Maria Hassabi & Krõõt Juurak
WORKSHOP

WORKSHOP Attention, self-reflexion, performance We want to start from the start. This Coaching Project is about itself. It is about workshop. Making a workshop about workshop, learning about learning, talking about talking. In "Workshop" we will explore. This is the situation. Everything starts from the situation. Situation is always singular and plural. We do not want to change the situation, we want to perform it. We will not try to change the situation we perform it. Perform as true or false, depending on the situation. Performing a workshop, performance workshop, workshop performance. The medium of performing is attention. Well, we want your attention! Self-reflexive dance, self-reflexive choreography, self-reflexive learning, self-reflexive breaks. – as everyone already knows – self-reflection is super boring, not funny, at all, it’s self-obsessed, small-minded, cliché, lazy, cowardly attitude, stuck, a cheap escape and what not. Self-reflection has over the past few years become a common term to tag something, usually meant as a negative property of the work it is referring to. Self-reflection is also highly connoted with self-obsession, narcissism, vanity etc. We are further confused by the non-distinctive use of self-referenciality versus self-reflection while at times the former seems to be preferable over the latter and the other way round. "Workshop" will focus on contemporary constructions of performativity and the format of the workshop as such. "Workshop" is about becoming what one already is. "Workshop" asks the participants to colonise themselves to the furthest edges of our souls, extend in all directions and go nowhere. "Workshop" will include the invention and exercise of discipline, being a student and being a workshop leader (host). This is the first level of this multi-layered performance, which will extend beyond workshop hours and breaks and hours of awake-ness. Infinite games where one is not fully aware of what type of decision will be asked to be made next, time-based ways of being, spaces of attention, collective forms of authorship, autobiography as a tool of collective speculation, insurrection of experience and emotions, and non-causal reasoning. Well, in the end of the day we just want to have fun. But "fun" the more you think of it or the more you try to make a workshop out of it, the more it seems to become confused and blurry and even irritating. "Workshop" is about moderating enthusiasm. And then there is of course the problem with spelling. Self-reflection self-reflexion, slef-reflexion etc. Autocorrect. Maria Hassabi is a New York-based director/choreographer/performer. Over the past decade, she has created eight evening-long works and eight short- form pieces. Her works have been presented across the US and at numerous European festivals. Throughout her career, she has had ongoing collaborations with artists from various disciplines, performing and creating works for theatre, art galleries, museums and film. Maria Hassabi is a recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, 2009 Grants to Artists Award and a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow. Krõõt Juurak is a director/choreogrpaher/performer. Born in 1981 in Tallinn. Since 2002 she has created the performances "Camouflage" (with Merle Saarva), "Artistic Approach", "Look Look" (with Anne Juren), "Once Upon" (2006), "Burning Down the House" (2008, with Laura Kalauz), "Autodomestication" (2009), "Scripted Smalltalk" (2009), "Ride the Wave Dude" (2010, with Mårten Spångberg) and "Presentation" (2012), which have toured internationally. Ongoing collaborations include projects with EVERYBODYS, Chicks on Speed, Multiplex Fiction and Pelican Avenue. She is currently studying at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam.