If I Can´t Dance, I Don´t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution III

Opening: Friday 26 September, from 6 pm onwards, in de Appel

I n 2006, de Appel formed a long-term partnership with If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, a travelling platform for performance-related practices in the visual arts. ‘If I Can’t Dance…’, a famous statement attributed to the anarchist Emma Goldman, typifies the unique capacity of art to make political and critical statements about the world while also celebrating that same world. With this ongoing collaboration, de Appel refers indirectly to its own roots (1975-1983, under director Wies Smals) and to the fact that notions like ‘the performative’ and feminism continue to play an important part in de Appel’s programme.

In 2006, the close relation between If I Can’t Dance… and de Appel resulted in an exhibition, a performance weekend and a symposium. These activities explored the energy and intellectual perspectives of feminism (or feminisms) as studied in contemporary art practice.

I n 2008-2010 during the third edition If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution embraces the theme of ‘Masquerade’. The exploration of this theme may be seen as an extension of earlier research conducted by If I Can’t Dance… into theatricality (Edition I, 2005) and into the heritage and potential of feminism (Edition II, 2006- 2007). In Edition III – “Masquerade”, which consists of a prologue and four episodes, If I Can’t Dance… aims to investigate, together with artists and other mediators, how we handle ideas about identity and public space today.

Edition III lasts two years, during which period it will examine the theme from different perspectives and present it for consideration at different moments in the context of institutions in several cities.

Following the prologue at the Overgaden arts centre in Copenhagen in August 2008, episode 1 will take place in de Appel in the form of an exhibition, an archival presentation and a performance programme. This project will touch on subaspects of the main theme, such as rituals, gestures, normalized as opposed to transgressive behaviour, covert as opposed to manifest action and differing approaches to role playing, power positions and appearances. For episode 1 in de Appel, artist Stefanie Seibold will present a selection of de Appel’s archive in collaboration with de Appel’s librian Nell Donkers, showing positions and projects in relation to the notion of the masquerade from de Appel’s legacy.

T he project will have a sequel in the form of episode 2 this winter in Sala Rekalde (Bilbao) and episode 3 in Project Arts Centre (Dublin) in the spring of 2009. The fourth and final episode will take place at the Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven) in winter 2009/2010. Collaborating closely with the artists Keren Cytter, Jon Mikel Euba, Olivier Foulon, Suchan Kinoshita, Joachim Koester and Sarah Pierce, If I Can’t Dance… will investigate the Masquerade theme, and help develop new works by these artists which will be presented in the above-mentioned institutes at various moments during the two years of the project.

If I Can´t Dance, I Don´t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution 
Edition III: Masquerade
Kuratoren: Frederique Bergholtz, Annie Fletcher

Künstler: Keren Cytter, Jon Mikel Euba, Olivier Foulon, Suchan Kinoshita, Joachim Koester, Sarah Pierce, Stefanie Seibold