• TRILOGY OF THE BODY III: Fragile Body – Material Body (2016)
Full documentary of the III VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK "Fragile Body – Material Body" 2016. Produced by VeniceDocumentationProject / Filmed and edited by Samuele Cerubini.
As the concluding part of the Trilogy of the Body project, the III VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK took place at European Cultural Centre | Palazzo Mora and Palazzo Michiel in Venice, December 10-17, 2016 under the focus Fragile Body – Material Body. It concluded the trilogy pfollowing the first two editions Hybrid Body – Poetic Body (2012) and Ritual Body – Political Body (2014). The live art exhibition project dedicated to contemporary performance art showcased in its third edition works of over 80 international performance artists from around the globe, some of which presented in cooperation with prestigious cultural institutions and foundations. Pioneers of this art discipline exhibited and performed alongside established and emerging artists, reflecting influences and current tendencies in the field. The project consists of an exhibition of performance installations, photographic and video documentation as well as vibrant program of live performances, talks, screenings and meetings with the participating artists, researchers and curators.
For this third edition with the focus Fragile Body – Material Body, the works present physical, mental and spiritual bodies as primary material of artistic expression, aiming to investigate a wide range of concepts pertinent to the art forms of performance art, Live art and Body Art, such as: authenticity, living entities and their relations towards one another; fragility and vulnerability of the individual and of the social relationships; mental and spiritual states rendered through liminal physical and corporeal manifestation; as well as encouraging questions around the post-organic transformations and mutations to which we subject the human body. The presence of human beings in this world is always more than a temporary condition: the communication that can be triggered between artists and the audience is an essential element. The topics addressed during the week will relate to the need to look at social relations and the lives of individuals with greater care. Due to the specificity of this edition's theme Fragile Body – Material Body, the live performances and works on display also seek to provide reflection and further considerations on how to find meaningful mechanisms to foster positive change through contemporary culture and art in a vital way.
The ART WEEK BLOG
includes with reflections, features and interviews by our residence writers.
ARTISTS 2016
ARTISTS OF HONOUR
(LIVE | EXHIBITION | PRESENTATION):
FRA•GILE
The word "fragile" is often associated with the locution "handle with care": this is precisely where the III VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK heads, this time around, raising awareness on the precariousness of life through performance art. It is a call to action – to practice a more mindful, careful and respectful behaviour towards the Other, in the words we say, thoughts we think, and things we do. Toying with the paradox of the strength and fragility of our physical bodies, the first requirement here is to step beyond mere appearances and limitations. Fragility does not only imply negative connotations – it is rather a continuous memento mori for its existence in thoughts, convictions, systems, beliefs, and a reminder to live with full awareness of the complex ephemerality of our times, taking care of all that surrounds us, near and far. Through the physical body (the primary medium of the practice of performance art), human relationships and their inherent frailty are considered. With frailty comes the potential for destruction and with destruction comes the potential for growth: of the individual, social, political, spiritual and ethical systems. Proposing de-construction as a necessary tool for development, the word "care" implies real engagement in dealing with an emergency, or to possibly evaluate a given situation from all sides, therefore also reflecting on its potentials and value. Eventually, depending on the conclusions of these evaluations, to "handle with care" can either mean to protect that which is fragile or to courageously engage in transformation, to the point that the only way "to deal with a world so evidently and increasingly unfree, it is to become so absolutely free that our very existence is an act of rebellion... for rebellion cannot exist without a strange form of love." (Albert Camus)
MA•TE•RIAL
The Thesaurus defines the term "material" as an alternative adjective for the body of a human being, and many historical references in literature indicate the material body as the door to reach the spiritual body, that which has to be transcended in one way or another to reach our spiritual matter. Reflecting upon the perception of our material bodies to understand and eventually reinforce the spiritual one, is a central question in Oriental religions as well as in the Holy Thursday, when in the garden of Gethsemane, finding his disciples in sleep, Jesus rouses them and warns them by saying: "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." (Matthew 26:41). Regardless of the Christian connotation, this sentence is relevant because it states that if the flesh is weak (pars constituent of our material body, which is fragile and destined unavoidably to caducity), the spirit is "willing" (in Greek πρόθυμον = prothemon), desirous to do what is right – that 'right' that we feel, perceive, is also necessary for an ethical formation, as Kant argued in The Critique of Practical Reason (1788). Influential philosophical investigations (by Aristotle, Hegel, Jung, Watts, to cite a few) that have inquired into the nature of being focusing on the phenomenology of the spirit, up to the latest holistic perspectives and neuroscience researches, seem to agree on the fact that the parts of something are intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole, and that it is our material body that tells us (of the need) to nurture our spirit and tune in to its true desires. In other words, it is like saying that if the spirit tends towards that which is good, true, complete, beautiful, and attainable because of our material body, the continuous metamorphoses that the material body undergoes throughout life (because of its inevitable organic decay, which still lasts long after death), might be even interpreted as evidence of a transcendence from all that is material, and proof of the life-giving shape of the being (itself). All this can be certainly refutable. Every proposition has its Achilles' heel because "all the propositions say the same thing, to wit nothing" (Ludwig Wittgenstein): the language only comes up to where it can get for "the limits of our language mean the limits of our world." (LW) What does it mean for a being to be? What is existence? What can be said to exist?
