What matters most now

Dear Lucy,
When I think of our collaboration, one thing is clear to me. I would never consider creating a festival like What Matters on my own, so without collaboration it would be (as far as I am concerned) impossible.

When does a collaboration begin? What are the ingredients that make a collaboration vibrant and long lasting? Out of the many collaborations that I have experienced, the majority have begun in a similar way – with a series of casual conversations in which I begin to realise that, firstly, I have a lot in common with this person and, secondly, there are differences between us that interest me.

Our collaboration began with a series of conversations at Dance For Camera Festivals, where we discovered a shared sense of frustration with the common way of presenting choreographic screen works at festivals: often in long screenings of many short films which leave audiences exhausted and confused about where one film ended and another began. We felt that this did a disservice to the work. Surely there was a more considered way for the viewer to experience screen work.

These conversations (which included our co-curators Chirstinn Whyte and Claudia Kappenberg) resulted in the curation of What If… back in 2010. What Matters grew from a desire to continue to explore the potential for an event which acted as a “choreographed exhibition of exhibited choreography”.

Which one of us was it who proposed that What Matters should be about particularity? Who first proposed that the work of anthropologist Gregory Bateson should be a focus? Who chose which films? I can’t remember. This is the delightful aspect of this collaboration: it seems to be based on a genuinely shared thinking – not exactly like your thinking and not exactly like my thinking – a process of long hours of thinking together that produced something other than that which would be created by us as individuals.

All best,
Becky

Dear Becky,
Like you, when I try to locate the origin of the things you mention above, I can’t remember who thought of which thing first.

I have no idea what the usual way of going about directing a festival or curating an exhibition might be, but the way we’ve done it – through our collaboration – seems the most satisfying and thought-provoking way of doing it. What is good about two people collaborating who have no idea of the usual way of doing things, is that both can dream and invent possibilities and then find ways to solve the obstacles in the way. I’ve never doubted that if I can’t find a solution, you will be able to. This makes the unknown more comfortable to take risks in.

We’ve often talked about that moment in a making-process when whatever it is that you’re making starts to have its own ‘voice’, and somehow the effort of having to make decisions gradually disappears as it becomes more and more obvious what the thing itself needs. This occurred during the process of putting together What Matters quite late – there was a good chunk of time when it wasn’t clear how the project came together in a coherent, complex whole – but then suddenly it was clear. And suddenly that line between curating – taking care – of other artists’ works, and taking care of our own research and practices softened. It became possible to see how, once again, allowing works to relate to each other in a different context opened up different ways for audiences to pleasurably engage with what matters – for themselves as well as others.

See you soon,
Lucy