Lauren Bakst, dramaturg of the project, friend and sometimes lover, opened the doors for domestic anarchism in New York. She had previously taken part of one of our co-habitations in Spain and by the time she visited our Open Studio in JVE (summer 2024), she was starting co-curating The School for Temporary Liveness vol 4 with Niall Jones. Our desire to be part of her programme made it through and she included us in the school’s curriculum: “Experiments in performance, practice, and pedagogy”. Nada más y nada menos que con Denise Ferrera de Silva, Julie Tolontino, Nora Chipamaure, Bilnae’s, Montez Press Radio, Wendy´s Subway & Juliana Huxtable (amongst others).

What does it do when we talk about “temporary liveness” instead of performance? And when its framed as a “school” instead of a festival? Hosted by the “Kitchen” which is definitely more than a theatre. 

We moved into it with new student enthusiasm. Joining the attempt for incompleteness asn invitation where cohabitation, erotics and rebelliousness could overlap. Where we were reminded to drift.

We were rarely, if ever, alone in the venue, but rehearsed in co-habitation with other artists and the workers of The Kitchen. Tech runs and curatorial meetings all happening at once. This kind of multitasking made us giggle. To my eyes Lauren and Niall were natural at it. The expansive and interrupted attention it required was similar to being at home, playing with Pepe and keeping up with adult to do lists. Even the moment of “showing” happened in simultaneity with a writing workshop in the same space. Magnifying the possibility for friction, collapse, error and leakage, a porosity was offered by the curatorial architecture. 

In many ways this school was already doing what we wanted to do with the research, so I was a bit like, now what? Can we still contribute, or will our proposal become redundant, lose its spice and function? We have been trying so hard to find alternative ways for producing and sharing and suddenly it felt as if we had nothing to contrast with or move away from. As we don’t have the experience of performing the work in a more conventional theatre yet, I can’t tell what difference it made to do it in this context which resonated so directly with the project. 

But I would say that the ‘students’ of School for Temporary Liveness found ways to ‘study’ with our proposals both the installation part (zona de juego) and the performance part (bailes) in many ways that we couldn’t have hoped for or imagined. 

And on an instagram Adriano wrote…

“In awe of Niall and Laurens ‘curating’ of School for Temporary Liveness at The Kitchen. It’s not just that they are well researched, sensitive, critical and put their own bodies at stake as they push the programme beyond the project-able and plan-able towards the unruly and improper. 

It’s also how they coax both the hosting institution, the participating artists and all the other participating ‘students’ to do the same.

A remarkable, disorienting and deeply moving, as in re/organising dive. 

In a horrifying time like this Lauren and Niall conjures something profound and hopeful”

– AZF & AWJ