Introduction of Performance Art Workshop & Education Programme instructed by Monique Yim

WORKSHOP, TEACHING & TALK

Instructor’s Profile: Monique Yim

Monique Yim is a performance artist and educator based in Hong Kong and worked internationally. Engaged in performance art for 12 years, she has been invited to present her works in Hong Kong and almost 30 cities in Asia and Europe, in over 150 international exhibitions and festivals. She has curated the “Performance Art Marathon” in the West Kowloon Cultural District. She has actively given workshops or lectures at many overseas and local universities, primary and secondary schools and institutions. She has also collaborated with many arts and cultural institutions such as MAD Asia, Hong Kong Gallery Association, CULTaMAP, Hong Kong Literature House, Renaissance Foundation Hong Kong, K11, etc. In 2018, she won the second prize of the “International Award for Visual Art Performance in Public Space” at Kassak Art Centre, Central Europe.

Monique’s students included local, China and overseas young artists, arts graduates, arts master students, arts degree students, HKDSE visual arts students and people without art background, ranging from kids, teenagers, adults to people of different races, people come from different communities, disabled and people with special needs. She has worked with Brno University of Technology (Czech Republic), Xiamen University (China), Hong Kong University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong, Polytechnic University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Hong Kong School of Creativity, Diocesan Boys’ School, Diocesan Girls’ School, St. Mary’s Canossian College, South Island International School, Tseung Kwan O Government Secondary School, Choi Hung Estate Catholic Secondary School, Caritas Lok Jun School (Special Education), Precious Blood Children’s Village, Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation (YAF), etc.

In 2017 she presented a breakthrough cross-disciplinary arts production of performance art, music, film, installation and theatre, named “Searching for Stillness” in KUC Space, themed on life and death. She also did many pioneering works on local performance art education, such as performance crossover interdisciplinary arts education programmes she provided to “The Hong Kong Jockey Club Community Performing Arts Biennale 2016”, named “We Are Unique”, and “Renaissance Foundation Summer Camp 2017”, named “Wasteland”, both themed on life education.

Introduction of Performance Art Education, written in 2018:

What is performance art as an art form?

  • Performance art is a form of contemporary visual art. It uses concept and body/action as the medium of creation. It has a live nature and is composed of the present interaction of time, space, people and materials.
  • Performance art is about authentic, and the presentation and representation of reality.
  • Body, material, environment, relationship and interaction of artist and audience of the present time and space… are all media of creating performance art. Artworks are without boundaries, whatever on the concept and form, time and duration, art media or even interdisciplinary.

Who can do performance art? Who can experience, learn, explore and try to create performance art?

  • It is an art form that could be done by everyone, that could be created without any visual or performing art background.
  • Through this performance art workshop, everyone can try to break through the frame of thinking, to explore life and living, express their inner feelings, find themselves, and discover infinite possibilities. People could create their own piece, express their true selves out of the frame, also could collaborate, interact and communicate with the others and the other pieces.

What is the possibilities of performance art?

  • The possibilities of cross-media art creations can be explored and experimented, such as performance x music, performance x literature, performance x installation, performance x theatre, performance x video, performance x photography, etc.
  • The theme and perspective could be ranged from the self, life, live, past experience, incident, to social and public issue, reflection, feeling, or critique.
  • Defining performance art, Monique Yim stated that, “It is an art form that uses body as a medium. The subject content, media, and material involved in the creation are very diversified yet finest. It can be social and public. It can be about oneself and self-contemplation. It can be thoughts about life, living, and existence. It is inward and outward at the same time, microscopically and macroscopically. It is sometimes a process, sometimes a result. It is the softest yet toughest. It is honest, real and virtual. It can be easy, unlike painting, sculpture, architecture and so on, performance art does not necessarily require certain skills and training, it requires perception and instinct, concept and transformation; it can be difficult, it should be driven from mind and spirit, and is the synthesis of present time, space, people (artist and audience), and objects (material and environment). In the art history, it is probably the most marginal and avant-garde, the most floating and controversial, however, for humans, it is possibly the most ordinary, natural, and secluded.” – Published in the book “Performance Art Laboratory Project 2014: International Performance Art Festival”, supported by Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

What special topics could Monique’s performance art (and interdisciplinary art) education programme or workshop provide according to her teaching experience?

Topics of Life Education, Positive Education and Civil Education, like

  • Self Development and Problem Tackling
  • Meaning of Life, Life Planning & Life Goals
  • Family & Inter-Generation
  • Life & Death Education
  • Value & Social Responsibility
  • Community and Society Concerning
  • Nature and Conservation
  • Body, Mind and Soul / Religion
  • Cultural Studies, like Globalization, Gender, Minorities, etc
IN SITU: NATURE ACTION. Negative Cube 2
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