On the occasion of her major project at MUMA titled WHEN I AM NOT THERE, Melbourne-based choreographer Shelley Lasica and Senior Curator at MUMA, Hannah Mathews, discuss Lasica’s performance-exhibition and the question, ‘Where do you put yourself?’
Shelley Lasica: WHEN I AM NOT THERE is the first artist commission realised as part of Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum, an ARC research project that brings together artists, researchers and institutional partners to support creative practice and develop benchmark models for commissioning, curating, exhibiting, collecting, conserving and archiving choreographic works. Hosted by the University of New South Wales, and involving partner organisations the Art Gallery of New South Wales, MUMA, National Gallery of Victoria and Tate UK, Precarious Movements aims to analyse the lifecycle of choreographic works within the museum and better understand the possibilities and limitations for choreography and its care within this context.
Shelley Lasica: WHEN I AM NOT THERE is curated by Hannah Mathews and will be presented at MUMA from 16–27 August 2022.
Shelley Lasica has been working nationally and internationally for over four decades. Her practice has consistently engaged with the contexts and situations of presenting dance, choreography and performance. Interested in the collective and interdisciplinary possibilities of choreography, she performs her solo and ensemble works in dialogue with designers, writers and visual artists and within visual art, theatre and festival contexts. Presenting work in indeterminate spaces is also an integral part of her choreographic practice. Throughout her career, Lasica has organised and participated in numerous residencies, exchanges and mentorship programs in Australia and overseas. She teaches choreography to dance and visual arts students both independently and within institutions.
Hannah Mathews is a Melbourne-based curator with a particular interest in contemporary art and performance. She is Senior Curator at MUMA, where her recent curatorial projects include Vivienne Binns: On and through the Surface (2022), co-curated with Anneke Jaspers; D Harding: Through a lens of visitation (2021); Agatha Gothe-Snape: The Outcome Is Certain (2020); and Shapes of Knowledge (2019). From 2014–16 Hannah initiated a series of projects that engaged with choreography and the visual arts under the title Sharing Space. This included a seminar with Andre Lepecki, a workshop focused on notation across disciplines and a writing workshop with RealTime and the Next Wave Festival (2016); Action/Response, a two-night cross-disciplinary program for the 2013 Dance Massive Festival; a four-day workshop and performance of Yvonne Rainer’s Trio A in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney (2013); and a five-day workshop of Trisha Brown’s Early Works in Melbourne (2014). Hannah is currently a chief investigator on the ARC Linkage Project Precarious Movements: Choreography in the Museum.
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