Platform 2021: The Dream of the Audience is a digital Platform that takes place between May 15 – June 18, 2021. To see the full Platform 2021 schedule, click here. 

Platform 2021: The Dream of the Audience features both new and archived work by visionary artists with long-standing relationships with Danspace Project: Ishmael Houston-Jones, Okwui Okpokwasili, Eiko Otake with Joan Jonas, and Reggie Wilson. Each artist is receiving residency time in St. Mark’s Church and opportunities to be in dialogue with their invited collaborators and each other. The artists will each present a new short video work, created while in-residence, to be screened in live digital programs with discussions to follow.

The Danspace Project Online Journal has been a digital home for the Platforms for many years now. This Journal issue (Issue 12 | The Dream of the Audience) will be updated weekly on Mondays with posts that focus on the current Platform and also the archives of past Platforms and performances by the aforementioned artists. In two Conversations Without Walls (Mondays, June 7 & 14 at 5pm ET), Lydia Bell (creative producer, former Danspace Program Director) and Kristin Juarez (research specialist for the African American Art History Initiative, Getty Research Institute, past Danspace curatorial fellow) will convene virtually to awaken these archives. Integral to many Danspace Project Platforms as researchers, curators, and editors, Bell and Juarez will activate the archive, guided by their memories.

The archived materials that will accumulate in the Journal, over the next five weeks include video footage of past Danspace Platforms and performances, a directory of Platform Journal issues, and free PDF versions of a selection of Platform catalogues. 

Additionally, Danspace is pleased to announce Maura Nguyen Donohue as the Platform 2021 Writer-in-Residence. Her written reflections on the history of Platforms and on the new films presented during the Platform 2021 weeks will be featured in this Journal issue. Donohue conducted extensive research in 2019-2020 around the history of the Platforms, cataloguing the many curators, curatorial fellows, writers-in-residence, performances, print publications, and the Journal. 

The Journal will be updated each Monday with new posts. Click here for a full Platform schedule of live events and Journal updates.