We are constantly performing, everywhere we go and all the time: when we assume an identity, when we speak in public space or in front of a camera, but in our personal lives as well. We perform the role of sweetheart, neighbour or family member. Even a political manifestation is a performative gesture. Performance provides new ways of looking at reality, at patterns that are self-evident or hidden. Our contemporary society is crying out for a transformation of the relationships we enter into with everything that surrounds us. A performative signal, a gesture or a word can set something in motion. ‘Performance is a way of doing things. It can do and undo the world(s) we live in.’ Performance is also an art form that brings together a multitude of backgrounds and histories. With each new voice, the story of performance is rewritten.

The Fine Arts bachelor programme in performance leads you into this wondrous versatility. You will investigate what is urgent for you—an object, a form of life, a personal or a social theme. You learn to create your own conditions, but you also learn to be attentive to what is happening in a given environment. By paying attention to your own body and presence, you develop an awareness of the presence of others. You are challenged to connect personal fascinations and your own visual language to what lives in this society.

In performance, your relationship with others is important: students, teachers, people on campus and far beyond, people who inspire you and for whom you want to mean something. These people are not only a potential audience, but also a potential part of a creation. You enter into new relationships with materials, spaces, the natural environment, visible or invisible elements.

Studio teachers draw on a wide range of practices. In the main studio, you sometimes work autonomously, sometimes participate in democratic group processes, or you participate in the projects of others. We do research, creation, experimentation, critical reflection, feedback, subjective knowledge development, and so on. In addition, you receive practical courses in movement, drawing, voice, video and photography.

Students and professionals choose this trajectory because of their interest in the intersections between different disciplines, between theory and practice, art and society. We welcome students from all backgrounds and all kinds of backgrounds. Together, we look for what performance can mean for each of us. Time and again, we discover and reinvent, so that the way we perform becomes relevant in that specific time and place.

We perform it together.