Work

Venice International Performance Art Week (08/12/2012)

VestAndPage (Verena Stenke, Andrea Pagnes)

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About this event

The VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK is the independent on-going biennial live art exhibition project conceived, initiated and curated by artist duo VestAndPage (Andrea Pagnes & Verena Stenke), and co-organized by Studio Contemporaneo non-profit cultural association, WeExhibit, Venice Open Gates and GAA Foundation, which hosts the event in its premises. The project aims to promote the practices of performance art on a local, national and international scale, with an event exclusively dedicated to them, and the related educational, formative workshop activities organized along the year, both in Venice (in cooperation with Live Arts Culture cultural association, Venice), and abroad (in cooperation with the hosting local cultural institutions). The event takes place every two years in the month of December in the city of Venice (Italy). In respect of the ethical principle of trans-national cultural collaboration, since its first edition (2012), the VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK has become a recognized platform where the propositive dialogue and the open confrontation among different cultures and artistic expressions could flourish. The core of its mission is, in fact, to strengthen the importance of the concepts of mobility, art nomadism and temporary community; to offer moments of fruitful encounters and exchange to lay the foundations for future professional opportunities for artists and cultural operators; and, finally, paying attention to the creation of a broader audience for performance art. Being a gathering reunion among artists and people "who looked for the pearls in the rivers of human civilizations to came to share what they found" (Lee Wen), the event works also as a think tank for outlining conceptual visions which de-clearly overcome imposed and external human conditioning, generating further propositive reflection on topics such as poetic and civil sovereignty, the whole and the ineffable, time, space and existence. For its initial phase, the VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK has been shaped in form of a trilogy: “Hybrid Body - Poetic Body” (2012); “Ritual Body - Political Body” (2014); “Organic Body - Fragile Body” (2016). Each of the three editions consists of an exhibition displaying important historical performance art pioneers’ works and documentation, alongside the presentation of live art performances by contemporary internationally established and emerging performance artists. The event program is structured as such: daily morning talks held by the participating artists, associated curators and cultural operators open to public; series of durational performances along the afternoons; and shorter performances slots in the evenings. A “Fringe” section is dedicated to the youngest generation of upcoming and emerging artists’ live works. In such context, the urgency of exhibiting the works of pioneers of this art praxis, alongside the most avantgarde contemporary live proposals, reflect VestAndPage artistic research on the field and their curatorial choice to trace a continuity within this specific thus interdisciplinary art form from past to present. At the same time, to highlight previous valuable experiences, which grounded the art of performance in the course of art history and that continue to maintain a strong sense of actuality that deserves to be remembered without declared appositive cultural intention, is as well as due for the necessity to pay tribute to art masterpiece tools telling of social and individual awakening, which still resonate in the work of the new generations. The VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK is a free admission, non profit, non funded, and non commercial cultural event, sustained by the cultural contribution of prestigious institutions, event-associated curators, and the logistics in kind support of donors, philanthropists and Venetian enterprises such as Concave and Riviera. For each event edition, the VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK and VestAndPage press publish limited edition post-event catalogues (hard cover) documenting the performances and exhibition, with a selection of essays on performance art related issues by international scholars.
typeevent
keywordsPerformance art, art, cultural policy, artistic reasearch, art theory, art practice, art process, art education, aesthetics, live art, think tank, curation, art project, art event, art action, art documentation, exhibition
copyrightVestAndPage (logo, writing); Alperoa (image, tattooed by Daniel Campos)
year08/12/2012
publisherVestAndPage
external linkhttp://www.veniceperformanceart.org/