SUMMER UNIVERSITY, august 1-10 2008

PAF SUMMER UNIVERSITY 2008 1/8/2008 – 10/8/2008 | PerformingArtsForum, St. Erme, France www.pa-f.net

The «Universities» at PAF are a project initiated in the year 2005 by a number of artists, theoreticians and practitioners during the initial meeting in PAF. The «Summer University» [SU] in August 2008 is the fourth «University» project organized in the building in St Erme.

The main interest of SU08 is to experiment with and to test the practices PAF is developing and will develop in future: areas of research, modes (methods, procedures, techniques) of production, frames of collaboration, types of projects, discursive engagement by all interested participants. In a few words: all activities that make up knowledge production in the arts, theory and cultural practice, open and specific.

«University» and participation «University» is the term that replaces «Academy» referring to the Renaissance principle of combining research and education in one location. Secondly, it is called «University» because PAF will be open to all areas of knowledge, even though art is the starting point. SU08 isn’t another international summer academy, offering workshops, lec- tures, panels etc. under a representative topic for which participants apply. The participants of SU08 are at the same time its organizers, in that they are proposing, organizing, and taking part in different projects and activities during SU08. In contrast to existing academies SU08 isn’t based on the principle of «pay to learn and teach to earn». Every participant pays the same fee (the equivalent of food, lodging and technical organization) to take part, no matter what competence or specific knowledge he/she can offer. The access to SU08 is open, but more specifically determined by each project/activity. (See the programme on the website) The aim behind the open access and self-organization is to enable parallel heterogeneous research platforms, to experiment with configurations, extensions, transformations, interferences, mergings and forkings of projects/activities. Preparation & Programme Everyone is invited to propose the project or activity he/she would like to organize within SU08. The only limit of choice is the capacity of the house. The proposals for the SU08 will be announced on the PAF-website: www.pa-f.net

How to become a participant? It’s as easy as sending an email with or without a proposal to Jan Ritsema: janritsema@mac.com

Report/«press conferences» A proposed format for sharing knowledge and information is the so called «press conference». Somewhat old-fashioned and too official for the informality of these meetings, «press conferences» can be used as a format for reports made by a group or individual to the others, either on regular basis or by special appointment. Do you need to make a proposal to take part in the SU08? No, you can take part without making a proposal. Expenses The participation fee is 11 EUR per person per night plus 15 EUR per day for food (three meals a day). Period 1–10 August 2008 is the core period of SU08, but it is possible to come earlier or stay longer or to join SU08 only some days within this main perdion.

Contact & Information Jan Ritsema / PAF | 15, rue Haute | F-02820 St Erme Outre et Ramecourt T/F +33323801846 | mobile: +33637031645 email: janritsema@mac.com | skype: janritsema | www.pa-f.net

PROPOSITIONS so far: -

SUMMER PROGRAM 2008

Here under, you can download the program for the summer 2008 in PDF.

WINTER UPDATE MEETING, december 24th 2007 - january 4th 2008

WINTER UPDATE MEETING AT PAF
24/12/2007-4/1/2008

At the “Summer University” of 2007, at which 70 people took part, we decided to rebaptize the “Winter University” into a “Winter Update Meeting” (WUM).

What is in the name? We will see what is in the name. But the Winter University of 2006 contained less (workshop) proposals and functioned more as an updating and exchange of each others artistic and/or scientific activities. So we decided to call it accordingly.
Still proposals for collective activities/projects are welcome.

“Winter Update Meeting” [=WUM] is a project initiated by the participants of the Summer University held in PAF in August 2007. A number of practitioners (artists, theoreticians, cultural workers, informationtechnologists etc.) who gathered for this Summer University in the house in St. Erme.

The main interest in organizing WUM is to exchange, experiment and test the practices participants of PAF are developing and/or will develop in future: types of projects, areas of research, modes (methods, procedures, techniques) of production, frames of collaboration, discursive engagement by all interested participants. In other words: all activities that make up knowledge production in the arts, theory and cultural practice, open and specific.

