2015 - 2016 The Kitchen / Not The Restaurant

“Orality…is inseparable from the body in movement.”  — Edouard Glissant. DAI, July 2015-Image credit: Maria Barlasov

tags: Jakarta, Arnhem

Framework & referee: Gabriëlle Schleijpen

Coaches: Yael Davids, Natasha Ginwala, Rebecca Sakoun, Arnisa Zeqo, Vivian Ziherl

Students: all

Respondents: Mirwan Andan, Ute Meta Bauer, Mary Ellen Carroll, Jeuno JE Kim, Patricia Reed, Adrian Rifkin, Cara Tolmie, Hypatia Vourloumis and Inigo Wilkins.

“Orality…is inseparable from the body in movement.”  — Edouard Glissant

Every DAI week, one full day is dedicated to lectures and lecture-performances (recognized here as a longstanding unique discipline, a hybrid of research, lecture, visual art and performative narrative techniques) by 7-8 students. The specific DAI-format for this important 'free space' for the exchange of the student's independent research updates, proposals, experiments and interests, has been coined in 2003 and molded and sculpted ever since.
For the duration of twenty uninterrupted minutes each student is invited to 'speak' to an audience consisting of their fellow students, two monthly changing guest respondents (invited artists, theoreticians, curators) and a coach especially appointed to provide the presenters with guidance during a follow-up trajectory.

Beginning their presentation with a carefully crafted key question addressing both guests, the student presents relevant aspects of her praxis / works in process / reference sets, rather than finished works, although, if needed, the screening of a work or the presentation of a 'performance as work' can certainly be considered, just as well as a formal paper (if not boring). Other than the limits of the given time and space frame there are actually no restrictions to the content and the format of the presentation. Following each presentation, in a conversational mode, the two invited respondents try to come up with an improvised, spoken reflection while simultanuously engaging with the question. The day-long event is gently guided by DAI-director Gabriëlle Schleijpen.

Each student will be aligned with a coach: this experienced artist/curator/researcher/public speaker/performer attends all 8 presentations scheduled on one day and presents each student with precise feed back during an individual skype meeting. Extensive 'work-out sessions' led by the five coaches on June 6 & 7 will offer the students guidance towards the final presentations in July.

July 11-15, 2016 the DAI organizes a week long 'marathon' where all students, in the presence of core tutors and invited guest respondents will present a final research update or perform or screen a work (again, within the limits of the set framework of time and space). Although final assessments will be based on several equally important curriculum components the Kitchen-presentations in July will function as the conclusion to the overall learning trajectory of the student in the past one or two years at the DAI. The presentations of the second year students will also be live-streamed, documented and later on (partly) published at the Alumni Embassy on this website.