Portals and Constellations (2024)
European Cultural Centre (ECC) - Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy
December 12-15, 2024
Opening: Thursday, December 12, at 17:00.
The exhibition is open to the public on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 15:00.
Free admission. Booking of days of attendance through Eventbrite is required.
Places are limited, and booking does not guarantee entry. Timely arrival for the evening live programme is recommended.
The IX VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK, titled Portals and Constellations, addresses the theme of social connection through the lens of performativity. In times of crisis, individual behaviours are transformed by options and alternatives that seem drastically reduced, obstructing prospects for more inclusive futures. Portals are thresholds of critical utopianism, liminal places between the here and now and the not-yet-here. They are entry points to other worlds and new ways of being. Portals can be those of a castle, a cathedral, a palace, or virtual, symbolic gateways. They provide access to other loci and distant places that pertain to our reality and daily life. In this sense, through performance, artists imagine, create, and enable desirable alternative trajectories that indicate, albeit partially, what our societies and humanity need. We access portals by abandoning prejudices to expand awareness and perception, receiving inspiration, and treading new, stimulating paths. Finally, crossing a portal means trusting that change is possible.
And yet, taking action to improve living conditions requires the design of new philosophical constellations to make interrelationships more proactive and constructive between people, theories, problems, and ideas. As Walter Benjamin intuited, philosophy must become performative, maintaining that ideas are to phenomena as constellations are to stars. Ideas, after all, are nothing but noble phenomena that determine the nexus of their relationships through the work of those who support them through interaction with one another. Therefore, communication, cooperation, union, and people’s networks are used to respond to contemporary emergencies, combat existential loneliness, and deconstruct recurring patterns of suffering.
We trust in change.
VestAndPage, November 2024
EXHIBITION
STRATA
Originally a 75-minute performance-based film by VestAndPage, STRATA has premiered in 2024 and is presented at the ART WEEK for the first time as a multi-channel video installation immersing all six rooms of Palazzo Mora’s exhibition space. In philosophical, poetic action, a collective of artists invites you into the liminal, spectral, and ritual aspects of art in the subsoil. Immersed in the profound history of prehistoric Ice Age caves as sites of knowledge-making and art creation, the collective investigates the connection between narratives of human and beyond-human bodies, time, and the geological depths of critical subsurface milieus. www.stratafilm.de
A VestAndPage production with Aldo Aliprandi, Marianna Andrigo, Andreas Bauer Kanabas, Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Giorgia de Santi, daz disley, Francesca Fini, Nicola Fornoni, Saúl Garcia López, Stephan Knies, Fenia Kotsopoulou, Boris Nieslony, Andrea Pagnes, Ralf Peters, Enok Ripley, Sara Simeoni, Marcel Sparmann, Verena Stenke, Susanne and Maite Weins, Douglas Quin.
Presented by PAV Performance Art Video, with the support of Perform Europe as part of the “CONSTELLATION” project.
Performance Art Narratives
The digital, interactive archive presents a unique post-pandemic perspective on performance art, inviting users to explore and reimagine the complexities of human experience. A curated collection of live links, stories, performances, and reflections aims to enhance our understanding of how we navigate the world and connect in these transformative times. https://panarratives.wordpress.com
Presented by the research group of the Montana State University Bozeman. Active members: Kendall McKissock, B.A.; Kailey Springer, B.S.; Ari-Zadra-Tiahrt, B.S. Senior; and Michael Barrett, Ph.D.
LADA Study Room
The Live Art Development Agency will be joining with a temporary installation of Study Boxes containing hand-picked selections of books and documentation videos from the LADA Study Room around the history of the Venice International Performance Art Week and body-based performance art. Installed at the festival hub and curated in dialogue with the ART WEEK and FUTURE RITUAL, each Study Box holds between four to ten items and can be used by audiences for a quick browse or a day-long study. The Study Room, LADA’s core resource, is permanently housed in Bethnal Green (London). https://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/resources/study-room-events
Presented by the Live Art Development Agency.
LIVE PERFORMANCE PROGRAM
Subject to change.
THURSDAY, DEC 12
17:00: Opening
18.00: 3.6.9. visions - for a small world
LA SAULA aka Saúl Garcia López
Using psychomagic gore aesthetics and ritual-political body piercing, this performance reflects on the already begun hybrid "Third World War." An act of radical labour will utilise the "traces" and "debris" from the performance to create a conceptual dreamcatcher installation for people to interact with during the remaining days of the exhibition.
Presented by EntrAxis with the support of the Norwegian Theatre Academy and Hk-dir/PKU.
