Lynsey Peisinger: In the Field. Performance at Fondation Beyeler

Lynsey Peisinger (1977, United States) is a Paris-based choreographer and performer. She has cast and trained performers for Marina Abramović in Moscow, Los Angeles and Basel. Most recently, in 2014, she collaborated with Marina Abramović on the exhibition 512 Hours at the Serpentine Gallery, London. The piece that she performed on the occasion of the one-day exhibition The Artist is an Explorer, curated by Marina Abramovic at Fondation Beyeler in Riehen (Basel, Switzerland) is titled In the Field.

Lynsey Peisinger: In the Field. Performance at Fondation Beyeler. Performance at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen (Basel, Switzerland), September 20, 2014.

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Exhibition text:

A long, simple wooden ladder is placed upright in a clear space outdoors, reaching several meters high. The gaps between the rungs of the ladder are wide apart, and the ladder is freestanding and unusually tall. Over the course of many hours, a number of figures will appear and slowly climb the ladder, repeating the action one after another for the duration. Each person will slowly climb up one side and down the other to reach the ground, each then disappearing from the sight of the viewer.
For the performers, there is no completion or finish line, only hard physical work and sustained effort within the framework of slow and considered group action. As with all repetitive, daily work, this ongoing slow-moving climb is an undertaking in stamina and continuation, where the work itself is the reward. Requiring focus, endurance, strength and patience, the commitment and presence of each performer determines the energetic nature of the work and how it unfolds. In The Field aligns this sustained, time-based movement with work of all kinds, suggesting that even apparently commonplace actions can be infused with our presence and awareness.

Lynsey Peisinger (1977, United States) is a Paris-based choreographer and performer. She has cast and trained performers for Marina Abramović in Moscow, Los Angeles and Basel. With Ms Abramović, she facilitates the Abramović Method and the MAI Prototype. She is assistant director on Zinnias: The Life of Clementine Hunter and The Old Woman, both directed by Robert Wilson. She presented performance works at Robert Wilson’s 2nd Annual Berlin Benefit (2011), Hyeres Fashion and Photography Festival (2012), and Kunstfest Weimar (2012). She received her MFA in choreography from the Dance Conservatory at Purchase College. Most recently, in 2014, she collaborated with Marina Abramović on the exhibition “512 Hours” at the Serpentine Gallery, London.

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