PROTOCOL — CPPM WORKSHOP 01–06.12.2025

CPPM WORKSHOP

Guest Artist: Mart Kangro

Dates: 01.12.2025–06.12.2025

Context: CPPM / Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre

This protocol documents the actual exercises, references, discussions and working principles transmitted during Mart Kangro's CPPM workshop. It remains primarily descriptive. The conceptual consequences are developed in Mart Kangro's other children.

DAY 1 — 01.12.2025

The first day combined lecture, discussion and practical exercises. Mart introduced the workshop through the proposition that the topic itself is not necessarily the most important element. The central question was: What is really going on here?

He proposed that performers can be understood less as characters or representatives and more as hosts of a shared situation. An important principle was: never underestimate your audience. Mart also introduced the idea that the body does not end at the skin: clothing, environment, other people, history and spatial relations extend the way a body is perceived.

References introduced

Bob Dylan — Lay, Lady, Lay; Amy Cutler — Army of Me; Édouard Manet — Olympia; William-Adolphe Bouguereau — The Birth of Venus; Oskar Schlemmer — Slat Dance / Triadic Ballet; Samuel Beckett — Quad I + II; Black Mountain College; Josef Albers; John Cage; Merce Cunningham; Buckminster Fuller; Gordon Matta-Clark; David Hammons — Day's End; Nancy Holt; Cyprien Gaillard — Recovery of Discovery; Vera Mantero.

Exercise 1 — Triangles

The structure progressed from:

0: do what you want / be how you want;
1: choose one person and keep them in your gaze;
2: add a second person;
3: maintain equal distance from the two chosen people, creating a moving triangular relation.

The exercise progressively transformed free movement into relational spatial organisation.

Exercise 2 — Lines

Participants lined up according to a criterion. The first criterion was height; later criteria could be decided by the group. The audience tried to understand: what is the order? The exercise exposed how quickly spectators search for rule, classification and hierarchy.

Exercise 3 — Body image / minimal change

In individual body exploration, performers asked: What is the least I need to change in my body to change the meaning of the body image? Small alterations in hands, posture, gaze, orientation and stillness could alter the reading of the body. Mart emphasised taking time and often using silence.

Homework

Create a solo of maximum five minutes about yourself. Any material could be used: movement, text, voice, stillness, actions, objects or silence. The aim was not conventional representation or storytelling, but allowing the audience to get to know the performer.

DAY 2 — 02.12.2025

The day began with references from postmodern / conceptual dance and performance.

References introduced

Xavier Le Roy — Self Unfinished; Yvonne Rainer — Trio A and No Manifesto; Sally Banes — Terpsichore in Sneakers; Jérôme Bel; The Show Must Go On; Véronique Doisneau; Steve Paxton; André Lepecki — Exhausting Dance; Thomas Lehmen; Vivian Maier; Agnès Varda; Joseph Beuys.

Mart repeatedly asked: What is the core? What do you present? What is the material? What is your intention? Why exactly did you choose this? Is it important to engage people?

Important principles included: less is more; take things apart; do not put too many ideas in one pot. A single idea can be stretched much further than expected. Mart suggested that an idea could almost be articulated like a haiku.

Exercise — “It's better to…”

One person proposed an action, for example: “It's better to yawn.” The entire group yawned. Another person later proposed: “It's better to smile.” The group changed. The previous action continued until a new proposal actually arrived.

The instructions were: do not create a story; be clear; be busy with the task; working people are interesting to watch; engage in what you are actually doing. The exercise investigated genuine activity rather than performance decoration.

Body / visibility discussion

Mart discussed clothes, make-up, hair, scars and bodily fluids as ways of modifying the readable body. Using examples from Jérôme Bel, he examined visible versus invisible information. The performer constantly decides: What does the audience see? What remains hidden? What filter allows the body to be read?

Art / context / code

Mart discussed ballet and political context. His examples around Soviet ballet and Swan Lake showed how a form may appear pure, beautiful and apolitical while functioning inside a larger political and institutional code.

DAY 3 — 03.12.2025

Warm-up

Morning physical warm-up led by Mart.

Exercise 1 — Witness meaning in your body

The instruction was: try to witness meaning in your body. Participants moved with flow. The exercise prepared attention toward how bodily states become readable.

Exercise 2 — Chain of interrupted intentions

Participants gave themselves a clear task or intention and did it. They did not change until another genuine intention appeared. When another idea arrived, they changed.