19:00: The Ways, the Fortune, the Fall (solo fragment)
SERAFINE1369
A work made in Winter feeling for the Spring, listening in the darkness to the subterranean murmurs of things about to emerge that can't yet be seen or touched. A reflection on the reckonings and returns that cycles can bring. They say that it's always darkest before the dawn. This performance is a fragment of a longer, looping choreography usually danced by SERAFINE1369 and two of their long term collaborators - Fernanda Muñoz-Newsome and Steph McMann.
Presented by Future Ritual. Supported with public funds by Arts Council England.
20:00: A Felling
Ash McNaughton, Joseph Morgan Schofield and Marcel Sparmann
A collective performance initiated by Future Ritual, A Felling explores ideas of death, remembrance, transformation, rebirth and the transferrence of energy.
Presented by Future Ritual. Co-commissioned by IKLECTIK and Chapter Arts Centre. Supported with public funds by Arts Council England.
FRIDAY, DEC 13
12:00 / 15:00: Listening to Venice: City Soundwalks
Douglas Quin
The two-hour guided outdoor walk explores the soundscapes of Venice and the resonances of an endangered city. It visits different neighbourhoods and includes interactive listening activities.
Limited places. Booking and mobility are required.
Produced with the financial assistance of the European Union (Culture Moves Europe).
17:30: Nest. (non)Returning. Гніздо. (не)Повернення
Mykhaylo Barabash, Roman Haideichuk, Ostap Manulyak, Yaryna Shumska
The metaphor of the "native nest" concerns the physical connection with place, culture, and self-identification. Birds have been migrating for thousands of years, following the same routes every time and creating itineraries. Nowadays, the migration paths of birds flying around the front lines resemble the world's historical map, which is full of white blind spots. The possibility of returning to the so-called "nest" is an unconditional indicator of avoiding tragic socio-political and cultural events.
Presented by NURT with the support of Perform Europe as part of the “CONSTELLATION” project.
18:30: Leaves from the Tree of (My) Life
Małgorzata Sady
The performance comprises several parts, each relating to a different sphere or chapter of life as perceived from a personal, emotionally charged perspective while immersed in a specific social and political reality.
Supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the "Polish Culture in the World" Programme.
19:00: Unseen Traces
Weronika M Lewandowska
Merging poetry, light, and darkness to reveal the invisible, Unseen Traces draws the audience into an intimate exploration of memory's fleeting nature. Hidden images emerge from remembrance, evoking reflection on the transient details that shape our reality.
Supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the "Polish Culture in the World" Program.
20:00: Wars. Holy Blood of the Dreamers
Sylwia Hanff/Limen Butoh (performer) & Alexandre Yterce (acousmatic music)
Post-butoh/body & sound/ ritual performance. Alexandre's music took me on a transformative journey, for a walk on the edge of the Abyss. Through destruction, it led me to the belly and heart of the world and life. (Sylwia Hanff)
Supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the "Polish Culture in the World" Program.
SATURDAY, DEC 14
12:00 / 15:00: Listening to Venice: City Soundwalks
Douglas Quin
The two-hour guided outdoor walk explores the soundscapes of Venice and the resonances of an endangered city. It visits different neighbourhoods and includes interactive listening activities.
Limited places. Booking and mobility are required.
Produced with the financial assistance of the European Union (Culture Moves Europe).
18:00: All Communication is Translation
Anne Bean
All Communication is Translation pushes Anne Bean into different states of mind, ways of translating and surfing self and beyond, whilst a translator will attempt to translate everything the artist articulates into Italian.
Presented by Future Ritual. Supported with public funds by Arts Council England.
19:00: Skinned
emilyn claid
emilyn cruises, hunting and being hunted, relating intensely to a piece of fur and latex skin, which acts as camouflage, a cloak, or animal hide. emilyn moves close to spectators who watch from within the space and performs to a commissioned score by queer electro-pop composer Planningtorock.
Presented by Future Ritual. Supported with public funds by Arts Council England.
19:30: The Ağac
Aurah Jendafaaq
The performance (part of the project Queer Deities in Migration) reimagines a hybrid of the semi-extinct Caucasian wisent and the forgotten forest god Ağac from Azerbaijani folklore. A poetic expression of deities once revered but now forgotten, the performance revives these symbols through a queer perspective, as an act of reclaiming cultural memory and power.
Presented by Untitled Tbilisi with the support of Perform Europe as part of the “CONSTELLATION” project.