WUM isn’t another international gathering, offering workshops, lectures, panels etc. under a representative topic for which participants apply. WUM isn’t based on the principle 'pay to learn and teach to earn'. Every participant pays the same fee (the equivalent of food, lodging and technical organization) to take part no matter what competence or specific knowledge he/she can offer.
WUM can act as a minimodel of PAF: an intensification, a furthering, a confrontation and an intereference-plus-cumulative-effect of all projects, activities, concepts and initiatives, which are either in progress, or about to take off in future, or subsist in potentiality.

Practical information.
- you can come as many days as you want in the foreseen period of the Winter Update Meeting or stay longer, before or after.
- participation in the costs: per person 10 euros a night (unless one stays less than 5 nights, then the price is 15 euros per night).
- food is organised (only during WUM) and costs 15 euros a day (tell us when you are a vegetarian or fish-vegetarian)
- total sum per day: either 25 or 30 euros per person
- reserve by email: janritsema@mac.com
- no application is needed, but make a reservation soon, as the interest seems to be quite big and PAF can only host 50 people
- general information about PAF and how to arrive there on
www.pa-f.net

PAF is a open and relatively free site (and)
PAF is a nomadic space
PAF tries to stay cheap
PAF has almost no staff
(When PAF would have a staff, the prices would be much higher and the highly appreciated autonomy offered to the participants now would be strongly limited. PAF would no longer make a difference but would become a normal well organised artists residency, where space and material belong to the staffs responsability.)

The highly appreciated autonomy can only be maintained when everybody takes part in the every day maintenance organisation.
In other words: -Don’t leave traces and put things back where you found them.
To be more concrete: - clean up the personal and general dirt you left behind you. - do not colonize space nor information (books, dvd’s etc.), - and keep information, materials, apparatuses and spaces available and moveable.
To say it differently: Make it possible for others, not by retreating, not by withdrawel, or by being modest, on the contrary, making it possible for others is thought as active participation. Through action one offers and opens spaces in which others can take part. One proposes participation in an open rehearsal, a lecture, a conversation, a film or documentairy showing and/or by cleaning up and maintening general space.
In other words: one does. This makes that the doer decides at PAF

Jan Ritsema

SUMMER UNIVERSITY, august 3-12 2007

PAF SUMMER UNIVERSITY 2007 3/8/2007 – 12/8/2007 | PerformingArtsForum, St. Erme, France www.pa-f.net

The «Universities» at PAF are a project initiated in the year 2005 by a number of artists, theoreticians and practitioners during the initial meeting in PAF. The «Summer University» [SU] in August 2007 is the third «University» project organized in the building in St. Erme.

The main interest of SU07 is to experiment with and to test the practices PAF is developing and will develop in future: areas of research, modes (methods, proce- dures, techniques) of production, frames of collaboration, types of projects, discur- sive engagement by all interested participants. In a few words: all activities that make up knowledge production in the arts, theory and cultural practice, open and specific.

«University» and participation «University» is the term that replaces «Academy» referring to the Renaissance prin- ciple of combining research and education in one location. Secondly, it is called «University» because PAF will be open to all areas of knowledge, even though art is the starting point.

SU07 isn’t another international summer academy, offering workshops, lectures, panels etc. under a representative topic for which participants apply. The participants of SU07 are at the same time its organizers, in that they are proposing, organizing, and taking part in different projects and activities during SU07.

In contrast to existing academies SU07 isn’t based on the principle of «pay to learn and teach to earn». Every participant pays the same fee (the equivalent of food, lodging and technical organization) to take part, no matter what competence or specific knowledge he/she can offer.

The access to SU07 is open, but more specifically determined by each project/activity. (See the programme on the website) The aim behind the open access and self-organization is to enable parallel hetero- geneous research platforms, to experiment with configurations, extensions, transformations, interferences, mergings and forkings of projects/activities.

Preparation & Program

Everyone is invited to propose the project or activity he/she would like to organize within SU07. The only limit of choice is the capacity of the house. The proposals for the SU07 will be announced on the PAF-website: www.pa-f.net

How to become a participant?

It’s as easy as sending an email with or without a proposal to Jan Ritsema: janritsema@mac.com

Report/«press conferences»

Aproposed format for sharing knowledge and information is the so called «press conference». Somewhat old-fashioned and too official for the informality of these meetings, «press conferences» can be used as a format for reports made by a group or individual to the others, either on regular basis or by special appointment.

