Performance Biennial, first edition: “No Future”
23 June to 4 July 2016 Athens & Cythera
Island
A Self-Organised Biennial on Performance, Art
and Politics.
The first edition of the Performance Biennial will take place on 23 June
to 4 July in Greece. Emerging from DIY self-organised cultural practices, that appeared
during these years in Athens, in a present without a future, this event seeks
to critically interrogate the role of performance, historically and in the
present, in relation to political and social imaginaries. Playfully
subverting the term ‘biennial’ into a self-organised practice, the event tests
self-instituted forms of culture and politics in the current neoliberal
landscape. Under the title “No Future” this guerrilla biennial will bring together forms of
artistic, political and theoretical discourse questioning the potential of a
collective refusal to a referred futurity. The Performance Biennial in its
first iteration will begin in the occupied cultural space of Green Park,
Athens, open out to embrace the park of Pedion tou Areos (transl. to Field
of Mars - one of two central parks in Athens), and then depart via
boat from Piraeus to the island of Cythera that geographically belongs to the
Prefecture of Athens. Seeking to problematise the role of performance in the
neoliberal narrative we will collectively engage in ongoing disruptions between
the institution and the self-instituted, between buildings and parks, between
the centre and the periphery, between urban and rural. The event will
bring together both conventional and non-conventional investigations including:
performances, talks, lecture-performances, workshops, discussions,
interventions, city walks, community works, simple acts and screenings.
The notion and the myth of the future appears central in the 20th
century, rooted in the normative regulatory culture and the capitalist
imaginary that embraces ongoing expansion and development often mixed with ideas of utopia.
The operation of “debt” also implies a bet in the future as Lazzarato argues “by training the governed to “promise” (to honour their debt) capitalism
exercises “control over future" ... possessing the future in advance by
objectifying it’ (2012: 46). What happens to political and cultural practice
when it loses faith on “the future”? When the relation to the future appears fugitive? When
continuity of the canonical is disrupted and the promised futurity cannot be
yet imagined? Can this ruptured futurity offer us new possibilities to engage
with present and produce new relations with time? A series of paradigm shift in
the modes of practicing, and of taking part in the political and cultural will
be examined in order to critically interrogate the potential for radical
experiments in cultural production within the current landscapes of neoliberal
institutional dominance.
Building on DIY practices of cultural production such as the
reactivation of Embros theatre and Green Park in Athens, this inaugural
Performance Biennial will operate through a practice of “self-curating” as assembling. Resisting
hierarchies and categorisations the programme consists of timezones of
conflictual “fields” and practices that will be co-curated with the participants in
a changing here and now. We invite proposals for performances,
talks, interventions, workshops, walks, media performances, discussions, social
events to take place in the occupied space, in the city, in the park,
on the boat, on the island. We are open to short statements (10 mins) as well
as durational works; to draft projects, in process as well as complete
outcome/works.
Please send as a proposal (300 words max)
until 23 May 2016 at performancebiennial@gmail.com
This is a self-organised event and has zero budget. We regret to say
that we will be unable to provide any fees or cover expenses. However, we will
provide accommodation if needed through a network of friends houses and
technical support.
All activities of the event will be open and free of charge to the public.
More information: www.performancebiennial.org
This event is initiated by Gigi Argyropoulou, Vassilis Noulas, Kostas
Tzimoulis
and organized in collaboration with Hypatia Vourloumis, Sofia Dona, Eleni Kalara, Emi Kitsali, Elina Mandidi, Elisaveth Xanthopoulou, Myrto Xanthopoulou and an evolving collective of friends.
and organized in collaboration with Hypatia Vourloumis, Sofia Dona, Eleni Kalara, Emi Kitsali, Elina Mandidi, Elisaveth Xanthopoulou, Myrto Xanthopoulou and an evolving collective of friends.