RUINS (A practice)
with liz Rosenfeld & An*dre Neely
Course Structure: 2 × 3hour sessions
Course Venue: BLOC
Course Dates: 9 &10 November 2024
Course Fee: £35
Building on nearly seven years of artistic collaboration, An*dre Neely and Liz Rosenfeld ( aka Riv) invite you to participate in a two-day workshop designed to delve into the somatic methods and relationship-building skills integral to their ongoing durational performance work, RUINS: Part I. This workshop explores the themes of An and Liz’s practice through theory and practice.
This workshop not only provides a platform for sharing methodologies but also encourages critical discussions on consent, queer intimacies, and the dynamics of solitary and collective existence. An* and Liz will guide participants through their own experiences and approaches, offering a rare glimpse into their collaborative processes.
This course is for:
LGBTQIA+ artists interesed in exploraing collaborative performance making
LGBTQIA+ artists interested in expanding their practice through wiriting and somatic exercises
RUINS: Part I addresses critical discourses surrounding queer intergenerationality, the disintegration of cruising histories, queer-on-queer invisibility, and the politics of nostalgia and erasure. By using cruising as a conceptual framework, An* and Liz investigate how queer bodies interact in uncharted temporal and spatial contexts, fostering a deep relationship of trust and intimacy.
Participants will gain insight into the nuanced strategies and practices that underpin their creative partnership, including:
Erotic Auto-Theory Writing: Engage in reflective writing exercises that combine personal narrative and theoretical inquiry.
Consent and Trust-Building Somatic Practices: Participate in group exercises designed to cultivate mutual consent and trust through embodied experiences.
Needling Practice: Learn about and engage with needling, an intimate practice with roots in BDSM where participants perforate each other's skin with surgical needles a pivotal practice in An* and Liz’s work in intimate connection.
*Please note participants are not required to engage in the action of needling, but we ask that you stay to help hold space and support the group, unless you need to leave for personal reasons. A consent form is required for participation in this action.
After- care: There will be an after- care/ check- in process on both workshop days.
Liz Rosenfeld is an interdisciplinary artist who works with performance,moving images, drawing and experimental writing practices. Liz addresses the sustainability of emotional and political ecologies, cruising methodologies, past and future histories in regard to the ways in which memory is queered. Liz's work deals with flesh as a non-binary collaborative material, specifically focussing on the potentiality of physical abundance and excess, edging questions regarding the responsibility and privilege of taking up space. Embracing an auto- theoretical style, Liz's writing is rooted in questions that contend with how queer ontologies are grounded in variant hypocritical desire(s.)
an*dre neely (‘93) is an artist working with performance, text and spatial practice. Their work explores the materiality of labour and collaboration, intimacy and affect, authority and surveillance, and how they manifest in physical and digital space.
Their readings and performances have shown at Ballhaus OST, Sophiensaele and Berlinische Galerie (DE), Artsadmin, The Yard Theatre, Buzzcut/Tramway Glasgow (UK), ArkDes/Moderna Museet (SE), Warehouse9 (DK) and Teatro da Politécnica (PT). They’ve published with Montez Press, SomethingOther, the Live Art Development Agency, performingborders, Siobhan Davies Dance, and the Hebbel-am-Ufer Theater.
an* is a recipient of a 23/24 Tanzpraxis Stipend, by the Berlin Senate for Culture, researching somatic consent in the context of intimate, sex-positive, and boundary-expansive choreographic practices. Parallel to their artistic practice, an* works as a dramaturg and facilitator and since 2023 is the Associate Producer for the MA Queer Performance, at Rose Bruford College (UK).