Everything we see could also be otherwise. Everything we can describe at all, could also be otherwise. Perhaps we humans are just a cosmic accident with a very short life span and the world we live in is "all that is the case. This is how things stand." (LW)
SO THEN: WHY PER•FORM?
Perhaps to act and give essence to what cannot be said, accepting, taking, contrasting, enduring, forsaking, forgiving, passing over or through – with dignified silence – what we cannot speak about but we're aware of, and with it all that is elusive and illusory. Artists, everyday people – because it makes no difference and there is no diversity – we appear just for what we actually are. We all mirror each other carrying within us our own ideals, ideas, sufferings, loves, fears, dreams, sensualities and ironies as pure treasures to express and share, shaping together a time-based social sculpture: a creative temporary community which reflects freedom and respects it.
Perhaps to celebrate life.
~ VestAndPage (Verena Stenke & Andrea Pagnes)
Venice International Performance Art Week provides a hothouse for live art at a cold time of year, as well as taking advantage of the availabilty of grandiose space. Art Monthly
Franko B, I'm Thinking of You. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Edward Smith.
"Perche' performare"? Forse per dare presenza attiva a cio' che non pou' essere detto (tutto cio' che i diversi contesti sociali non accettavano, sopportavano, e che quindi contrastavano), e creare una "scultura sociale" attraverso pratiche basate sul tempo, una "communita" temporanea che da' voce a istanze di liberazione. D'Ars Magazine
Stelarc, Zombies, Cyborgs and Chimeras - Alternate Anatomical Architectures. Presentation at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Edward Smith.
Stelarc. Exhibition view of the video of the performance Ear On Arm Suspension at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by We Exhibit.
Stelarc. Exhibition view of the video of the performance Propel> Body on Robot Arm at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by VestAndPage.
Stelarc. Exhibition view at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by VestAndPage.
Perche' celebra l'umanita'. Libreriamo.it
ORLAN. Exhibition view of the Carnal Art Manifesto and the video Omnipresence (1993) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © We Exhibit
It is an international drawcard for performance art makers, curators, cultural operators and audiences alike, to gather for a week that is as much think tank as aesthetic experience. RealTime Arts 
Franko B. Exhibition view of the performance sculpture I'm Thinking of You (2009/2016) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © VestAndPage
Giovanni Fontana, Epigenetic Poem. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini
Si e' tracciato una panoramica mondiale sul ruolo del corpo e della societa', attraverso interventi performativi e innesti di linguaggi artistici. JULIET
Marcel.li Antunez Roca, ALSAXY (2015). Exhibition view at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © VestAndPage
Marilyn Arsem, 100 Ways to Consider Time (2015/2016). Exhibition view of the documentation installation at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © VestAndPage
Artists must have the chance and time to smell the walls, touch the floors, breathe the air in the room, being contained by a site to inhabit it – especially in a historic site such as Venice. My Art Guide
Antonio Manuel; Ligacoes Poeticas, Poetic Connections, Legami Poetici. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini
Janusz Baldyga, March Performance. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Monika Sobczak
Marina Abramovic. Exhibition view at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by VestAndPage.
Yoko Ono. Exhibition view of the video Eyeblink (Fluxflim no.9) (1966) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © We Exhibit
Yoko Ono. Exhibition view of the sculpture Position Piece - A Hole (2010/2015) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by Claudia Popovici.
Andy Warhol / Jørgen Leth. Exhibition view of the video Andy Warhol eating a Hamburger from the film 66 Scenes from America (1982) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by VestAndPage.
John Baldessari, Exhibition view of the videos I Am Making Art (1971) and I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art (1971) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by Claudia Popovici.
John Cage / Klaus vom Bruch. Exhibition view of the video 4'33" (1986) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © VestAndPage
Charlotte Moorman & Nam June Paik. Exhibition view of 26'1. 1499 for String Player - Human Cello (1955) (1964) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Courtesy Fondazione Bonotto. Photograph by VestAndPage.
Charlotte Moorman. Detail of the exhibition view of the sculpture Bomb Cello (1984) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Courtesy Fondazione Bonotto. Photograph by VestAndPage.
Paul McCarthy. Exhibition view of the video Painter (1995) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by We Exhibit.
Ana Mendieta. Exhibition view of the super-8mm film transferred to high-definition digital media Sweating Blood (1973) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by We Exhibit.
Raquel Cecilia. Exhibition view of the documentary Ana Mendieta, Nature Inside (2015) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by VestAndPage.
VestAndPage. Exhibition view of the light box photograph of the performance Panta Rhei VI: Time (2012) (2016) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by VestAndPage.
