performingborders

Non-Conforming Criticisms is out now 📕🤓📝 it is a collection of texts and provocations dedicated to experimental, critical, and politically engaged writing in response to live art and performance, created and edited by performingborders and Diana Damian Martin, and designed by Anahí Saravia Herrera. Thank you to everyone who turned up and supported the Non-Condorming Criticisms events! Over the weekend, we printed and assembled our publication using a risograph at the DIY publishing workshop led by slow+dirty press at House of Annetta. On Monday we hosted an Open Discussion @ MayDay Rooms, launching the publication with our invited guests Maddy Costa, Jemma Desai and Juliet Jacques, who reflected on expansive critical practices and though with us about how writing can respond to performance through abolitionist approaches and nonconforming editorial practices. We’re just starting distribution now so we will let you know soon where you can find it!. Join our newsletter to get the information in the next few weeks. The publication includes texts by Diana Damian Martin, Cláudia Galhós, Pedro Vilela, Xavier de Sousa, Odete, Fargo Nissim Tbakhi, Season Butler, Ed Freitas, HUSS and Leticia Maia. Bootlegged quotes from Marina Vishmidt, Rajni Shah, Fred Moten, Stefano Harney. Nonconforming Criticisms is a Live Art Writers Network project, in collaboration with Citemor Festival, Linha de Fuga 2025 and DDD2025 (PT), Take Me Somewhere (Scotland), HowRound Theatre Commons (USA). Co-funded by the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama - University of London, through UKRI Impact Accelerator Fund #liveartwritersnetwork #lawn #nonconformingcriticisms #criticalwriting

No #DDD2026, levamos a seguinte premissa bem a sério: “Em equipa que ganha não se mexe”. 🤜🤛 Depois de uma parceria de cumplicidade na última edição, voltamos a unir forças com a performingborders (@performingborders ) e a aprofundar a nossa relação com a escrita experimental, o arquivo e a reflexão/crítica artística. A plataforma de investigação curatorial gerida por Xavier de Sousa (@xavinisms ), Anahí Saraiva Herrera (@anahi_saravia ) e Alessandra Cianetti (@ale.cianetti ) e que, este ano, conta também com a co-curadoria de Pedro Vilela (@pedro___vilela ), traz ao festival uma nova edição de Live Art Writers Network. 🪡 ⤷ Para além de uma conversa pública n’A PiSCiNA (@apiscina.a.c ) e de um laboratório para artistas e pessoas que escrevem sobre artes performativas, o LAWN convida as artistas-escritoras Hilda de Paulo (@hilda.de.paulo ) e Claire Sivier (@csivs ) a acompanharem o programa e a produzirem textos críticos multidisciplinares (a serem disponibilizados no nosso site e, de forma presencial, no CAMPUS Paulo Cunha e Silva (@campuspcs ). 👋 ∞ In #DDD2026, we take the following premise seriously: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” 🤜🤛 After a collaborative partnership in the last edition, we will join forces once again with performingborders to deepen our relationship with experimental writing, archiving, and artistic reflection/criticism. The curatorial research platform managed by Xavier de Sousa, Anahí Saraiva Herrera, and Alessandra Cianetti (and which, this year, also features the co-curation of Pedro Vilela) brings a new edition of Live Art Writers Network to the festival. 🪡 ⤷ Along with a public conversation at A PiSCiNA and a workshop for artists and people who write about performing arts, LAWN invites artist-writers Hilda de Paulo and Claire Sivier to engage with the programme and produce multidisciplinary critical texts (to be made available on our website and in person at the CAMPUS Paulo Cunha e Silva). 👋 📸 Paulo Abrantes, João Octávio Peixoto/DDD (@joctaviop ) 📹 a-tundra/DDD (@a_tundra_ )

🦋Na próxima semana, dia 16 de maio, entre as 15h e as 17h, iremos acolher a exposição "Live Art Writers Network em Portugal - Materiais e Metodologia Especulativa" onde @xavinisms , em colaboração com Anahí Saravia Herrera, nos traz materiais físicos criados por artistas que contribuem para o projeto, nas novas linguagens multidisciplinares, criação queer e curadoria especulativa que foram desenvolvendo. Também teremos um momento de conversa e partilha. Entrada gratuita. Apoio: República Portuguesa – Cultura, Juventude e Desporto / DGARTES – Direção-Geral das Artes, Criatório da Ágora – Cultura e Desporto do Porto E.M. S.A e Junta de Freguesia do Bonfim EN 🦋Next week, on May 16th, between 3pm and 5pm, we will host the exhibition "Live Art Writers Network in Portugal - Materials and Speculative Methodology" where @xavinisms , in collaboration with Anahí Saravia Herrera, presents physical materials created by artists who contribute to the project, showcasing new multidisciplinary languages, queer creation, and speculative curatorship that they have been developing. We will also have a time for conversation and sharing. Free entry. Support: Portuguese Republic – Culture, Youth and Sport / DGARTES – Directorate-General for the Arts, Criatório da Ágora – Culture and Sport of Porto E.M. S.A. and Bonfim Parish Council

