Organizational Profile: FADO Performance Inc

An interview with Shannon Cochrane, FADOs Artistic & Administrative Director by Bri Salmena
Performance Art in its nature is ephemeral;
an experience captured over a short period of
time, what kind of challenges does this bring to
Performance Artists?

FADO Performance Inc. (Performance Art Centre)

is a non-profit artist-run centre for performance art
based in Toronto, Canada. FADO was established
in 1993 to provide a stable, ongoing, supportive
forum for creating and presenting performance
art. Currently, we are the only artist-run centre
in English Canada devoted specifically to this
form. We showcase the work of Canadian and
international performance artists, presenting highquality events featuring artists at all stages of their
careers from varied backgrounds within carefully
considered curatorial contexts. We further general
knowledge and critical perspectives toward
performance art by creating opportunities for local
artists and audiences to view works by artists from
other regions and countries: www.performanceart.ca

We live in a world where the Human Genome

Project is complete and still we are obsessed
with Snap Chat. So, which is it? Are we into
permanence or ephemerality? Its a contradiction
to want both, but thats human nature. I think that
the biggest challenge to performance artists is how
to consciously remember that performance art is
in fact an inherently ephemeral practice and exists
(truest to its form) only in memory. For me, the
most interesting work has this knowledge in its very
DNA and oozes this understanding to an audience,
or works with this notion on a self-referential or
conceptual level.

Can Performance Art be defined?

What is FADOs role is supporting Performance

Artists?

Spanish artist Esther Ferrer says that there are

as many theories about what performance art is
as there are performance artists, and that all you
need to know about performance art you can learn
in 3 minutes. There is nothing to master, no skills to
perfect. I like this answer, but I am also aware that
this response is born of a kind of skilled unknowing
that comes from experience and a sustained
engagement with the form. This answer doesnt
let us get away with not saying something, so Ill
borrow from the FADO mantra, words penned long
ago by founder Paul Couillard, which have been
reconstituted to serve many purposes over the
years. They go something like this:
Performance art as a practice has multiple histories
and encompasses various regional, cultural,
political and aesthetic differences. Performance art
can be defined through its relationship to the root
elements of the medium, which are time, space,
the performers body and the relationship between
performer and audience.

As the only artist-run centre in English Canada

devoted solely to producing and presenting
performance art, at FADO we understand that our
role is both comprehensive and scattered. We
are holding up a large and general (and at the
same time, highly specific) banner but we are also
working very closely and intimately with individuals,
collaborating and mentoring, and bringing forward
a living archive. When asked about what my job is
what it actually is, I say this: I am the fundraiser,
secretary, venue broker, travel agent, hotel booker,
writer, publicist, and press agent, among many
other things. When the artist gets to town, I am
the hostess, tour guide, driver, personal shopper,
favor asker, drinking buddy, audience member,
bartender, cheerleader, MC, drug dealer, therapist,
and the purse. I clap the loudest and then I clean
up. I am more than a curator. I am a workhorse.
And then I am the glue.

I would add that performance art is also defined

by its deep concern and working relationship
with site and context. Performance art is born of
process and is not a product for presentation. In
performance art, you work in the moment; you are
not presenting work you have made. The idea
is not the performance; the performance is the
performance. (These last words borrowed Quebec
performance artist, Francis OShaughnessy.)

Can you briefly speak about where you see the

art form going in the next 5-10 years?
I think that it is more interesting to talk about how the
audiences or the general publics understanding of
the form will inform the kind of work artists make. As
the recognition and and knowledge of performance
art grows in the audience (and the general public),

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At the same time, be discerning, self-aware and

self-critical. Know that the quality you are trying to
find is an embodiment of process, not a rehearsed
obsession presentation.
What tips do you have for Performance Artists in
documenting their work?
There is a near obsession with documentation in the
performance art world. Its easy to be swept up in this
tide, believing that without documentation your work
doesnt exist. It is also easy to be seduced into thinking
that to be a legitimate artist, you need to be validated
by the art market (however minimally or maximally you
interact with it), and to be validated you need to sell
things. There is nothing wrong with taking photos or
video of your work for the purposes of grant applications,
doing an artist talk, promoting your work or contributing
to the archive, or with the idea to sell the product in
some form. But I believe that these practices (making
live art vs. taking photos of performance vs. turning
video documentation into video) are three very different
things, and require unique approaches. Problems arise
when the relationship between documentation and the
work perverts, and getting a good shot becomes the
reason to make a performance.

Cochrane 2012. Photo Credit: Joan Casellas

the more kinds of performative practices of all kinds

flourish. This turn goes both ways, challenging
traditional performance practices to remain
relevant through a reexamining of their own history.
Performance art is a touchstone, and has influenced
and shaped contemporary performative practices:
social practice, dance (the conversation about
choreography and how this relates to reenactment
and the archive in the museum is almost a trendy
now), collective action (flash mob anyone?), and
counter-historical practices and investigations
being made across and through the intersection of
disciplines in curating and community around the
world.

It is part of my job to make sure that the works I

produce are properly documented. I try and get
good documentation of my own work, but I hate the
feeling of failure that arises when your pictures stink.
Or the frustration you feel when a festival organizer
is simply too lazy to send your images. Or a curator
tells you after your performance is over that they are
going to publish the photos in their newest book or
on the gallery website, but you will have to purchase
the high-res images directly from the photographer
for your own use.

What advice do you have for emerging

Performance Artists to start making a career out
of their practice?
READ: Read things. Dont be the artist that doesnt
know what is going on in contemporary art, your own
city and your own scene.
WRITE: Practice writing about your own work, and
the work of your peers and colleagues, because
short of academic theory in practices that might not
touch your own work, there are not a lot of writers and
critics willing to generate words about performance
art. If you practice writing about work, you hone your
skills at looking and at being critical, and this will
benefit your own work. And an added bonus might
be that youll get a gig writing something one day.

What are my tips? In short: Understand Canadian

copyright law (even if half the time no one will pay
attention to this). Work with a photographer you trust.
Outside of your own controlled environment, ask
organizers what their approach to documentation
is and depending on that answer, write your own
contract. Give your camera to a friend. And in the end,
dont worry too much about it. We live in a cell phone
world. There will be a photo of you out there that
you did not compose. There will be times when the
performance was great and the images are terrible.
The opposite will sometimes be true. If all else fails,
there is always the approach taken by Spanish
performance artist Valentin Torrens. After years of
fighting about/with documentation, he took to making
all of his performances in complete darkness.

GO: Go to everything you can. Show up. Ask

questions. Volunteer. Apply for stuff, and then apply
again. Ask for advice from people you admire.
DO: Then just do. Make all your ideas. Dont get
caught up in thinking, Thats dumb, I cant do that.

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