12 Dec 2014

Showroom MAMA presents Outsourcing Performance

Outsourcing Performance is a project in which MAMA continues its research into different presentation and production platforms. In recent years, MAMA has deepened its interest in performance artists whose engagement with the public determines the outcome of their work, in presentations such as Ryan McNamara's solo exhibition Survey, and Oscar Murillo's Ossie's Bingo Boutique.

For Outsourcing Performance, MAMA has asked the artists to script one or more performances in which the conditions and procedures are determined for someone else to perform. The artist themself is not a performer; the performance is outsourced to outsourcing companies like fiverr.com and Brick Work India, as well as to MAMA's public. Safe, efficient, and economic.

The results of the scripts are presented in an interactive exhibition that is continuously updated with new, outsourced work. Outsourcing Performance begins with a video compilation; the project then develops as the exhibition progresses. The exhibition opens on Friday 19 December, with a series of interactive demonstrations, e.g. line dancing. A selection of outsourced performances will be presented at the Rotterdam Art Fair, 4-8 Feb 2015, in the Intersections section

Outsourcing Performance is a significant project, especially now, when more and more intangible work processes are being outsourced to different locations worldwide. The Amazon Mechanical Turk – an internet marketplace for human intelligence tasks – is a good example of this. Ultimately, these developments also influence the creative industry. Outsourcing Performance looks at how far the limits of artistic processes can be stretched, and how these new processes can redefine artistic practice.

Outsourcing Performance is part of MAMA's programming theme All Together Now . Under this theme, MAMA invites artists whose engagement with the audience is pivotal to the creation of their work. In keeping with developments in art and the practice of artists – a logical outcome of MAMA's open character and intrinsic content – we search for new ways in which the public is activated and participates. Parallel developments in the visual arts and society, show that the public has, and demands, an increasingly important role.

Outsourcing Performance is the last project from MAMA's departing curator Gerben Willers, and the first of our new curator Marloes de Vries.