Do LAWN no #DDD2026, ficam mais do que os textos — disponíveis no Blog DDD —, fica a partilha proporcionada pelos dois momentos públicos que nos voltaram a sentar à volta da mesa, para (des)construir e inscrever o que pode a performance enquanto geradora de vestígios, memórias e narrativas. 📝 O caminho do DDD também tem sido feito à mesa, em roda, a percorrer arquivos e a enfabular o futuro. O que ele nos reserva? Que, pelo menos, nos voltemos a sentar muito em breve. 🫂 ∞ From LAWN at #DDD2026, what remains is more than just the texts – available on the DDD Blog – it is the sense of shared experience that came from the two public moments that brought us back together around the table, to (de)construct and articulate what performance can do as a generator of traces, memories and narratives. 📝 The DDD’s journey has also been forged around the table, in a circle, delving through archives and envisioning the future. What does it hold in store for us? That, at the very least, we will sit down together again very soon. 🫂 📸 João Octávio Peixoto/DDD (@joctaviop )

No metro, na praça ou no autocarro, entre uma encruzilhada e outra do #DDD2026, que tal uma pausa para passar pelo nosso 𝘽𝙡𝙤𝙜? ✍️ Uma oportunidade para revisitar textos de edições passadas e descobrir os entrelaçamentos que o LAWN — Live Art Writers Network, projeto da performingborders (@performingborders ), vai desvelar ao longo desta edição. O prólogo de uma experiência de deriva digital, a apresentar em maio, na qual rastros, travessias, desvios e encontros nos levam pelos 10 anos do festival. 🗺️ 📲 O primeiro texto já se encontra disponível em 𝙛𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙙𝙙𝙙.𝙘𝙤𝙢. ∞ Whether you’re on the metro, in the square or on the bus, as you make your way from one #DDD2026 intersection to the next, why not take a moment to check out our 𝘽𝙡𝙤𝙜? ✍️ An opportunity to revisit texts from past editions and discover the interconnections that LAWN — Live Art Writers Network, a project by performingborders, will unveil throughout this edition. The prologue to a digital drifting experience, to be presented in May, in which trails, crossings, sidetracks, and encounters take us through the festival’s 10 years. 🗺️ 📲 The first text is already available at 𝙛𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙙𝙙𝙙.𝙘𝙤𝙢.

🌀performingborders returns to @festivalddd 2026 with a new edition of Live Art Writers Network (LAWN), gathering conversations around experimental writing in dialogue with performance and live art. Centering writers and artists whose practices are shaped by lived experiences of intersectional borders, this year’s LAWN programme is co-curated with director, researcher and curator @pedro___vilela . Departing from the Encruzilhada (the crossroad) as a space for non-linear thinking, divergent methods and entangled investigation, this year we will co-commission two artists-writers, Hilda de Paulo and Claire Sivier, to engage with the festival’s programme and produce multidisciplinary critical texts in response. 🔗🔗More information through the link in our bio. about the writers 📑🪢: Hilda de Paulo ( @hilda.de.paulo ) is an artist, independent curator, researcher, and writer. She develops a transfeminist and transdisciplinary artistic practice that moves between painting, sculpture, performance, writing, and critical pedagogy, addressing themes such as gender dissidence, decolonial perspectives, and belonging.She is the author of the project Arquivo Gis and a founding member of Cia. Excessos and the e-journal Performatus. Claire Sivier (@csivs ) is a Black-British social researcher, cultural producer and facilitator living in Porto. Over the last 15 years her work has been developed with artists, young people and those from marginalized communities, as well as delivering a range of festivals and cultural programmes. As a walking artist she is interested in the intersections of the black queer experience, ecology, rituals, and unlearning. She co-runs Caminhada de Mulheres Negras (2021) as a space for black women and non-binary people to connect and walk in nature, and is co-founder of There is an Alternative, an arts-based research social enterprise.

