More about HISTORY WILL BE KIND TO ME FOR I INTEND TO PERFORM IT – a project that examines and challenges historical narratives

History Will Be Kind to Me for I Intend to Perform It examines performative and collaborative ways knowledge is embodied and performed. It is a collaborative project with New Performance Turku Festival, Performance Art Links /Fylkingen Stockholm, Performance Art Bergen and RAVY Biennial, initiated by the artists and curators Márcio Carvalho and Leena Kela. It consists of artist residencies, performances, talks and symposiums taking place in 2018 in Turku, Stockholm and Bergen. Artists and thinkers will travel and perform in the Nordic countries, ultimately developing a series of up to 24 performances as exercises to demythologise and decolonise knowledge and its hegemonic singularity.
The project title History Will Be Kind to Me for I Intend to Perform It comes from Winston Churchill's quote “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it”. This quote reveals how the complex layers and events of the past have been reduced to dominant, one-sided narratives - for the benefit of the ones who have the power to create it. The project finds it crucial to replace “to write it” with “to perform it” to be able to re-analyse knowledge formations and meaning makings with the body in performance. History Will Be Kind to Me for I Intend to Perform It will rely on the body as a site of discourse and will use performance as a tool to exercise counter-knowings and perform and embody forms of individual and collective remembrance.

All participating artists:
Maryan Abdulkarim (Finland), Elias Björn (Sweden), Christian Etongo (Cameroon), Serge Olivier Fokoua (Cameroon/Canada), Sasha Huber (Finland), Kirsty Kross (Norway), Nathalie Mba Bikoro (Gabon/Germany), Valeria Montti Colque (Sweden), Anthea Moys (South Africa), Mekdes W Shebeta (Ethiopia/Norway), Diana Soria Hernandez (Finland/Mexico), Gitte Sætre (Norway), Gøril Wallin (Norway) and participants of the workshop An archive of my own/ Performing Historyled by artist Shiva Anoushirvani(Sweden).

Overall project schedule:
Residency week in Turku, Finland 27.8.-2.9.2018
PALS Festival 6.-8.9.2018 in Stockholm, Sweden
Performance Art Bergen 14.-16.9.2018 in Bergen, Norway
New Performance Turku Festival 21.-23.9.2018 in Turku, Finland

More information and press requests:
New Performance Turku - Leena Kela & Anni Sundbacka: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. /+358 400510730
PAB Berformance Art Bergen - Kurt Johannessen
The participants are curated by Performance Art Links Stockholm (PALS), Performance Art Bergen, New Performance Turku Festival, RAVY Biennale and Márcio Carvalho.
Thank you: Fylkingen; Umeå Academy of Fine Arts / SWEDEN; University of Bergen, Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design / NORWAY; Tehdas Theatre, the City of Turku and Pro Manilla Foundation / FINLAND