Following her interventions at Prague Quadrennial 2016, Beirut and Berlin-based visual artist and choreographer Cornelia Krafft will discuss her current practice, sited at the crossroads between East and West, and how it engages movement and materials to create situation and meaning. Her presentation will be followed by a physical workshop about the eloquence of objects in relation with the body’s journey in its performance skin.

Cornelia Krafft deploys strategies from performance art, choreography, installation, film, stage and costume design into a singular whole.  In Lebanon she choreographed major performances, notable amongst them are 777 in the war-devastated Beirut City Centre Dome, Along the White Line by the edge of the sea, Salome versus Bluebeard in the streets of Beirut and in the theatre. Her recent publication, Mute Movements – a collective performance art journey through Beirut 2009-2014 is the first of its kind in Lebanon and mirrors an inspirational journey through modern-day Lebanon with young artists striving to confront internal and external challenges on personal, national, regional levels and beyond. In June 2015 she was one of the artists representing Lebanon’s first participation at the Prague Quadrennial for Performance Design and Space (PQ2015). She now teaches at the University of the Arts, Berlin. Krafft holds a MA in Fine Art from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria. She taught at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, moving in 2009 to Beirut and initiating a Performance Art programme as a Professor in the Fine Art and Art History Department of the American University of Beirut. She has taken part in several international artist residencies, received numerous scholarships for her academic and artistic projects while her work has been showcased internationally.

If you would like to book a space, please RSVP to ruzina.choudhury@fashion.arts.ac.uk