For some decades now there is talk about the fusion of artistic practice and its theory, about the crossing of the borders of genres, about self-reflective art and creative science. No wonder that Xavier Le Roy’s Product of Circumstances of 1999 lecture performances have become more and more popular. Popular as a thrilling, performative and discursive medium for choreographers, performers, directors and theorists alike. The seemingly narrow formal limitations of the performance lecture offer a set of unique, often quite complex opportunities and challenges. The lecture as performance, reflection as self-reflection, content as form, language as action.
Yet a lecture is not automatically a performance, and a performance not automatically a lecture. What lies behind all this? Which possibilities do lecture performances offer for arts as well as for passing knowledge?
From 2004 – 2006 Unfriendly Takeover presented the series of “Performing Lectures”. Within this series the practical and theoretical possibilities and borders of lecture performances were investigated as a continuous, ever changing definition in progress. Learning by watching.
