Artists Talk | collaborative performance | performance plus 2018

artists talk is a performance piece conceived by artists Aliansyah Caniago and Cam Xanh, during Caniago’s one-month residency at MoT+++ in March 2018.

the title wryly challenges the contemporary art world’s penchant for artist’s talks—from galleries to museums, from art fairs to TED talks—questioning the implied necessity that artists talk at all. how much should artists explain their practice, vision, and process, and how much should their artwork speak for itself? what do artists have to say, and is anyone really listening to them? are these talks really integral to the art, or are they simply talking for the sake of talking, tools for pr, or political posturing?

with such questions in mind, artists working in any discipline were invited to gather at MoT+++ on April 1st, 2018. they were encouraged to talk simultaneously for two hours about their practice, or any other issues pressing to them. artists were given a manifesto titled “freedom of expression” written by Cam Xanh, which set out a number of performance directives, dictating what they should or should not bring inside the room (no to computers, yes to phones and children) and how they should interact with other artists (no eye contact or touching was allowed, but mimicry and provocation of other artists was permitted). most importantly, participants were required to stay in the room for the whole two hours of performance.

the twenty participants included active performing, sound and visual artists, as well as individuals who simply self-identified as artists. only the participating artists were allowed in the room during the performance, with audience members restricted to watching through a large window from the outside and unable to distinguish the murmurings from inside.

“the observation window initially felt like it would be imposing, but was easily disregarded once the performance began. the interactions within and with the room were enough to forget that it was actually a performance to be seen by an audience.

to begin, most artists walked around the room, adjusting themselves to the spatial and atmospheric oddities. initial talk tended to be re-readings of the manifesto, as well as readings from phones, diaries, and other texts, but was primarily, as directed, ‘artists talking about art’ both generally and meta-textually about the performance itself. the intersecting physical and sonic vectors soon formed a palpable momentum, increasingly affecting participants’ movements, gestures, and voices, enlivening some and subduing others. i found the imperative to externalise a generally internal personal dialogue very cognitively disruptive. at the same time, this mental rift was necessary to give each artist a mental space for the individual and cumulative voices around them. conversation didn’t feel necessary because the room had already opened a very unconventional and intimate form of listening; another participant accurately described it as cerebral–like being in a brain that isn’t quite yours or any one person’s.”

going beyond the manifesto’s instructions, some artists began drawing on the walls; Aliansyah Caniago brought a box of charcoal sticks, which he pressed heavily into the walls as he spoke, creating dark spots around the exhibition space. elaborating on this gesture, some artists began smearing his markings across the walls, while others took up a stick of their own and added additional drawings, as well as questions and statements in various tongues, including English, Vietnamese, Romanian and Italian. the markings added yet another layer to the emerging discourse, offering a defiant reply to the commandment that “artists must talk.”

the performance artists talk took place at MoT+++ space in Ho Chi Minh City, and was part of performance plus, a six-month performance art programme running from March to August 2018. further iterations of the piece are planned to take place in Indonesia, Korea, Singapore, and beyond. later iterations of the performance will also follow a similar manifesto (which may be re-edited each time) and will feature the addition of a three-channel video installation within the room, playing footage from the original artists talk during the later performances.

Location: Ground floor, Saigon Domaine, 1057 Bình Quới, Ward 28, Bình Thạnh District, Saigon, Vietnam