At PICA we recognise that we are situated within the unceded lands of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation. We pay our respects and offer our gratitude to Elders past and present, and to those emerging leaders in the community. We acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the importance of their care and continued connection to culture, community and Country.

Always was, always will be.

We are closed today. Our exhibitions are always free.

Jonathan Burrows, Matteo Fargion

Cheap Lecture & The Cow Piece

Cheap Lecture & The Cow Piece

Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion return to Perth for an exclusive Australian premier of Cheap Lecture and The Cow Piece. A one-night only performance and the first in the inaugural MoveMe dance festival.

Cheap Lecture is a philosophical and humorous performance set to music. In a rant about empty hands, audience, time, repetition and dancing, Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion continue the journey begun in their earlier pieces, Both Sitting Duet (2002), The Quiet Dance (2005) and Speaking Dance (2006), while drawing us ever-outwards into a series of unforeseen images and digressions.

Cheap Lecture is followed directly by The Cow Piece, which tests to the limit the rules we have just been hearing. Using objects, text, movement and sound, The Cow Piece is a chaotic meditation upon dance, music and mortality.

“There are few performers who can hold an audience captive like this double act: the timing of every note, shrug, laugh and gesture is awesome. Five stars.” – Judith Mackrell, The Guardian, London“Now, what about Cheap Lecture and The Cow Piece? Both are dazzling, and they belong together. The simplicity of means in Burrows and Fargion’s work and the sheer fun that pervades it seduce you into loving it. All the while it’s inexorably revealing its genius.” – Toby Tobias, artsjournal.com, New York
“the funniest, richest, most life-enhancing evening I’ve had at anything associated with the ‘dance’ label this year (probably since their last one)” – Ismene Brown, the artsdesk.com, London
“occasionally feeling gloomy during some performance or other, I’ve wished that a fedup theater goblin would whisk away the show I’m watching and deposit Burrows and Fargion in its place.” – Deborah Jowitt, New York