Playing Up

In early April the Institute went to Tate Modern in London to engage in Playing Up live art games and symposium. PLAYING UP is an artwork by Sibylle Peters and the Theatre of Research, exploring the potential of Live Art to bridge generations. Drawing on key Live Art themes and seminal works, PLAYING UP takes the form of games played by adults and kids together.

The Institute met up with some of the Family Activist Network members and formed two teams, adults and kids. Whilst the adults reworked George Brecht’s Drip Music (1962) and staged a water fight outside Tate Modern, the kids were even busier… They reimagined the Situationist International’s Psychogeography (1953) onto Disneyland’s Map of Paris, searching for the Magic Mountain behind Tate’s shop. Following that, they sat around in a bag, renacting Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s Bagism (1969).

For the symposium, Lena and Sid made a presentation about ‘Beings and Things’, which included the story of Medusa, Sid acting as a crab, a discussion about climate change and oil and a celebration of the fact that the Tate has finally been liberated from BP sponsorship.

Sid Anderson’s Presentation Text:

For Power Point with Video of Sid acting as a crab, please download: Beings and Things Sid and Lena Power Point with Short Video

Watch Sid and Lena’s presentation on Playing Up documentation website.

Whilst at Tate, we also went to see the Joseph Beuys room to add an image to our book 4 Boys [For Beuys].