Letter #1

On the occasion of All all all Tryouts' first residency: Paolo de Venecia Gile KAYA – everytime the sun comes up, July 22 - September 2, 2024

Income:
Funding received: 46.000 DKK (incl. grant for housing expenses)
Ticket sales: 4.000 DKK

Expenses:
Artist fee: Paolo de Venecia Gile: 25.000 DKK 
Curators fee: Sif Lindblad & Klara Li: 4.000 DKK
Designers fee: Alexis Mark: 12.000 DKK
Rent: 9.000 DKK


Hello,

On August 2, 2024, dancer, performer, and choreographer Paolo de Venecia Gile premiered the first part of their performance triptych called KAYA – every time the sun comes up, marking the opening of their residency and exhibition period at All all all. It also marked the official opening of All all all’s second-year programme Tryouts, an attempt to investigate the performative gesture, which began after All all all moved out of Kunstforeningen Gammel Strand into its own space in Nørrebro. This was preceded by a prelude series, including a collaboration with O–Overgaden, a fundraiser for Gaza, and the exhibition of Rosalind Nashashibi’s timely work Electrical Gaza from 2015.

The prelude series, Tryouts, the move into a new space, and becoming an independent exhibition platform were all accomplished as a partnership, with All all all now directed and curated by Klara Li and Sif Lindblad. Li founded All all all in its first year and Lindblad initiated the live-based performance collaboration between All all all and Gammel Strand as part of the first year, which originally focused on live performances and eventually led to the Tryouts programme: an experiment in radicalising the processual format.

With the opening of Gile’s triptych, another chapter in All’s fundamental exploration of the potential of processual formats continues in new ways. The theatre serves as the formal setting, and the performative gesture’s live action base centres the process in a very concrete way. It unfolds in front of the audience in real-time and across a series of shows throughout the exhibition period, changing from show to show.

Composed as a poem, each performance of the triptych closely reflected its title in a poetically literal and evocative manner. It began with shamanistic, somatic dances in the first part, day breaks, the chaos flowers, and transitioned to hypnotic, repetitive TikTok dances in where night never reaches, screens melt, capturing the entrancing yet numbing effect of digital culture. Finally, Gile’s choreographic efforts came to the forefront in escorting the souls of the sole, when they led the audience around the block to the lake, where they emptied their shoes of cutouts from their own clothes, which the audience had earlier been invited to cut, referencing Yoko Ono’s 1961 Cut Piece. The performance, which originally referenced the Vietnam War, now drew attention to contemporary Western warmongering, as American and Danish participation in arms sales to Israel contributes to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

Starting Tryouts with the work of a dancer provided an opportunity to embrace the interdisciplinary artistic practices inherent to All all all, with a desire for broad, inclusive approaches to what the live gesture can achieve and signify. With Gile’s trust and grace, our efforts in collaborative curatorial methods, striving for anti-hierarchy between curator, artist, and audience, were tested anew. Throughout the process, three beautiful works were created on site, showcasing the potential of this format to foster both workspace and artistic products in another form. However, it also challenged the artist, who produced and performed three completely different works within a rather short period, revealing that the freedom of the format can also be its Achilles heel.

The artist was paid 25.000 DKK for their project.

As a small independent exhibition platform, we are committed to paying artists proportionally for their time, effort, and integrity, which necessitates significant time spent on fundraising. After moving into our own space, we received the National Arts Foundation’s grant for new exhibition platforms, which is covering our rent, for now, for which we are truly grateful. In line with our commitment to fostering non-hierarchical collaboration with each artist, it is also our goal and funding strategy to compensate ourselves equally to the artist. So far, we have not been able to secure enough funding to pay ourselves. Perhaps this will have changed by the time we publish our next letter ...

We look forward to presenting All all all’s next exhibition and residency: Sommerfuglens Forbandelse by Nynne Roberta Pedersen Pedersen and Lasse B. Ondesen from October 4 - November 1, 2024.

All the best,
All all all 


The Tryouts year-programme, consisting of five exhibitions, is currently funded by: 


Beckett Fonden: 50.000 DKK
William Demant Fonden: 40.000 DKK
Knud Højgaards Fond: 50.000 DKK
Statens Kunstfond: 80.000 DKK (maintenance and housing expenses)