Evangelia Basdekis, Regimes of Truths. Durational performance of three days at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Veronica Badolin
Nathalie Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Last Sundance. Durational performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini
Lisa Bufano. Exhibition view of the video performance with Sonsheree Giles at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © VestAndPage
Sophie Calle. Exhibition view of the video Unfinished (2005) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © VestAndPage
Cassils. Exhibition view of the video installation Inextinguishable Fire (2007-2015) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © We Exhibit
Cassils. Exhibition view of the video installation Tireisias (2013) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © VestAndPage
Samanta Cinquini & Luca Nava, BARBARA. Durational performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Monika Sobczak
Alexander Del Re, Phobias#6_394. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Edward Smith
Jeannette Ehlers. Exhibition view of the video installation Black Bullets (2012) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © We Exhibit
Jeannette Ehlers, Whip it good. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Monika Sobczak
Nicola Fornoni, Diventa cio' che sei (A mia madre). Durational performance of 2 days at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini
Coco Fusco & Guillermo Gomez-Pena / Paula Heredia. Exhibition view of the video The Couple in a Cage (1993) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © VestAndPage
Christina Georgiou, Antigone's Dream: Actions of Love. Long durational performance of 3 days at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Monika Sobczak
Gim Gwang Cheol, Memory Loading. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini
gyrl grip, Mnemosyne. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Edward Smith
Ria Hartley. Exhibition view of the video The Representational Body (2016) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © VestAndPage
Mona Hatoum. Exhibition view of the video So Much I Want To Say (1983) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week. Photograph by We Exhibit.
Jeff Huckleberry, Garden. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Monika Sobczak.
Casey Jenkins, sMother. Endurance performance of 6 days and installation at the III Venice International Performance Art Week. Image © Lorenza Cini.
Anna Kosarewska, Redirecting through. Durational performance of 3 days at the III Venice International Performance Art Week. Image © Edward Smith.
KoerperSchafftKlang, Fragile Voices. Long durational performance of 6 days at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini.
Kyrahm, ECCE (H)OMO, Guerrieri. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini.
Julius Kaiser, Human Installation I: Gender Obscolescence. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini.
Arrigo Lora Totino. Exhibition view at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Courtesy Fondazione Bonotto. Photograph by VestAndPage.
Tran Luong. Exhibition view of the three-channel video installation Lap Loe (2012) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © We Exhibit.
Andrea Marcaccio, muta 3.0. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini.
Noe' Martinez & Marina Sosa, Four Proposals To Feel-Think. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Edward Smith.
James McAllister, (utter) ORATORIO. Long durational performance of 3 days and installation at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Edward Smith.
Johann Merrich, Mechanical Vibrations - Act 1 A sonic action for chorus, subwoofers, syntheziser and glasses. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini.
Mladen Miljanovic, The Guard of Honour. Durational performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Alexander Harbaugh.
Linda Montano. Exhibition view of the video Mitchell's Death (1977) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by We Exhibit.
Bruce Naumann. Exhibition view of the video Lip Sync (1969) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week. Photograph by VestAndPage.
Martin O'Brien, It's Good To Breathe In (This Venice Air). Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Alexander Harbaugh.
Mike Parr. Exhibition view of the performance documentation of the action BDH (2016, held at Carriageworks for the 20th Biennale of Sydney) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016, Palazzo Mora. Photograph by We Exhibit.
Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich, Dickorders. Durational performance of two days at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Alexander Harbaugh.
Alexandros Plomaritis, self-reflectio. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini.
Lorne Covington and Douglas Quin. Exhibition view of the partecipatory sound installation Paradise (2016) with the artists at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Alexander Harbaugh.
Alicia Radage, RAIN. Durational performance of three days at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini.
Pipilotti Rist. Exhibition view of the video I'm Not The Girl Who Misses Much (1986) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by VestAndPage.
Preach R Sun, For Whites Only. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Edward Smith.
Mauro Sambo, Conversation (a John Coltrane). Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini.
Marcel Sparmann, Das Brot der Luft... Eine leicht-sinnige Annaeherung. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini.
Exhibition view of the documentary La Voce Stratos (2009) by Luciano D'Onofrio & Monica Affatatoat the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by We Exhibit.
Susanne Weins & Saso Vollmaier, Fragile Breath. Performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini.
Sara Kostic, Voice. Durational performance of two days at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Claudia Popovici.
Ivana Ranisavljevic, Am I. Durational performance at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini.
Exhibition view of The Dream of Antigone, curated section by [mind the] G.A.P. Gathering Around Performance, at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by VestAndPage.
Louisiana Channel. Exhibition view of the video Advice To The Young (with Patti Smith) at the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by VestAndPage.
Jasmin Schaitl. Durational performance at the ART WEEK | FRINGE of the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Edward Smith.
Ronald Bal. Durational performance at the ART WEEK | FRINGE of the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Caterina Ragg.
Giorgia De Santi. Durational performance at the ART WEEK | FRINGE of the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Lorenza Cini.
Bianca Bonaldi. Durational performance at the ART WEEK | FRINGE of the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Image © Edward Smith.
Wiktoria Wojciechowska. Exhibition view at the ART WEEK | FRINGE of the III Venice International Performance Art Week 2016. Photograph by VestAndPage.