Do you need to make a proposal to take part in the SU07?

No, you can take part without making a proposal. Expenses The participation fee is 10 EUR per person per night plus 15 EUR per day for food (three meals a day). Period 3–12 August 2007 is the core period of SU07, but it is possible to come earlier or stay longer or to join SU07 only some days within this main perdion.

Contact & Information

Jan Ritsema / PAF | 15, rue Haute | F-02820 St Erme Outre et Ramecourt T/F +33323801846 | mobile: +33637031645 email: janritsema@mac.com | skype: janritsema www.pa-f.net

PROPOSITIONS so far: MANUELA ZECHNER At PAF Summer Unviersity, there will be a presentation of the future archive project (see below) and an ongoing series of future conversations taking place.

future archive

a topology towards futurity

www.futurearchive.org

The future archive is a project that issues a series of responses to the problem of how to perform futures. It engages interview- conversations that are set in possible times and spaces to come, which two or more people performatively inhabit as proposed versions of futurity. From there, contemporary society is remembered. Upon every conversation, a different future is at stake.

Aiming to offer spaces for carefully developing vocabularies and gestures which might point towards potential ways of thinking, acting and existing, the project encourages articulations of hopes and desires for future ways of co/existing, negotiating the space between a remembered present and a potential future, as well as facing up to the problematics of the proposals and imaginaries at hand. With the questions of transformation and the social as its starting point, the future archive generates a map of divergent scenarios and tactics, focusing on connections as well as points of disagreement between interlocutors.

While there is an interviewing party and an interviewed, what is engaged is working together to make a movement towards what could be/ go beyond contemporary language, problems, politics, etc- never a great success, but more of a negotiation-play with imagination and responseabilities. Conversations are video recorded and become part of an online platform that acts as archive as well as space for exchange and discussion, offering all material as open content.

At futurearchive.org, all material (audio/video/text etc) generated in the framework of the project becomes available for download, commentary and non-commercial use.

In 2007, the future archive brings forth a series of collaboratively curated activities, pertaining to thematic strands within the project, that take the form of discussions, performances, screenings, and so forth. In a relevant institution or open space, collective transformation of a present space into a site of futurity is attempted.

to get in touch, email manuela@thisappearance.org

Proposal for contributions to PAF SU07 of Joannes Vandermeulen (computer-specialist)

Joannes Vandermeulen jv@namahn.com +32 476 62 62 46

Workshop – The user-centered design of digital products A run-down of industrial practice in designing user interfaces for interactive software applications in order to make them appropriate to the intended users • Practical - Nine participants at most (because of interactivity) - Six hours

Seminar – Mental models: how people shape their understanding of how things work People are profligate interpreters of their environment. What are the cognitive processes involved and how can an understanding of these processes be useful in product design. • Practical - One-hour lecture with discussion

Seminar – Navigation: how people navigate real and virtual spaces Animals move about in space with great ease; it is fundamental to their survival. How can designers help people move through software spaces (and not just Second Life) with equal skill? Which navigational mechanisms are fit for human consumption? • Practical - One-hour lecture with discussion

Seminar – Where technology will take the great apes As our mastery of physics (the very small, the very fast) grows, technologies can continue to profoundly change the way we inhabit our world, for the better, probably.

Discussion – ‘Forget about it’: technological utopias and dystopias Technological utopias are equally numerous as technological dystopias. What makes technology so controversial? Because it is important? • Practical - Half-hour lecture with hour-long discussion

FLORIAN MALZSACHER: i will bring the movies of alexander kluge, especially the early ones (they have english & french subs i think) and maybe someone wants to join watching them. i also would like to have a look at his books, but i tried to find something in english, but didn't manage so far. and i have his interviews with heiner müller which are really amazing. i always wanted to get deeper in this, but didnt manage so far: so i don't really know a lot about it but if people want to join in finding out, it would be nice.

ALICE CHAUCHAT: EVERYBODYS/ OPEN SOURCE GROUP

One of the basic motivations for Everybodys is to consider Open Source as an artistic strategy for the Performing Arts, to develop ways of sharing knowledge and producing specific discourses on the Performing Arts in order to refine the conditions of work in general, the parameters of exchange (collaboration/ process-product-usage-share-audience), to produce heterogeneous works, to escape the restricted accessibility to work, to deviate traditional conceptions of authorship etc.

