I Am the Performative Object
Lin Chiwei, Cedrik Fermont,
Martin Sigler + Damsel Elyisum
Sat 10 October 2026, 7pm
I Am the Performative Object is a dynamic rush of late afternoon and evening performances that close the public event programme of Present Tense.
Residency, day pass and evening ticket holders can take part in a performance of Lin Chiwei's Tape Score project. Chiwei is making scores that are not written instructions but protocols, objects and devices: ribbons embroidered with syllables, knotted cords, strings of coloured beads, grid systems. Chiwei’s scores set up a shared temporal framework in which music emerges from rhythmic entrainment, bodies falling into time with one another, becoming conditions for other bodies. To take part, no previous experience with performance or singing is required. Ticket holders join the afternoon rehearsals from 3pm and perform at 6pm. To find out more email info@field-studies.org.
Berlin-based writer Martin Sigler presents a new fable exploring collection, preservation and adaptation at a time when the world is facing a host of realities that end in ‘-cide’. Using prose poetry to bring this present reality into the room, Martin will be accompanied by Damsel Elysium, his artistic collaborator of recent years, who will create an original, semi-improvised soundtrack for the work.
Belgian-Congolese musician, composer and researcher Cedrik Fermont brings a performance that is part documentary, part improvisation, part abstraction, moving between recognisable sounds and unfamiliar sonic landscapes. A kind of cinema for the ears that contains abstract elements where voice, memory, place and movement become the material for a live, ever-changing sound experience.
Venue
Raleigh Chapel
138 Church Walk
London N16 8QQ
About Present Tense
Present Tense is a five-day teaching residency led by a group of international artists and practitioners that approaches performance not as the culmination of solitary practice, but as a form of group research and collective practice.
In the evenings, the programme opens to a public audience with a series of events featuring performances by the artists and work created with participants during daytime workshops. Download the full Present Tense timetable.
Present Tense opens on Wednesday 7 October 2026, 10am and closes on Sunday 11 October 2026 in the afternoon. Download the timetable. The fee for the full five-day workshop and evening programme is £415. The number of students admitted to the full programme is limited to 25. A limited number of day tickets are available for £90. Both five-day and day tickets include shared lunch and access to the public evening programme. Up to 50 participants can attend on any one day.