2015 International Performance Art Festival
We invited the Performance Artists Claire Blundell Jones, John Court, Karianne Stensland, Katri Kainulainen & Maximilian Latva, Kurt Johannessen, Nigel Rolfe and Vincent Campos to make work in the landscape of Venø Gård during the 11th and 12th of July 2015. They did both individual performances and group performances where they were joined by Pavana Reid and Bjørn Venø. At the end of each day Erik Friis Reitan hosted a panel discussion with the artists.
Panel Discussion hosted by Erik Friis Reitan
Erik Friis Reitan is a visual artist working with photography and installation. He holds an MA in Fine Art from Trondheim Art Academy (NO) and a BA in Photography from Kent Institute of Art & Design (UK). Alongside his art practice he has also worked with teaching and art criticism.
Close encounters – the relationship between artist, artwork and viewer in performance art
Performance art is often a direct encounter between the viewer and the artist, and the artwork is in some respect a function of this encounter. However, many performance works are created as a result of the artist´s desire to enter into a meditative situation, to engage in a practice focused on self-realization and introspection. How does such a motivation relate to the viewer? And how does the viewer get access to the creative process of performance art? Does the directness of the encounter between viewer and artwork make performance particularly suited to create an understanding for visual art in viewers that otherwise does not have such an interest?
Out there – performance art and nature
Many performance artists have engaged with nature, and it seems that performative action can serve as a way for artists to approach the highly problematic subject of nature. Performances usually entail a physical presence, and a corporeal engagement with the environment. The body is a special kind of matter as it is both object and subject, human and nature. To create performance art in natural surroundings can raise questions both about how the body can be understood as a piece of nature that is embedded into our cultural reality, as well as how it has become a cultural object, removed from the nature that it once both relied upon and was threatened by. In what way can performance art elucidate such questions?
Activities for children and youth
Anita Eide conducted a lecture on Performance Art at Flatraket and Selje Barne Skule after which she asked them to illustrate what they perceive performance art to be. The work was exhibited during the festival.
Children / youth who visited the festival were given the opertunetity to take part in either a workshop in acrylic painting on wooden planks hosted by Anita Eide or spray painting of a tractor hosted by Kaja Koppang.
Other Activities
A temporary installation by Olav Venø. Video projection of artists’ previous work. Food stand by NOK mat.
