Merging Grounds, Performance Festival 2011

17 Aug 2011

This year I coordinated and co-curated the performance festival, Merging Grounds, which was celebrated at Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen, August 17 - 24, 2011.

Curators: Kirse Junge-Stevnsborg, Malene Natascha Ratcliffe and Marie Thams
Coordinator: Marie Thams
Assistants: Maria Kamilla Larsen and Stephen Dupont

Merging Grounds, Performance Festival 2011 showcased 12 prominent performance artists and artist groups from Denmark and abroad. The festival's vision was to create a platform for a meeting between visual arts and performativity in which different genres was presented and processed by using four general categories: LIVE, PRODUCTION, REMAKE and DOCUMENTATION. These four categories, which within the genre of performance constantly merge, were presented separately in order to lay bare the field's complexities.

LIVE focused on the living and moving, and was the stage for the presentation of six performance projects that ranged from a whole week to just minutes in duration. The artists/artist groups invited were: Tori Wrånes (NO), Leif Holmstrand (SE), TFDExperience (DK/SE), Trancendens Dilettante (DK), The Mob (SE/DK), RISK:RECLAIM:ENTERTAIN with friends (DK) consisting of Marie-Louise Stentebjerg, Ida-Elisabeth Larsen, Gry Raaby, Marie Topp and Jara Maria Høgsberg who invited Cecilie Ullerup-Schmidt, Stine Marie Jacobsen, Charlotte Bergmann Johansen and Sara Hamming.

In PRODUCTION the focus was on physical presence and the category featured two artists whose performance project spanned and evolved throughout the festival period. The invited artists were: Fredrik Auster (SE) and Jette Hye Jin Mortensen (DK).

In REMAKE we presented two performances that addressed past performances and takes subjects such as repetition, memory and interpretation up. The invited artists were: Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen (DK) and Children of Guts (SE).

With DOCUMENTATION we desired to tackle the complex task of documenting a live performance as well as direct our attention to the beginning of European performance art of the 1960s. This was achieved through two exhibition projects by: Klara Hobza (CE) who invited Virg (DK), Kirsten Justesen (DK), Abbie Hoffman / the Yippies (USA), Till Krause (DE), Leopold Kessler (AT), Stine Marie Jacobsen (DK) and Bob Braine (USA). Also Yvette Brackman (USA/DK) who presented Gina Pane (FR/IT).

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