One line of work is the development a Workshop Kit, encompassing tools and interview-games, which enables discussion on our work. This Kit is meant to be developed by the "integral feedback" of usage, in order to enhance its possibilities.

As an input for everybodys' research on the implementation of open-source methodologies into performance practices, we propose to those who are interested to take over and share the development of générique. A basic concept and toolbox for its realisation already exist, and it is a perfect moment for the project to take several forms, so that the 1st finalisation already is more than one. We would like to work in the same time on an internet platform for its spreading and the possibility for feedbacking, i.e. reworking the toolbox along its use.

Générique is an offer to reconsider the theatrical frame as a place for sharing and complicity. Traces and absent parts give space for a common discourse and imagination to arise, tangling levels of reality and fiction through multiple possible interpretations. Each performance is a specific combination of generic items. These items address issues such as quotation, adaptation, signature, everydayness and virtuosity.It is made up from the scraps that survive. In the creation process, the body simultaneously becomes a receptacle, a vessel, a processor and a generator.Thanks to the use it makes of incorporation in the creation process, it is also a true metaphor of memory.Through complicity the performers produce an informal unison."

Everybodys” also continues to discuss modes of sharing, formats of distribution and exchange and stategies for development of the field of performance on a more general level. Discussions around publications and alternative formats (magazine, book, dvd, cd) understood as venues will take place during the PAF summer university.

Winter University 26 december 2006 - 4 january 2007

“Winter University” [=WU] is a project initiated by the participants of the Summer University held in PAF in August 17-27/2006. A number of practitioners (artists, theoreticians, cultural workers etc.) who gathered for the first Summer University in the house in St. Erme.

The main interest in organizing WU is to experiment and test the practices PAF is developing and/or will develop in future: types of projects, areas of research, modes (methods, procedures, techniques) of production, frames of collaboration, discursive engagement by all interested participants. In a few words: all activities that make up knowledge production in the arts, theory and cultural practice, open and specific.

University and participation
“University” is the term that replaces “academy” here referring to the Renaissance principle of combining research and education in one location. Secondly, it is called “university” rather than “academy” because PAF will be open to all areas of knowledge, even if art is or remains the starting point.
So, WU isn’t another international winter academy, offering workshops, lectures, panels etc. under a representative topic for which participants apply. The participants of WU are its organizers, in that they are proposing, organizing, and taking part in different projects and activities during WU. In contrast to existing academies WU isn’t based on the principle 'pay to learn and teach to earn'. Every participant pays the same fee (the equivalent of food, lodging and technical organization) to take part no matter what competence or specific knowledge he/she can offer. The access to SU is open, but more specifically determined by each project/activity. (See the programme further)

Preparation
The preparation of WU has already begun from the moment the project was discussed. Only by organizing preparation as process, rather than by planning a representative programme, can WU act as a minimodel of PAF: an intensification, a furthering, a confrontation and an intereference-plus-cumulative-effect of all projects, activities, concepts and initiatives, which are either in progress, or about to take off in future, or subsist in potentiality.

A proposed format for sharing knowledge and information is press conference. Somewhat old-fashioned and too official for the informality of these meetings, press conferences are optional, not obligatory reports made by each group to the others either on regular basis or by special appointment.
Everyone is invited to propose the project or activity they would like to organize within SU. Or to propose a discussion about a project you are working on. To make a presentation when you want to have it discussed, etc.
The only limit of choice is the capacity of the house.
The aim behind the open access and self-organization is to make possible parallel heterogeneous research platforms. To experiment with configurations, extensions, transformations, interferences, mergings and forkings of projects/activities.

Documentation
A special attention will be given to the issue of documentation. How can we make sure that the different research, projects and events are documented and published in a way that enables others to use them for further investigation? Projects/activities are encouraged to automatically reflect their own documentation. Naturally, information will also circulate wider than SU, in ways that PAF won’t be responsible for.

How to become a participant?
It’s as easy as sending an email to jan.ritsema@pa-f.net and wait for a confirmation.
No appplication is needed.
Neither is a proposal obligatory.

You can also stay shorter or longer than the Winter University period.

