April 08 – 09, 2026, 10 am – 12:30 pm

Many thanks to the artist, writer, and activist Ren Mauney for her workshop CREATIVE STRATEGIES: Participatory Performance and the Aesthetics of Citizenship during the basic course within the Studio Program Art Residency at BAI.

“In this workshop we will experiment with different participatory performance methods, using the group as a laboratory for interactive and embodied art making. The short lecture will introduce artists who utilize public participation as a key component of their practice, as well as a brief summary of Claire Bishop’s Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. 

Following the lecture, we will dive into a short physical warm up to begin addressing our body, each other, and the space. We will then divide into two groups and each group will be given a series of tasks to develop together, derived directly from the examples in the lecture, but amenable to each group’s interests and experiences. As the aim of participatory art is often to replicate or interrogate the aesthetics of democracy, citizenship, and public bodies, these themes will inform the nature of these tasks. Over the course of our two days together, the groups will develop a short participatory proposal which will be enacted with the other group at the end of our time together.” (Text by courtesy of Ren Mauney)

Ren Mauney is a performance artist, writer, and activist based between Berlin and London. She is also a PhD Politics candidate at Goldsmiths University of London and is currently researching the utility of participatory performance as a psychic intervention in embodied nationalism. Ren recently premiered the participatory work MISTRIAL in the rural US south with the support of The Map Fund, Culture Mill NC, and The Fruit. Last year, she was also part of the artistic intervention “The Embassy of Fugitivity” in collaboration with fellow Goldsmiths student activists at Carnegie Library Hub. Her work has been presented across Germany, the UK, the US, and Portugal over the last decade and she considers it urgent to bring political performance to spaces where it normally does not exist and to engage publics outside the nucleus of art and academia.

More information on the Ren Mauney Website.