Mission Statement

Our work is rooted in the exploration of Art as experience -- the notion that Art exists in the engagement between a viewer and a work.

All understanding of artwork comes from the contextualized performative engagement between a viewer and the work. By this maxim, all Art exist as performance. Following this idea, Experience Cult Research Group creates work which attempts to redefine the artistic engagement by highlighting the active experience of the viewer within the artistic encounter -- where both performer and spectator are potential viewers.

We are primarily a process oriented organization: rejecting the passive notion of viewership in relation to discreet artistic objects, we favor a continuous and active arrival of meaning through open artistic engagement. Informed by Jerzy Grotowski’s explorations of Psycho-Physical performance and the Paratheatrical encounter, paired with notions of collaboration and collective creation from Devised Theatre, Experience Cult produces work which is focused on the active experience of all participants.  We aim to create and develop work designed to cause an awareness and dialogue with pedestrian modes of being, engaging in the process of producing Active Culture. This is used in conjunction with other artistic techniques to create productions, rituals, and installations which cause the participant to engage with immersive and impactful experiences. We focus on direct and embodied engagement as the artwork, looking to illuminate the everyday experience and broader social context of the participant and place their experience of Active Culture directly prepositional to Pedestrian Culture. 

Our ultimate aim is to foster a continuous engagement with Active Culture. Each project, in whatever form it may manifest, is linked by the process of participation which it invites, and it is through this mode of engagement that Active Culture arises. We choose to engage with experience in unique ways for each project, so as to direct the arrival of a specific Active Culture. This ranges from blurring the lines between the spectator performer relationship, through performative action and architectural stimulation, to more immersive plays which allow for a more active and open viewership. Experience Cult aims to give experimental artists a platform from which they can explore art which directly engages with its experiential context.