Expenses
The participation fee is 250 euro for the 10 days, consisting of 100 euro for a room, 150 euro for food (three meals a day, incl. wine). When you stay less days you pay accordingly. So a 4 nights stay would cost 100 euros

For more information about PAF go to www.pa-f.net where you can also find the information about how to get there (http://pa-f.net/node/10).

Programme (the program at PAF is always flexible and optional)
For now the programme is an open list of proposals:

*works asking for more feedback and more discussion – those people who are looking for more feedback discussion on their work are invited to organize such a session.

* ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS, VIENNA
COMING TO PAF WINTER UNIVERSITY 26.12 2006 (until 31.12. 2006)
Post Conceptual Art Practices
Students of the Class and professor Marina Grzinic and assistant Gerhard Gleich
with guests from Vienna Manoa Free University, Vienna, Theory that Walks, Belgrade, Kontekst Gallery, Belgrade, among others

The research trip to PAF by the Post Conceptual Art Practices, AKBILD, Vienna is connected with the 2006/2007 school year project: PRODUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE. This project researches the system of contemporary education, with an emphasis on open source and (self) organizing models of knowledge and activities. A special focus is given to the question of construction of history of art and connection of art practices and activist theory. The class already went for a trip to Prishtina, Kosova in November 2006.

One of the educational goals of the Post Conceptual Art Practice is taking part in research and exchange trips. In such trips students actively present their work and activate a platform of debates with other students and the general public. Post Conceptual Art Practices from The Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna has accomplished several research trips in the last three years: Ljubljana (Slovenia), Bratislava (Slovakia), Split (Croatia), Belgrade (Serbia), Usti nad Labem (Czech Republic) and Dresden (Germany). In all these cities we had a program of lectures, performances, screenings, happenings and presentations. The exchange is established between the Class and other Academies or cultural centers in connection with artistic and cultural projects.

THE PROGRAMM of the Vienna Fine Arts Academy:

AKBILD/Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna
POST CONCEPTUAL ART PRACTICES
Prof. Dr. Marina Grzinic

http://t4.antville.org/

RESEARCH TRIP TO PAF PerformingArtsForum
St. ERME, FRANCE //

PAF Winter University Program
25. DECEMBER to 31. DECEMBER 2006
Visit Paris: 28.12.2006

PROGRAM/OUR INTERVENTIONS:
Presentations, discussions, reading, cooking…….
Self education, self organization, democratization of knowledge

Students Akbild/PCAP and the Belgrade branch: Theory that Walks, Kontekst Gallery

Lina Dokuzovic; Kevin Dooley; Eduard Freudmann; Can Guelcue;
Ana Hoffner; Chaim Jackler; Ivan Jurica; Koloman Kann; David Kellner;
Christoph Kolar; Lisbeth Kovacic; Martina Lunzer Brem; Katharina Morawek;
Michael Poetschko; Lillo Reissert; Henning Schorn; Lukas Tagwerker;
Christina Trachta; Tilman Wagner; Ruth Weismann; Tina Wimmer;
Stephanie Winter; Regina Wuzella; Ivana Marjanovic; Miljana Peric
Marta Popivoda; Ana Vujanovic

Gerhard Gleich
Marina Grzinic

PROGRAM PAF prepared with the Belgrade Branch
VISIT TO PARIS a program proposed by Natasa Petresin, Ljubljana, curator, writer and Ph.D. candidate at EHESS in Paris (www.ehess.fr), co-organizer of the seminar "Something You Should Know: Artistes et producteurs aujourd'hui" at EHESS (http://www.ehess.fr/ue/2006-2007/ue1250.html)

26 DECEMBER 2006/Tuesday
PAF: Jan Ritsema guide through the house, its history and current formation of
paf; self-introductions of all of us, presentations, points of
researches in the fields of education, learning, knowledge
(production) etc

27 DECEMBER 2006/Wednesday
Discussing the work similarities and differences:
COOKING EVENT with presentations of the works: screenings,
performances, lectures from Vienna, from Belgrade group
with talks about problematical, critical, unusual, specific, unknown,
differential points in others' works; the points could be recognized
better by the people outside than by those who are in; also
discussing concepts such as - difference, other, particularity,
normativity, communication, disagreement

