The Performance: A Reading at PW12 (Winter 2012)

This short text takes the form of a series of modular units focussing on performance readings at PW12, held at the Arnolfini gallery during the winter of 2012. The text consists of parodic aphorisms interspersed with direct quotations taken from the performance. This unusual configuration defamiliarizes the standard research essay format, and brings the readings in question into a more dialogic relation with the critical components of the aphorisms. There is also a tendency here towards the performative inscription of theory. To this end, the article offers a burlesque of critical prose which is sympathetic to the indeterminate poetics of the performances, as well as to the pluralistic character of the event.