Vera Sofia Mota and Fransien van der Putt

How could artists practice love with institutions, and vice-versa? 
On the occasion of the Amsterdam performance community gathering at Cometogether #5, we would like to propose a two hour conversation around art, love, care, ethics, politics and institutions.
We think artists should talk more openly to each other about working conditions. We propose to speak from the I-perspective, cracking open the usual theoretical or bureaucratic speak, relating to real situations.
This conversation is the continuation of a project Vera Sofia Mota started in 2014, entitled: The more of us there are, the faster we will reach our goal! Interviews I: Anonymous, João Fiadeiro, Janez Janša, Milo Rau, deufert&plischke, Myriam van Imschoot, Vera Sofia Mota. 

In this series of interviews, performance artists give an insight in their ideas on work ethics, contents of work, the political potential of art and their relation with art institutions and policies. 
How do art and artists function in and survive the regulations of the institutional field? How do they function in a market place, that seems to be so far from artistic values and processes of creation? How could we overcome the ditch between the artists/the art work and the institutes?

Inspired by these interviews and the work of American philosopher Michael Hardt, namely his conference on love as a political concept, 'About love' (2007), we will propose a discussion on how love and care could be politically addressed as to try answering questions like: How could artists and institutes develop a practice of care as a way to empower each other? How could artists practice love with the institutions, and vice- versa? 

Vera Sofia Mota (1982) is a Portuguese artist based in Berlin from 2011. She studied choreography, performance, philosophy and yoga in Portugal, The Netherlands, Germany and India and has been working across these disciplines for the last 20 years. She often works with the Portuguese choreographer João Fiadeiro and RE.AL in Lisbon during 2006-10, where she created her first pieces, and has long-term collaboration with Dutch dramaturge Fransien van der Putt since 2010 on different projects and contexts. Her MA research project in The Netherlands at ArtEZ – University of the Arts (2014-16), titled Multiplicity in Practice: Emergent Compositions - a study of the ecology of art and life, and how this plurality of relationships can be practiced politically, ethically and artistically. Between 2014-19 she conducted a series of interviews: 'The more of us there are, the faster we will reach our goal! Interviews I: Anonymous, João Fiadeiro, Janez Janša, Milo Rau, deufert&plischke, Myriam van Imschoot, Vera Sofia Mota.', in which performance artists give an insight in their ideas on work ethics, art practices, the political potential of art and their relation with art institutions and policies. At the invitation of LIMA Amsterdam and in collaboration with Fransien van der Putt, since 2015 Vera has been researching the work of visual, performance and video pioneer artist, Nan Hoover (New York, 1931 - Berlin, 2008).
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Fransien van der Putt (1965) is a critic and dramaturge. Invited by www.li-ma.nl in 2015, together with choreographer Vera Sofia Mota she has been researching the work of video-, installation and performance art pioneer Nan Hoover. Between 2011 and 2015 she developed and supervised a minor-program for the BA Dance, Artez, Arnhem. Between 1989 and 2001 Fransien mixed text and sound at Radio 100, Amsterdam. She studied performance studies at UVA, Amsterdam between 1984 and 1990. She wrote her BA thesis on the paradoxal character of discourse in dance in The Netherlands. She likes to think of choreography as an expanded practice of composing.
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