Mart stressed: it is not about movement; do not try to do something interesting; really do the thing; be busy; be a working body. The exercise created presence through task, attention and decision.

Exercise 3 — Manipulation in pairs

One person manipulated and the other was manipulated. The focus was: who leads, who follows, and how does influence circulate? Participants were instructed: don't pretend; do the action sincerely; stay engaged; keep yourself interested. The work was mutual communication.

References after lunch

Harun Farocki — Deep Play, Parallel, Workers Leaving the Factory; Adam Curtis — Bitter Lake; Ingmar Bergman; Marie Cool & Fabio Balducci; La Ribot, including Laughing Hole.

Exercise 4 — Repetition

Participants investigated repetition through simple actions and removed extras. If something changed, it had to change fully. Otherwise they stayed precise and let time work. The audience required time to identify a pattern; accumulation occurred even without obvious events.

Exercise 5 — Collage

All previous exercises could become material. Participants could enter the composition if their proposal responded to the existing circumstances. Before entering, they had to understand what was already happening and ask: How will my entry change the meaning of the current composition?

Mart emphasised timing. Pointing could be enough. Walking is movement. The dramaturgy should remain as simple as possible.

Day 3 key principles

Be clear with choices. Take responsibility. The audience is always present. Simplicity creates space for meaning. Do not decorate actions. Change fully or not at all. Stay interested. Trust simple structures. Defend decisions. Context shapes meaning. Misunderstanding is part of the work. Work with time. Performance is a real-life situation shared with others.

DAY 4 — 04.12.2025

The day continued research into attention, interruption, decision-making and responsibility.

Mart emphasised: if something collapses: pause, reset, continue. Do not force artificial continuity. Structure is not the performance itself. Structure prepares the performer for unpredictable situations.

Exercise 1 — Interrupted intentions

Participants returned to the previous chain of intentions, focusing on maintaining clarity and decision.

Exercise 2 — Partner manipulation

In pairs, participants maintained tactile contact, kept their eyes open, read the partner's intention, did not anticipate or finish it, stayed with one situation and avoided creating beautiful forms for visual effect.

Important physical principles were trust, care for head and neck, weight, gravity and safety. The aim was to stay in the condition, not to arrive somewhere.

Exercise 3 — “You are / I am”

One performer assigned an identity to another: “You are a clock.” The other accepted it: “Yes, I am a clock, and you are a bartender.” The assigned identity was expressed through movement, sound and physical state. It remained until another identity replaced it.

Later, groups of three worked against other groups of three. Mart introduced parameters around order, spacing, timing, clarity and who responds.

Exercise 4 — “Do you remember?”

Pairs sat facing one another. One asked a question beginning “Do you remember…?” Examples included crying during a film, extreme happiness, public nudity, grandmother's death, a first mobile phone and a mother's final words.

The other answered freely. Later, other performers could enter the structure. Mart emphasised giving enough time for the exchange to acquire value.

Day 4 principles

Structure enables freedom. Interruption creates awareness. Staying with a situation can be stronger than changing it. Decision-making is part of performance. Interest generates meaning. Simplicity can hold complexity. Care and responsibility are fundamental. Artistic work exists between reality, perception and convention.

DAY 5 — 05.12.2025

Exercise 1 — Manipulation / transfer of control

Participants returned to partner manipulation. The instruction was: “Offer your body as a surface to work with.” They read what the other wanted while recognising that control does not disappear—it shifts. Negotiation remained continuous and safety remained essential.

Mart focused increasingly on the transition between leader and follower. The transition should be gradual, not a fight.

Exercise 2 — Huddle

Groups of three or four formed a tight huddle and thought as one organism. Movement was not simultaneous; micro-movements occurred independently. Gravity continually drew the group toward the centre. Eyes remained open and awareness of the outside remained. Small shifts could create large structural changes. An additional layer allowed conversation while maintaining the physical logic.

Mart used audience-participation anecdotes to discuss the fragility of the frame between performance and audience.

Core instructions

Be interested, not interesting. Don't finish the sentence. Stay in the middle of something. Insist longer before changing. The transition is not a revolution. The work happens inside the relationship. Material does not need to be completed to be valid. Curiosity must stay alive. Don't rush to the next idea. If something works: stay. Time reveals more than invention.

