This three-part workshop explores embodied dialogue, shared space, and co-emergence through movement and drawing. Working with partners, participants move through exercises in spatial awareness and full-bodied gesture before entering Four Hand Draw, a choreographed drawing for two performers using all four hands. Together, we consider the social body and the visible and deeper aesthetics that exist between us—how we sense, respond, make contact, and affect one another through action. Through cycles of improvisation, repetition, and reset, participants build a shared history of movement and mark-making, attending to consent, balance, comfort, pace, and different ways of contributing. Together, we create a visual record of the life between us.
Registration Fee: 450 RMB/person
Successful registration constitutes a commitment to participate in the three-day artist workshop.
The group size ranges from 6 to 14 participants. We will build a performance work in pairs. Each partnership will continue their work each day, culminating into a final performance.
Everyone is welcomed. We will prepare the necessary tools for each participant. Everyone is welcomed, the work requires long durations of sitting, moving, and working in silence.
Tony Orrico (he/they; b. 1979, US) works at the intersection of performance, drawing, and embodied systems. Their practice investigates mental and physical endurance, somatics, bio-geometrics, and emergent form through improvisation and durational process. Orrico has performed and exhibited internationally across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Their visual work is held in the permanent collections of the National Academy of Sciences (Washington, DC), the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico), Muzeum Susch (Switzerland), and the Stanley Museum of Art (Iowa), as well as in prominent private collections including Kablanc/Fundación Otazu (Spain), Bergmeier/Kunstsaele (Germany), Colección Ca.Sa (Chile), and Fundación Casa Wabi (Mexico). They have presented work at institutions including the CCCB, Centre Pompidou-Metz, the New Museum, and PopTech 2011: The World Rebalancing. In 2010, Orrico was selected to reperform the work of Marina Abramović during her retrospective at Museum of Modern Art. A former member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company and Shen Wei Dance Arts, Orrico has performed at venues including the Sydney Opera House, Teatro La Fenice, the New York State Theater, and the Théâtre du Palais-Royal. In 2011, Orrico served as visual designer for CANYON by John Jasperse, which premiered in New York City as part of the Next Wave Festival at Brooklyn Academy of Music and continued to tour. Orrico is currently Assistant Professor of Sculpture & Intermedia and Dance at the University of Iowa. Their work was featured in Performance Drawing: New Practices Since 1945 (Bloomsbury, 2020), a collection examining the relationship between drawing and performance, and will appear in the forthcoming The Theater of Drawing published by Performance Art Journal Publications. This performance was made possible with generous support from the University of Iowa’s Office of the Vice President for Research and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
HOST ORGANISATION
UP-ON Performance Art Archive
CO-HOST ORGANISATIONS
A4 Art Museum, HONIN Art Center, Jinyue Children’s Art Museum, Nongyuan International Art Village
SUPPORTERS
The University Of Iowa, Bbeyond, Donglai Art, Finnish Culture Foundation&Finnish Cultural Foundation Lapland， Pro Helvetia
SPECIAL THANKS
Deng Le, Dong Nu, Tang Yong(Mike), Shi Xiaodong, Wang Yanxin, Ye Di Shan Yu, YES FAITH, Zaijingqi AI Tansuo Space
SUPPORTING MEDIA
Art Monthly, Humanities & Art, Yi Xin Yi Yi
WORK TEAM
Project Director: ZHOU Bin
Project Management: Jody HUANG
Working Group: MM Bean, Iris CHEN, Jody HUANG, Sonia LIU, LIU Yuantao, Lyric LI, Lv Xuedong, WANG Wenfei, ZHANG Jiang, ZHOU Yunqian
Academic Observers: HUANG Jinglan, JIANG Yijia, LIU Chengying, Sophie FAN, Sunny SUN, Zhu Zhu
THE FOUR POINTS OF THE UP-ON INTERNATIONAL LIVE ART FESTIVAL
● Non-Profit UNCOMMERCIAL
The festival is a non-profit endeavor; aside from receiving the same subsidies as artists during the festival, the staff works without pay at all other times. The festival’s financial records are made public half a month after the festival concludes.
● Internationalization
From its inception, the festival has positioned itself as an international platform for professional exchange. It extends broad invitations to artists from around the world, including both pioneers who have been engaged in performance art since the 1970s and adventurous emerging artists.
● Academic Nature
The festival strives to invite outstanding artists with extensive creative experience from both China and abroad, facilitating close, professional academic exchanges and sharing, and fostering dialogue and discussion on the cutting-edge topics of performance art on an international scale.
● PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
During the festival, in addition to creating works, artists will host a variety of activities—such as lectures and workshops—at art institutions, in communities, and at universities to promote and enhance public awareness of performance art.
As a professional, nonprofit event, the UP-ON International Performance Art Festival has reached its 14th edition thanks to the sustained support of many like-minded individuals over the years. This includes the dedicated creative work of artists from China and abroad; the tireless efforts of volunteers and the organizing team; the advice and encouragement from industry professionals; the support from numerous partner organizations in terms of funding, venues, and personnel; and, last but not least, the active participation of the public. Relying on the support of many,
