On 6 October 2023, we marked the end of the first year of ART with Bodies on the Line, a mini-exhibition, conversation, and dance intervention by York Dance Space held at the Guildhall in York.
Inspired by discussions surrounding increasing threats to traditional forms of resistance both in the UK and globally, we aimed to explore the role of the body in contemporary forms of protest, addressing how artists and activists use their bodies to push the boundaries of established forms of protest. The mini-exhibition featured a video performance by artist Isaac Chong Wai (Hong Kong, Berlin) that explores politically charged gestures of police brutality in the history of protests through slow choreographies; a participatory media installation devised by collective ARCOS and artists Taeheon Lee and Meiyan Chen (Austin, Seoul/York, Hubei/Karlsruhe) which suggests that intersections between art and technology can enhance practices of care among physically distant bodies; a short documentary by feminist interdisciplinary collective LASTESIS (Valparaiso/Santiago) showing the viral impact of their public space intervention A Rapist in Your Path, a response to institutionalised sexual and gender-based violence; and an exhibition of photos documenting the work of Rafooghar, one of the projects commissioned through Conversations in KIOSKs.
The event closed with a roundtable discussion with York Dance Space, Catrinel Motoc (Senior Campaigner on Civil Space and the Right to Protest, Europe Regional Office, Amnesty International), and Dr Paula Serafini (Lecturer in Creative and Cultural Industries at Queen Mary University of London). Around eighty people attended the event and we were delighted with the audience’s engagement with the exhibition and roundtable discussion.