Exercise 3 — Collage

Each performer maintained an autonomous action or position. They stayed with the proposal. When changing, they made the change radical rather than merely developing the previous action.

The shared space became a live collage of parallel activities. Mart asked participants to resist dramaturgical control, avoid psychological storytelling and trust the audience's perceptual intelligence. His proposition was: “The thing will happen in the audience anyway.”

Exercise 4 — “Do you remember?”

Participants returned to the question-answer structure. They accepted the answer, did not correct it, did not debate it and proceeded: question → answer → next question. Answers could be true, invented, personal, fictional or associative.

The exercise investigated selective memory, self-curation, revealing / withholding, fragmentation and language as image. Mart stressed that yes, no, silence and uncertainty could all be valid material.

Assignment for Day 6

Participants were asked to meet in outdoor clothes, walk into Tallinn Old Town and tell a story in public space. The story could be real, invented, personal or observational. The location and timing remained open.

DAY 6 — 06.12.2025

Tallinn Old Town

The group walked into public space. Participants told stories in relation to actual locations. The task introduced unplanned audiences, environment, architecture, city history and public behaviour as part of performance.

Return to black box — showing structure

Mart proposed a presentation structured from workshop material:

Triangles / number 3: the audience enters while the group is already performing the structure. There is no explanation at first. The task should appear as it was practised, not as a newly “performed” version.
Transition to the line.
Line categories: height, age, eye colour, country / direction and mood. Mart wanted the lines to expose order, judgment and classification. He acknowledged that sorting bodies could acquire an authoritarian quality and wanted this addressed rather than concealed.
Explanation / lecture moment.
Manipulation duets.
Collage.
Do you remember?

Collage — final explanation

Mart used postcards as a model. Each new fragment placed beside another produces friction, new reading and new relation.

His core instructions were: defend your initial proposal; stay with it even if you begin to dislike it; don't develop unless development is already inside the thing; if you change, change totally; time is on your side; the audience searches for order.

ARTIST TALK — 06.12.2025

Mart describes himself as a performance artist. He sometimes performs and sometimes directs work for others. His works are not primarily “about a topic”; they investigate the encounter created when we are here together in the same time and the same space.

He celebrates performance as an analogue form requiring actual presence. He describes himself as a host. He rarely uses the word “stage”. He manipulates the space so that audience and performers must deal with the actual situation.

Important propositions include: real time matters; real bodies matter; thinking is real. Mart's striking formulation is: “Watching someone think is one of the most beautiful moments.”

His performances may be highly scored even though moments of possibility remain. Context always matters: Who are these people? Where are we? What has been done before? He describes working almost through collage: dismantle the situation, change one element and observe what happens.

On theatricality he says: “I'm very theatrical.” He rejects the idea that theatricality disappears simply because a work is minimal. He is interested in manipulating the situation here and now. He can use true stories, lies, trivial text, sincerity and cheating as performance material.

Another important formulation is: “Performance is like a stock exchange. We bargain meaning.” He also emphasises that time is important: leave something long enough and people start seeing.

RELATION TO THE OTHER MART KANGRO CHILDREN

This protocol is the primary documentary source for Mart Kangro's conceptual children.

BE INTERESTED, NOT INTERESTING — THE WORKING BODY ← “It's Better To…” / Interrupted Intentions / Manipulation.
INTERRUPTED INTENTIONS — DECISION, RESET & RESPONSIBILITY ← Day 3–4 chain exercise.
MANIPULATION — NEGOTIATED CONTROL & CARE ← Days 3–5.
BODY, IMAGE & LEGIBILITY ← Day 1 body-image exercise + Day 2 visibility discussion.
REPETITION — LET TIME DO THE WORK ← Day 3 / Day 5.
COLLAGE — MEANING BETWEEN FRAGMENTS ← Days 3, 5 and 6.
CONTEXT, CODES & THE AUDIENCE'S SEARCH FOR ORDER ← triangles / lines / ballet discussion / Artist Talk.
MEMORY, LANGUAGE & PUBLIC SPACE ← “Do You Remember?” / “I Am–You Are” / Old Town.

The existing child SHARED REAL TIME — PERFORMER AS HOST is generated primarily by the Artist Talk and the entire workshop. The existing child REDUCTION AS A TOOL FOR MEANING is generated by the Day 2 core / clarity discussion, the black-box clearing logic and the repeated instruction to remove extras.