VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK

The VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK is the independent on-going live art exhibition project conceived, initiated and curated by artist duo VestAndPage, and co-organized by Studio Contemporaneo non-profit cultural association, We Exhibit, Venice Open Gates, Live Arts Cultures and European Cultural Centre | GAA Foundation, which hosts the event in its premises in Venice.
The VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK is a free admission, non funded, nonprofit, and noncommercial cultural project, 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.

The VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK has been conceived in form of a trilogy:
I - "Hybrid Body - Poetic Body" (1st edition, 2012);
II - "Ritual Body - Political Body" (2nd edition, 2014);
III - "Fragile Body - Material Body" (3rd edition, 10 - 17 December 2016) programme available >>


The project aims to promote the practices of performance art on a local, national and international scale, with an exhibition and live program exclusively dedicated to them, and the related formative Learning Program presented in cooperation with international partner organizations.
In respect of the ethical principle of trans-national cultural collaboration, since its first edition in 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 project 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.
Each of the three editions consists of a comprehensive exhibition showing historical performance art pioneers' works and documentation, alongside the presentation of live art performances by contemporary established and emerging international performance artists. The program is structured as such: daily morning talks by and encounters with the participating artists, associated curators and cultural operators open to public; series of long durational performances during the afternoons; and shorter performance slots in the evenings. The ART WEEK | FRINGE section is dedicated to upcoming and emerging artists, both local and international ones.
In such context, the urgency of exhibiting the works of pioneers of this art praxis, alongside the most avantgarde contemporary live proposals, reflect the curators VestAndPage's artistic research on the field and their choice to trace a continuity within this specific thus interdisciplinary art form from past to present. At the same time, the intent is to highlight previous valuable experiences, which grounded the art of performance in the course of art history and continue to maintain a strong sense of actuality, deserving to be remembered without declared appositive cultural intention. This is as well due for the necessity to pay tribute to art masterpieces as tools telling of social and individual awakening, which still resonate in the works of the new generations.
For each year's edition, VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK and VestAndPage press publish limited edition post-event hard cover catalogues documenting the exhibition and live performances, with essays on performance art related issues by international scholars.