Performance / Audience / Film

Performance / Audience / Film
26 March 2013 - 20 April 2013


John Hansard Gallery
University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ


Featuring Artists: Oreet Ashery, Franko B, Blast Theory, Ian Breakwell & Ron Geesin Jean Dupuy, Rachel Gomme, Dan Graham, Joshua Sofaer

Performance / Audience / Film aims to look at the different relationships that are established between the artist and the audience within the realm of performance art, examining the role of the audience in relation to the completion and meaning of the work. [more >]

Tel: +44 023 8059 2158
Email: info@hansardgallery.org.uk

Opening Times Tuesday to Friday 11am-5pm Saturday 11am-4pm
Free Admission

Garble Issue 9 - Franko B interview

Franko B in conversation with James Morgan.
Garble Issue 9, March 27th 2013
starts on page 20

BECAUSE OF LOVE Volume 1 - reviews

Two more reviews from the premiere performance of BECAUSE OF LOVE Volume 1 at The Place Theatre, London - 5th March 2013.

Honour Bayes, Total Theatre Review >>>
At first Franko B’s new work Because of Love – Volume 1 appears as resolutely non-theatrical as his previous offerings. Incorporating an uncompromisingly opaque mise-en-scene and sections of unblinking repetition that lead nowhere, it very politely puts both fingers up at the proscenium arch that surrounds it. Yet it also weaves a story through our subconscious through a highly crafted use of emotive projections, a rousing piano score, an animatronic dancing polar bear, a glitter ball, and the most effective use of Canidae heads since the bombastically theatrical Three Kingdoms. [more >]

Jareh Das, Aesthetica Magazine >>>
As you take your seat for Franko B’s latest performance, Because of Love Volume 1, it was hard to pre-empt what this evening was about to offer. An artist renowned for using his body and blood in performances, here, we are in a theatre waiting for his most ambitious production to date to commence, with a title that gives little indication of what to expect from the work. [more>]

For more information about the 2013-14 tour, visit franko-b-because-of-love.blogspot.com

FIL ROUGE - review and images

Ricucire la guerra, dorare la morte. Franko B da Antonio Marras Nel giardino segreto milanese di Nonostante Marras, fino al 7 aprile, i grandi ricami di Franko B sono il “Fil Rouge” che lega dramma e poesia. Tra libri, abiti e pasticcini, un ambiente accogliente per le opere e per il visitatore. Lontano dall’asetticità del white cube.
Franko B - Fil Rouge - veduta della mostra presso Nonostante Marras, Milano 2013
Franko B – Fil Rouge – veduta della mostra presso Nonostante Marras, Milano 2013 Nessuna performance cruenta, ma Franko B (Milano, 1960; vive a Londra) sa bene che il sangue può essere evocato senza essere rappresentato. Le grandi tele che trovano casa nel salotto incantato di Antonio Marras parlano di ferite, di guerra e di potere. Ricamate con doppio filo di cotone rosso, le giubbe ornate di medaglie divengono elemento identitario dei giovani soldati, estrapolati da conflitti diversi, sottratti alla guerra e portati alla tela. Non è più il corpo a essere trafitto, ma il tessuto bianco, su cui si sono cucite le sagome. La solitudine dei militari dai volti imberbi è sanata solo in Kiss n. 1, nell’intreccio di un bacio. Riproponendo e approfondendo una tipologia di lavori che era stata presentata nella retrospettiva al PAC del 2010, l’artista ha dorato oggetti e animali imbalsamati, memento mori efficaci, che ricordano come anche Re Mida abbia rischiato di morire di fame. Marta Cereda Milano // fino al 7 aprile 2013 Franko B – Fil Rouge a cura di Francesca Alfano Miglietti NONOSTANTE MARRAS Via Cola di Rienzo 8 02 89075001 
info@antoniomarras.it 

BECAUSE OF LOVE - reviews

Because of Love Volume 1 - The Place, London - 5th March 2013

Jessica Sabatini, Cloud Dance Festival >>>
There is no question of artist Franko B’s gift for generating live imagery of almost alchemical imagination. The conception and arrangement of Because of Love Volume 1 are striking in themselves; but it is the performance – in which he brings to bear his neutral, cohering presence and consummate, wordless candour – which finally endows this work with its uniquely moving qualities. [more >]

James Morgan, en de Horse >>>
This new work was emotional and shocking, but not at all in the way I had expected. Images were quieter and less charged than the nudity and blood-letting of his other works. I think the experience felt more deeply relatable and inclusive as a result. He was generous to the audience in a way which was profoundly different to what I can ever recall seeing on stage. [more >]

Eleanor Sikorski, Bellyflop Magazine >>>
When watching Because of Love volume 1, I am aware of the difference between the calm of my seated body and the noise of my mind. My perception of any performance, against my wishes, is always affected by how well or how little I know the artist/s involved. Watching Franko B on stage I observe that I hold great respect for him, not only because of what I am watching but because of what I allegedly know of him. I project qualities onto him – artistry, experience, intelligence, control.
[more >]

WISHFUL WEDNESDAYS - Talk at Chelsea Theatre

Chelsea Theatre has gathered some of the most interesting names in contemporary performance for a series of lectures all about hopes, dreams and predictions for future practice, and for the future itself.

13 Mar // Franko B
“I’m essentially a painter who also works in performance. I come from a visual art background and not “live art” or theatre, and this is very important to me as it informs the way my work is read.

http://www.chelseatheatre.org.uk/wishful-wednesdays/

FIL ROUGE - reviews

READING FRANKO B: MOMENTS IN LOVE


Reading Franko B: Moments in Love is an exhibition examining the contents of Live Art artist Franko B's archive.

The exhibition is a fragmented narrative of his creative and personal histories, asking: who is Franko B? What do we perceive about his identity through the archive? What relationships does this provoke between audience, document and artist? ... Why do we fall in love with him?

Curated by PhD researcher Cara Davies, in association with the Theatre Collection, the exhibition will showcase a diverse range of the documents in Franko’s archive, challenging what they embody and disseminate about his artistic practice and the contexts he works in.

This will be the Theatre Collection’s first ever exhibition from the Live Art Archives and in particular the Franko B archive. Franko's archive has been housed at the Theatre Collection since 2008, and hosts an extensive set of documents, which not only preserve official documentation of Franko’s performances/visual artworks/exhibitions, etc. (from the 1980s to 2008) but also documents of a bureaucratic nature, his personal life and the wider cultural/political context of the time they were created.

The Theatre Collection would be delighted if you could join us for Reading Franko B: Moments in Love. **** Please note though this exhibition contains material of a challenging nature. Under 18s may be permitted by prior arrangement only.

The exhibition is open:

Thursday 14th March to Friday 12th April 2013
(Closed Friday 29th March to Tues 2nd April)

Mondays: 12pm to 4pm
Tuesday to Friday: 10am to 4pm

Venue University of Bristol Theatre Collection, 21 Park Row, BS1 5LY

Admission Free, no booking required.

For further information
Email: theatre-collection@bristol.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)117 331 5086
www.bristol.ac.uk/theatre-collection/events.html 
www.franko-b.com 

This exhibition is part of Cara Davies' practice-led research PhD and is supported by the University of Bristol’s AHRC-funded project Performing Documents http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/research/performing-documents/