28 DECEMBER 2006/Thursday
PARIS

PROGRAM proposed by Natasa Petresin, Ljubljana, curator, writer and Ph.D. candidate at EHESS in Paris (www.ehess.fr), co-organizer of the seminar "Something You Should Know: Artistes et producteurs aujourd'hui" at EHESS (http://www.ehess.fr/ue/2006-2007/ue1250.html)

At 9.00 departure St. Erme to Paris

*At 11.00 - 12.30
Le Plateau, Paris
Address: Le Plateau, Place Hannah Arendt, 19. Department (intersection between Rue des Alouettes and Rue Carducci)
Website: http://www.fracidf-leplateau.com/

Presentation of the Le Plateau, meeting Gilles Baume, organizer of pedagogical activities at Le Plateau, with Natasa Petresin, Thomas Boutoux (Métronome Press) and Francois Piron (Work Method)

PRESENTATION of the project Société Anonyme (to be realized in March 2007).

Meeting Maria Klonaris and Katerina Thomadaki
http://perso.orange.fr/astarti/artsite.htm
Maria Klonaris and Katerina Thomadaki are media artists of Greek origin based in Paris since 1975. They produce films, videos, multi-media installations, performances, photographic pieces, sound and texts.

*At 13.00 to 14.00 LUNCH at PALAIS DE TOKYO

*At 14.00 -15.00
PALAIS DE TOKYO
Address: 13, Avenue du Président Wilson, 16. department
website: http://www.palaisdetokyo.com/
Meeting Benjamin Bardinet, responsible for public programme; visiting the exhibition program Palais de Tokyo

*At 15.30 - 16.00
gb agency, Paris
Address: 20 rue Louise Weiss, 13. department
website: http://www.gbagency.fr/

Meeting Dominique Petitgand, artist, at his show at gb agency.

*At 16.00 - 16.30
in situ Fabienne Leclerc
Address: 10, rue duchefdelaville, 13. department
website: http://www.insituparis.fr/accueil.asp

Visit of the exhibition "Ah, les belles images" with Walid Raad, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil. Meeting with Hélène Chouteau.

see this link for the info on exhibition: http://www.paris-art.com/event_detail-7793.html

*At 16.30 LATEST departure for Brétigny

*At 17.00 - 18.00
CAC Brétigny
Address: Espace Jules Verne, Rue Henri Douard, 91220 Brétigny s/Orge
telephone: +33 1 60 85 20 76

website: http://www.cacbretigny.com/

Meeting the director of CAC Brétigny, Pierre Bal-Blanc

see the attached document for the plan of the trip from Paris to CAC Brétigny, Brétigny s/Orge

At 18.00 departure to St. Erme
At 20.00 Dinner at St. Erme

29 DECEMBER 2006/Friday

First resume of the exchange events, works, discussing the
Vienna program in diether theater and reading of two texts; a full day on
discussing ideas, theses, references, political and theoretical
points in our works/ researches; also talking about their socio-
political conditions and "causes" in different social contexts and
institutions; also discussing concepts such as - common, collective,
multitude, community, general intellect, agreement.

Text proposed by Belgrade branch: Bojana Cvejic THEORY, POLICE AND DISAGREEMENT

30 DECEMBER 2006/Saturday

FINAL RESUME of the whole event, program that will document the
events: book, fanzines, DVD and the Bg meeting and summer academy.
Deadline to get money for the book and other things in Vienna is on 12.1.2007.

Departure to Vienna early afternoon.

For more visit the Post Conceptual Art Practices/ Akbild, Vienna BLOG http://t4.antville.org/

Call for SELF-EDUCATION at PAF, april 1- october 1 2007

SELF-EDUCATION AT PAF
PAF | PerformingArtsForum, St. Erme, France
www.pa-f.net | self-education@pa-f.net
Acall for not yet professionals and young artists
Period 1 April – 30 September 2007

SELF-EDUCATION AT PAF offers the opportunity for a non-hierarchical, self-motorized learning process. In contrast to other educational programmes based on instruction, SELF-EDUCATION AT PAF focuses on:
– learning how to identify your own interests, and how to set up the means to develop your own curriculum of study
– encountering other young professionals from different backgrounds
– sharing your work with other artists, theoreticians and cultural practitioners in residence at PAF.

