PORTICO site-specific performed installation 2006

Portico was a one-off site-specific Performed Installation at The British School at Rome for the Roma Design+ Expo.  The piece was commissioned by The British School at Rome as part of a portfolio of work developed by Resident Architect Sarah Stead, who invited Alys to collaborate with her for the exhibition.  The collaboration allowed a development in Sarah and Alys' mutual investigations into the convergence of contemporary art and architecture and a deeper enquiry into Sarah's research into Flirtatious Architecture and Alys' work on the mapping and re-writing of site.

A record of the interior architecture is traced onto the main façade of the School in full-scale.  Clear reflective plastic and chalk were used to create this interior space on the exterior surface under the Portico, offering a portrait of the site to the passerby and transforming it, ready for the performed element of the work.  The performance took shape over one evening in the portico and across the front steps of the classical Lutyens' building.  A further collaboration, with Butoh performer Magdalena Gana, introduced a third medium to the work. 

Over three hours, three journeys took place across the site: Magdalena in performed improvised movement, Alys in performed automatic writing and Sarah in automatic drawing.  Magdalena's journey took her from the top of the steps on a twisted journey to their base; Alys followed the lines of the steps writing along them as you would across lines on a page; whilst Sarah looked on from a fixed position, where she recorded these actions as they progressed (sometimes colliding) in pencil combined with automatic sketches of the architecture across a role of paper that tumbled to the floor. The three journeys overlapped and informed each other, creating an unusual representation of the British School at Rome and a complex re-writing of site.  The Installation, with video documentation and remnants of the performance, was exhibited for the following week of the festival, offering a new dynamic to the space and an engagement with the public.

Commissioned by The British School at Rome.  Exhibited as part of the Rome Design+ Exhibition 2006. Collaboration with Resident Architect: Sarah Stead.  Performed by Alys Williams, Sarah Stead and Magdalena Gana.