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Artist talk with Tea Tupajić

A talk between the artist behind Spy School and Johan Forsman (Skogen).

After the 3 day long workshop  ”Spy School”, where one can learn how to be an intelligence officer, we invite the publik to a talk with the artist behind the workshop Tea Tupajić and Johan Forsman, artistic director at Skogen in Gothenburg.

In 2013 Tea Tupajić started a project dealing with the artistic, performative methods used in the work of the intelligence officers. As collaborators she invited former and current officers of the Israeli intelligence agencies Mossad and Shin Bet. Using deception as its main tool, the intelligence community has developed techniques such as emotional manipulation, target-oriented communication, motivation inception, and similar psychological games, into a scientifically precise, elaborate art of human interaction.

“Spy School” is a workshop originally conceived for DISCREET, Berlin Biennale 2016. It is based on the toolbox of human relation skills Tupajic gathered during the two years of the research process.The participants gain insight not only to the palette of skills, but also to the exercises created by generations of intelligence officers that are used in the intelligence education and recruitment centers. The goal of the workshop is to examine, re-contextualize and re-appropriate those skills and methods and to find a new, useful, not warfare related use for the society.

Tea Tupajić (BIH) is a theatre director. As an independent artist she works both in performing and visual arts context. Her projects “The Curators’ Piece”, “La maladie de la mort”, “Variete Europe”, “The Disco” were presented in venues/festivals such as BIT Teatergarasjen (Bergen), PS 122 (New York), ZKM (Zagreb), Bastard (Trondheim), Frascati (Amsterdam), Theatre Garonne (Toulouse) Tanzquartier Wien (Vienna), Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Tmuna festival (Tel Aviv) and in many others. She is also guest editor and writer for the magazine Frakcija. Tea publishes, lectures and contributes to conferences internationally.

Johan Forsman (SE) is the artistic director of Gothenburg based platform Skogen. He has been working within the field of performative arts during the last 15 years. His past work has mostly dealt with investigatory measures of the relations that performative arts reproduce, aswell as using his field of arts as a platform for creating and sharing knowledge and experiences.

The talk will be held in English