­er the lived expe­rien­ce of a pla­ce onto the ima­gi­na­ti­on of the audien­ce. They evo­ke a proxi­mi­ty and fami­li­a­ri­ty with pas­sers­by and public spa­ces some­ti­mes far away in dis­tan­ce or time.