Project title

Recording the Present: A Curatorial Jump into the Everyday Practice in Performings Arts

Project description

Charlotte Fourneuf-Niel’s research project examines contemporary performance through its material, symbolic, and economic conditions. The project is structured around three interconnected research questions.

The first explores the forms of traces and archives that exist for contemporary performance, including photographs, video recordings, sketches, protocols, and narratives. The research investigates how these materials shape narratives, memories, and histories of performance, while also reflecting on their limitations and institutional uses.

The second focuses on remuneration and the economic conditions of performance work. Approaching fair compensation as not only an economic but also a political, ethical, and symbolic issue, the project seeks to better understand the realities of performance labour through exchanges with artists and cultural organizations.

The third examines the role of clothing and costumes in the construction of performative identities. Drawing on contemporary artistic practices, the research considers how clothing can signal function, create fiction, reveal power relations, and reinforce or subvert social and economic norms.

These questions will be explored through interviews, meetings, and observation of contemporary performance practices, particularly in the Dutch context. The project investigates how the experiences of performers, organizers, and curators intersect with broader social and economic structures in Amsterdam’s performance scene.

Selected publications