On the use of props versus objects

For the Performatik salon entitled On the use of props versus objects, we consider that which lies outside of the body, the use and role of props and objects in exhibitions and theatre. Using the contestation of performance and theatre within the contemporary realm as an entry point, we seek to expand and examine how artists and choreographers utilized objects, props, architecture, and sculpture to narrate, support, or problematize the interrelations between subject, object, and viewer.  

The salon will also address the expansion of performance and choreography into other visual territories such as cinema and installation, and how such developments have reinvigorated new artistic practices that oppose dramatic and institutional convention – in their spaces of reception, dissemination, and production.  

Victor Wang is the Associate Curator at Contemporary Art Heritage Flanders (CAHF), a multi-institutional platform initiated by and built around the collections of the four contemporary art museums in Belgium: S.M.A.K. (Ghent), Mu.ZEE (Ostend), M HKA & Middelheimmuseum (Antwerp).

Wang has contributed writings on performance to the Performa Biennale Magazine, New York, curated events for the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, and is currently an Assistant Curator for the twelfth Havana Biennial