🏓 Crítica Pingue-Pongue | Cláudia Galhós, Pedro Vilela, Xavier de Sousa “O fundamental é o espírito: que seja um exercício de partilha, de troca de ideias, saberes ou questões, em que uma pessoa escreve (numa noção expandida de “escrita” e “texto”) e logo a seguir passa a outra pessoa e todes participam numa sequência mista entre aleatoriedade e decisão de tomar a vez.” Concebida como um exercício de pensamento crítico e resposta coletiva, a Crítica Ping-Pong propõe metodologias de como criar um espaço para abordagens multidisciplinares gà escrita para e sobre performance, onde todos participam, independentemente da língua, prática artística ou nível de habilidade. Texto e metodologia estão publicadas em PT e ENG na área Live Art Writers Network nosso site (link na biog) Crítica Pingue-Pongue foi criada para o laboratório “Construindo respostas críticas: sessão colaborativa para escritores e artistas” no âmbito do projeto Live Art Writers Network x Festival Linha de Fuga 2025, com curadoria de Xavier de Sousa e Anahí Saraiva Herrera. —- ENG: 🏓 Ping Pong Criticism by Cláudia Galhós, Pedro Vilela & Xavier de Sousa “The fundamental thing is in the intention: that this is an exercise in sharing, exchanging ideas, knowledge or questions, in which one person writes (in an expanded notion of ‘writing’ and ‘text’) and then passes it on to another person, and everyone participates in a sequence that is a mixture of randomness and the decision to take their turn. “ Conceived as an exercise for collective critical thinking and responding, Ping-Pong Criticism proposes methodology on how to create a space for multidisciplinary approaches to writing for and about performance where everyone takes part no matter in what language or artistic practice, or skill level. Check it out in both ENG and PT in LAWN section on our website now (link in biog) 📸 1, 2 & 4 Paulo Abrantes 📸 3 Xavier de Sousa #liveartwritersnetwork #pingpongcriticism #linhadefuga2025 #criticalthinking #criticalwriting

"O que sobra quando o corpo já não vê, já não fala, já não escuta? Sobra a vibração." Já disponíveis na nossa plataforma estão dois textos multidisciplinares de Ed Freitas, criados como provocações-reflexões em resposta ao Linha de Fuga Festival 2025. Escritas como duas obras complementares, estas novas comissões partem das metodologias que Ed tem vindo a desenvolver no seu trabalho com o projeto Live Art Writers Network, onde explora as interseções entre texto crítico, o têxtil e a performatividade. Aborda o tema do festival, «A Performatividade da Amizade», Ed cria uma máscara-casulo desde a qual liberta borboletas representativas de diferentes amizades pessoais e que polinizam a sua compreensão dos espetáculos, do ambiente e das experiências do festival. 🦋 Borboletário de Vibrações – Um texto-têxtil-polinizador para uma crítica pelo corpo 🦋🦋borboletear um déjà-vu metodológico Experiência ambos no nosso site (link na biog) Comissão de performingborders e Linha de Fuga 2025, com curadoria e acompanhamento de Xavier de Sousa —- ENG: New on the platform is Ed Freitas double text provocations in response to Linha de Fuga Festival 2025. Written as two companion pieces, these new commissions build on the methodologies that Ed has been employing in his work with Live Art Writers Network, exploring the intersections between text, textiles and performativity. Here, Ed takes on the festival’s theme ‘The Performativity of Friendship’, creates a mask-cocoon from which he can release butterflies that represent different friendships and pollinate his understandings of the festival’s shows, environment and experiences. 🦋 Butterfly-Garden of Vibrations – A textile-pollinator text for a body-based critique 🦋🦋butterfly-ing a methodological déjà vu Experience them both on our website now (links in biog) #liveartwritersnetwork #lawn #edfreitas #linhadefuga2025 #criticalwriting