Activities are structured in various formats determined by students, guests and other PAF residents: presentations of work and feedback sessions, discussions and debates, film screenings and lectures, classes and workshops. PAF provides a large amount of working space, studios of various sizes, spaces for communal activities and a mediatheque. The peaceful surroundings support full concentration on work.

In a double structure of both self-motorized, self-guided individual/group study, and intensive exchange with other artists, students can expand their knowledge and learning process. The particular emphasis of the research practice at PAF is on investigating artistic methodology, creating tools to design working
processes, and developing skills beyond those already established.
Briefly, learning at PAF means engaging in a dialogue that may challenge your artistic goals, methods, and visions of art in contemporary society.

SELF-EDUCATION ATPAF is six months long (1 April – 30 September 2007)
and includes Summer University (10 days in July/August 2007) and students exchange period (21 May – 1 June 2007). For more information about PAF and its program see www.pa-f.net.

SELF-EDUCATION AT PAF : CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS IS OPEN NOW!
Period 1 April – 30 September 2007 | Fee: €250,– per month for accom-
modation and working space | For participation please send a project
description and a CV to: janritsema@mac.com
Initiated and run by
Carla Bottiglieri, Elke Van Campenhout, Alice Chauchat, Bojana Cvejiç, Annie Dorsen, DD Dorvillier, Thomas Greil, Sandra Iché, Mette Ingvartsen, Krõõt Juurak, Florian Malzacher, Xavier Le Roy, Berno Odo Polzer, Marta Popivoda, Nikolina Pristas, Sergej Pristas, Jan Ritsema, Petra Sabisch, Eszter Salamon, Ana Vujanoviç.

PAF | PerformingArtsForum
Contact & Information
Jan Ritsema / PAF
15, rue Haute
F-02820 St Erme Outre et Ramecourt
T/F +33323801846 | mobile: +33637031645
email: janritsema@mac.com
skype: janritsema
www.pa-f.net

PerformingArtsForum (PAF)
Basic information

AMission Statement
PAF is a place for the professionals and not-yet-professionals in the field of performing arts, visual art, music, film, literature, new media, theory and cultural production, who seek to research and determine their own conditions of work.

PAF is for people who can motorize their own artistic and knowledge production, not only responding to the opportunities given by the institutional market. Initiated and run by artists, theoreticians, practitioners and activists themselves, PAF is a user-created informal institution. It is a platform for anyone who wants to expand possibilities and interests in his/her own working practice.

PAF is located in a former convent school (6.400 m2), in a 1.2 hectare garden in the village of St. Erme, France, approximately 130km northeast of Paris.

PAF is
– a forum for producing knowledge in critical exchange and ongoing
discursive practice
– a place for temporary autonomy and full focus on work
– atool-machine where one can work on developing methods and procedures, not necessarily driven toward a product
– a place for experimenting with other than known modes of production
and organization of work, e.g. open source production
– a place for distraction, retreat and conviviality

PAF is not a venue which has the budget to produce, promote and distribute projects, but it is a house offering generous space and unlimited time, a possibility to shape your own conditions of work, as well as contact and exchange of content and other modes of production with the artists and theoreticians working at PAF.

PAF is an institution which continues to develop on the basis of what each person brings through his/her engagement. It has no other aim but to operate on the principles of self-organization, whereby one assumes the responsibility for creating and organizing his/her own work and activity in PAF. One can be working alone in PAF. But PAF also offers spontaneous ways to interact with others, without forcing collaboration.

Who can come to PAF?
You don’t need an invitation to come to PAF. PAF isn’t a closed group. It’s enough that you write an email explaining what you would like to do in PAF, and then you will negotiate the time of your stay and all other practical matters.

What can I do in PAF?
You can come to work on whatever you choose to. This entails a wide range of activities: personal projects, but also projects you would like to initiate, organize and involve more people, such as conferences and all other kinds of meetings.
If you don’t have a concrete project, purpose or intention, you can also come and visit PAF. In PAF you will probably find a number of artists, theoreticians and other practitioners – the information about the persons and activities is updated monthly on the website. There is a growing mediatheque with technical equipment where you can view videos. The whole place is covered by WIFI. There is a lot of studios, working spaces and other communal places, including a park.