30.09 - 8.10.2026 Workshop
Public Materials - Self Paradox as a Tool for Collectivity
with Leslie Lawrence and Karina Beumer
They say that before you judge someone, you should first walk a mile in their shoes. This way, when they get angry at you you’ll not only be too far for them to swing a punch but you’ll also have their shoes. For this workshop, participants will ‘vacate’ their own practice and let it be taken up by another. This doppelganger will use rapid prop-making and fast production techniques to exaggerate the starting premises and inspirations of their original and make a spectacle suitable for ‘popular’ entertainment. These demonstrations are then hot-glued together into the collective production of a television game show where the participants re-identify their original ideas in the performance of the other.
The workshop acts as a reflection on the meaning of acting on behalf of another, outside the usual context of labour as purchased or exchanged. The abstraction of the underlying principles of practice from the individual is intended to refute pluralism as parallel lines of thinking and encourage intersection and contradiction between ideas as part of collective practice.
Leslie Lawrence
Leslie Lawrence is the director of a mystery cult named Public Universal Television. Working in co-operation with a different guest artist 'host' for each episode, PUTV is primarily the performance of an active film studio that sets collective artistic cultural production in perceived contradiction to television as a popular entertainment commodity. This tension is made present for the live audience by the use of screens and projections within the taping that allow the viewer to see the camera output, bringing the fantasy of the image, alienated from its makers, back into the site of production. Leslie’s research is focused on how technical methods of group decision-making and group psychoanalysis can be used to understand material relations of labour and ownership; this is reflected in the work through reference to the tropes of popular conspiracy theories as symptoms of the repression of class consciousness.
https://leslielawrence.nl/
Karina Beumer
Karina Beumer holds an interactive artistic practice that lives on through something or someone. This results in films, videos, installations, and publications that emerge from observational drawings and unannounced performances. She explores the ambiguous realms where identity, creation, and relationships with others are redefined. Beumer uses strategies from existing structures such as the corporate world, blockbuster films, and live-action roleplaying. For example, she posted a job add for a replacement for herself. She expanded this action with works that question self-abnegation and contractual logic.
https://karinabeumer.nl/
images
Public Materials - photo Elodie Vredeburg
De Original Karina Beumer - filmstill
The New Karina Beumer - filmstill