PT: Live Art Writers Network × Linha de Fuga 2025: Estas contribuições, recursos e textos publicados formam uma série de reflexões coletivas em resposta ao festival, seguindo o tema desta edição, «a performatividade da amizade». O projeto convida à reflexão sobre performance, amizade e arquivo, criando espaços para respostas poéticas, de corpo e multidisciplinares que se expandem para além do festival e para um arquivo transnacional crescente de escrita crítica criativa: 🏓Crítica Pingue-Pongue | Cláudia Galhós, Pedro Vilela e Xavier de Sousa 👯📝PERCURSO DRAMATÚRGICO PARA UMA POSSÍVEL LEITURA | Escrita Coletiva (Multilíngue) 🦋Borboletário de Vibrações - Um texto têxtil-polinizador para uma crítica baseada no corpo | Ed Freitas 🧚‍♂️borboletear um déjà-vu metodológico | Ed Freitas As contribuições estão em inglês e português e podem ser acessadas nas páginas Comissões e Escritos do nosso site (link na biografia) — ENG: Live Art Writers Network × Linha de Fuga 2025 brings reflections from a constellation of artists and writers, right from the heart of Coimbra’s dance and performance festival. This series of contributions, resources and texts were generated from within the festival, following this editions’ theme 'the performativity of friendship’. The project invites collective reflections on performance, friendship and archive, making space for poetic, embodied responses that ripple beyond the festival and into a growing transnational archive of multidisciplinary critical writing: 🏓Ping-Pong Criticism | Cláudia Galhós, Pedro Vilela & Xavier de Sousa 👯📝PERCURSO DRAMATÚRGICO PARA UMA POSSÍVEL LEITURA | Escrita Colectiva (Multi-lingual) 🦋Butterfly-Garden of Vibrations - A textile-pollinator text for a body-based critique | Ed Freitas 🧚‍♂️butterfly-ing a methodological déjà vu | Ed Freitas Contributions are in English and Portuguese, and can be accessed in our Commissions and Writings pages on our website (link in biog) #LiveArtWritersNetwork #linhadefuga2025 #criticalwriting

Non-Conforming Criticisms | 22–23 March 2026 | London 🔖🔖
 Join us for Non-Conforming Criticisms, a  programme happening across 22 and 23 March 2026 dedicated to experimental, critical, and politically engaged writing in response to live art and performance, created by performingborders and Diana Damian Martin. 

 🗓 Sunday 22 March, 2–5pm
✨DIY publishing & Non-Conforming Criticisms
@ House of Annetta, 25 Princelet St, London E1 6QH

Join slow+dirty press for an afternoon of risograph printing, binding and conversation exploring DIY publishing within performance ecologies. Together, we’ll print the covers and bind our  Nonconforming Criticisms publication. As we assemble the publication, we’ll reflect on independent publishing as a form of performative criticism and imagine how creative critical writing can circulate beyond institutional platforms. 🗓 Monday 23 March, 6–9pm
✨Non-Conforming Criticisms | Open Discussion 
@ MayDay Rooms, 88 Fleet St, London EC4Y 1DH

A gathering for artists, writers, thinkers and organisers exploring the intersections of critical writing, experimental practice and political work. Join us to reflect on how writing can respond to crisis, imagine abolitionist approaches to criticism and shape nonconforming editorial practices. With contributions from Maddy Costa, Jemma Desai and Juliet Jacques.
 Free & open to all (booking required). BSL Available on request. 

Tickets via link in bio 🎟️

meeting kindred souls touching out of reach After last week's final yearly reconnection in Distant Feeling(s), we would like to share the Distant Feelings Goodbyes 2017 – 2024 video that Daniel Pinheiro (@dannyfkablueboy ) had been preparing before passing. It is a beautiful piece, which showcases the moment, after every gathering, when we say goodbye to each other. Thank you to @annie.abrahams for this work and for sharing it with us all. Everyone can watch and download the 34 min long video, and it will only be available online until the 1st of February 2026. You can access the video on Annie Abrahams' webpage aabrahams.wordpress.com or via our Linktree. 💙 Annie Abrahams @annie.abrahams Associação Liminal @associacaoliminal performingborders #distantfeelings #danielpinheiro #annieabrahams

Distant Feelings #13 💙 remembering Daniel Pinheiro @dannyfkablueboy Thursday, 18 December 5pm GMT 'a meeting of kindred souls touching out of reach' Over many years, our dear friend, colleague and digital performance artist Daniel Pinheiro ran a yearly digital gathering space, Distant Feelings, with the incredible artist Annie Abrahams annie.abrahams This was a space which connected people from all over the world in a moment of presence, connection and listening. In an ever busy digital world, specially around the festivities period, it has been a generous and gentle space to pause without any demands for performativity or action. Since his passing early this year, we have been accompanying Annie who is working on hosting a final iteration of this gathering, this Thursday 18th of December, in memory and honour of their work and of Daniel. The set up is very simple. You access a zoom link. We say hi. We close our eyes for 15mins, together. No talking. Then we say goodbye. Distant Feelings is an ever-changing re-enactment of our intra-action with machines, creating an online communality while resisting the speed of daily live. Find more information on Distant Feelings on Annie's website (and via our linktree in our biog) This invitation is aimed at friends and colleagues of Daniel, but also to those who engage with digital art, digital presence and performance. You are of course, all welcome. There is no sign up, and there is only a free-to-access zoom link which you can find through Annie's webpage. But do let us know if you are coming, it would be wonderful to silently connect. #DistantFeelings #DanielPinheiro #AnnieAbrahams