An evening of outstanding performances by international performance artists. Part of the The IPA Platform 2015.
Programme of Evening Performances:
7pm – 9pm Zierle & Carter: Tree Whispers – Sharp Breath Follows, Dark Studio
7pm – 10pm Paul Hurley: I Fall to Pieces, Dark Studio
9.30pm – 10pm Jürgen Fritk: Shadow Play – Goethe, Dark Studio
Zierle & Carter: Tree Whispers – Sharp Breath Follows
Through ‘Tree Whispers’, Zierle & Carter explore notions of human relationships to nature within an urban environment. This live performance gives voice to the artists’ collection of letters from a previous project, in which participants were invited to write a love letter to nature. The letter writing commenced amongst ancient woodlands on the outer periphery of Bristol and the contributions were gathered in a hollow tree. Now after a germination time of three years the letters have been opened and form the foundation for Zierle & Carter’s latest investigation into how to draw the outside in and enter our own wilderness of the heart. This has led to a precarious dance along the edge or rather a stalking of our own tail, asking repeatedly where does nature begin and where does it end? Through this process led durational piece the rich tapestry of nature’s intimate relations is woven together with our human concerns of how to be close to nature, how far can we go and what actions do we take to step into the ‘Wild’ wherever we are?
Interdisciplinary, multi-sensory and often site and context responsive, Alexandra Zierle (DE) & Paul Carter’s (UK) practice spans performance and live art, socially engaged practice, video, sound, installation, and photography. Through their collaborative practice, Zierle & Carter critically examine different modes of communication and what it means to be human, addressing notions of belonging, dynamics within relationships, and the transformation of limitations.
Their work sites an embodied investigation into human interactions and encounters, acting as an invitation to venture into the spaces in-between the external and internal, permanent and transient, spoken and unheard. The work fundamentally explores society’s conventions, traditions, and rituals, often flipping them on their head, reversing orders, and disrupting the norm.
Their work has been widely exhibited internationally throughout Europe, Canada, United States, South America, Australia, in Asia and Africa, such as the inaugural Venice International Performance Art Week, Federation Square in Melbourne, Grace Exhibition Space New York, Rapid Pulse in Chicago, and will present a new commission for this years SPILL Festival of Performance 2015. Twice recipients of Arts Council England grants, including support for a residency at the Banff Centre in Canada, Zierle & Carter’s work is featured in ‘Personal Structures Time – Space – Existence’ from The Global Art Affairs Foundation and Manuel Vason’s recent ‘Double Exposures’ publication.
Paul Hurley: I Fall to Pieces
I Fall To Pieces is one of a series of performance-based works inspired by the loss of a friend in 2014. I dance naked and blind for hours, in a meditation on loss and grief physicalised through experimental movement of the body. I am an awkward mover, and through the dance I explore what my body and I can do in time and space. In times of sudden change, the body is in an unknown territory that becomes familiar, a familiarity that comes into being through repetition. My movements and the work contain a mystery and a discomfort, a sadness and a humour that is disarming and unsettling.
Paul Hurley has been making performance art for almost 15 years. He has exhibited and performed in art spaces across the UK including Arnolfini, Chapter, g39, ] Performance S p a c e [, Artsadmin, The Hepworth, and at performance festivals internationally, including 7a*11d, Toronto, Bone, Bern, All Around the Field, Linz, and Action Art Now, York. He has undertaken collaborative projects in non-art spaces with communities, researchers and other artists. Paul is the inaugural chair of the Kim Fielding Award, and an Associate Lecturer in Visual Culture at the University of the West of England
Jürgen Fritz: Shadow Play – Goethe
Shadow Play – Goethe is a meeting between Goethes “Werther” and Henning Mankells “The Return of the Dancing Master”.
Jürgen Fritz was born 1958 in the Black Forest in Germany. He studied theatre and the science of music.
1982 – 1990 he worked as a theatre director, curator and actor, since 1 984 as performance artist. He is co-founder of Black Market International, since the beginning of this international Cooperation of Performance Artists with whom he works since 1985. He showed his performances in all countries of Europe, the USA, Canada, Mexico Asia and Australia. Since 2005 he lives as free lance artist in Hildesheim. Here he is co- founder of the International Performance Association (IPAH, registered association).
He is the artistic director of the annual festival of performance art ZOOM!, co-founder and co-organizer of the Platform for Young Performance Artists and the IPA Summer.
Since 1995 he is a lecturer in performance art at different Universities in Germany.
He develops his work mostly site specific. His conceptual approach is characterized by an impressive concentration and precision. For that he uses simple materials such as bamboo sticks, a bell or marbles with which he creates inspiring pictures.
Performances with simple musical instruments have become an essential component of his work in recent years. His performance of “ringing a bell in dialogue with …” he performs since 2008 with traditional musicians from Europe and Asia.
The International Performance Association
The International Performance Association (IPA), is an international performance art event, which travels across Europe each year and takes place in chosen cities.
This year, IPA Bristol at the Arnolfini presents a daytime symposium and two evening events of simultaneous performance by outstanding international performance artists.