SUNDAY, DEC 15
12:00: Queer Deities in the Caucasus
Panel talk with Giorgi Rodionov, Aurah Jendefaaq, Uta Bekaia, and Dato Koridze
The influence of a conservative, Russian-backed political agenda is intensively pushing forward the recent developments in Georgia regarding queer rights. The country’s new laws against so-called LGBT propaganda and “foreign agents” bring urgency to addressing queer issues now, in the wake of restrictions on freedom of expression and increased violence against the LGBTQ+ community, highlighting a critical need for support.
Can art serve as a vital counterforce, offering a platform for resilience and visibility in the face of oppression? Can it become a symbolic "break" against oppressive regimes? The panel will bring together artists from the South Caucasus who are exploring the complex journeys of queer migrants from the region. The members of the art project QUEER DEITIES IN MIGRATION will discuss the unique stories and struggles they face in seeking safety and freedom.
Presented by Untitled Tbilisi with the support of Perform Europe as part of the “CONSTELLATION” project.
14:00: Listening to Venice: City Soundwalks
Douglas Quin
The two-hour guided outdoor walk explores the soundscapes of Venice and the resonances of an endangered city. It visits different neighbourhoods and includes interactive listening activities.
Limited places. Booking and mobility are required.
Produced with the financial assistance of the European Union (Culture Moves Europe).
15:00 – 18:00: Osikapa (Rice)
Chinasa Vivian Ezugha
Osikapa (rice) is part of Chinasa Vivian Ezugha’s ongoing research into food as a weapon of warfare. In this durational performance, the artist explores her relationship with food, centering Osikapa as a metaphor for the struggles of food production during times of hardship.
Presented with the support of New York University Abu Dhabi.
18:00: Headless / Blank Dress
Amy Mauvan
A woman tries on a wedding dress. She is weighed down by what it means: childhood dreams, getting older, and whether it fits. Wouldn’t it be more fun to be a jellyfish? The play is between imagination and the prosaic day-to-day, while a socially identified woman fights with her dress.
19:00 Keep On
Yaryna Shumska
We try to hold on to something that seems less and less stable every day, balancing between "here and there," "today and then," and "now and now." Movement reveals forgotten, unknown, forbidden, or, on the contrary, very familiar stories. Movement, gesture, and action make us exist more meaningfully. It seems to be life.
Presented by NURT with the support of Perform Europe as part of the “CONSTELLATION” project.
20:00: Rain Rains Up
Irina Baldini & Emily Welther
Exploring ideas of the underground and touching upon Tuonela, the Finnish mythological Underworld of the Kalevala, the two artists create a space of shadow and sound. Which forms and figures emerge, and what perspectives are flipped when falling down is falling up?
Supported by Study Time Artist Program at 4bid gallery, OT301 Amsterdam.
The event is presented by the non-profit associations Studio Contemporaneo, PAV Performance Art Video, Live Arts Cultures, and EntrAxis in collaboration with Future Ritual, NURT, and Untitled Tbilisi.
Realised with the support of Perform Europe as part of the “CONSTELLATION” project, along with the European Union, Arts Council England, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, the Montana Arts Council: An Agency of State Government, the Norwegian Theatre Academy, New York University Abu Dhabi, Live Art Development Agency.
With the kind support of the European Cultural Centre, We Exhibit, and Venice Open Gates. Under the patronage of Le Città in Festa.
Artistic direction and curation: VestAndPage (Andrea Pagnes & Verena Stenke)
Technical direction: Giovanni Dantomio, Tommaso Sartori, Aldo Aliprandi
Co-curators: Laurenz Agustin Arguello, Gabriel Lyons, Giorgi Rodionov, Małgorzata Sady, and Joseph Morgan Schofield.
Program Coordinator for Future Ritual: Regina Agard-Brathwaite
Program Coordinator for Untitled Tbilisi: Sabrina Bellenzier
Artist Assistants: Steef Kersbergen, Giorgia de Santi
Photographers: Lorenza Cini, Alexander Harbaugh, Fenia Kotsopoulou, Zack Mennell
Videographer: Matilde Sambo
ABOUT PERFORM EUROPE
Perform Europe, supported by the European Union, is a funding scheme for the European performing arts sector. It facilitates international networking and supports inclusive, diverse, and eco-friendly touring projects across the 40 Creative Europe countries. Perform Europe emphasises practices rooted in sustainability and inclusivity, aiming to transform the performing arts sector and ensure a balanced distribution across the continent.
Perform Europe is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and implemented by a consortium of six organisations: IETM, the International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts, the European Festivals Association (EFA), Circostrada, the European Dance Development Network, Pearle *, Live Performance Europe, and IDEA Consult.