Venice International Performance Art Week

The VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK is the live art exhibition project and residential education program in Venice founded by artist duo VestAndPage. The project promotes the practices of performance art on a local, national and international scale, with events exclusively dedicated to them and a formative Learning Program presented in cooperation with international partner organisations

. Since its inception in 2012, it has become a recognised platform where dialogue and open exchange among artistic expressions and cultures can flourish. Organised in collaboration with by Studio Contemporaneo non-profit cultural association, Live Arts Cultures, We Exhibit, Venice Open Gates and the European Cultural Centre, which hosts the project in its premises in Venice. The core of its mission is, in fact, to strengthen the importance of the concept of the social sculpture of a 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 civilisations 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 first three editions consisted 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 was structured as such: daily morning talks by and encounters with the participating artists, associated curators and cultural operators open to the 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 avant-garde contemporary live proposals, reflect the project 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. The VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK and VestAndPage press publish limited edition post-event catalogues (hard cover) documenting the exhibition and live performances, with essays on performance art related issues by international scholars. The VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK is a free admission, nonprofit, non funded, and noncommercial cultural project, sustained by the cultural contribution of prestigious institutions, project-associated curators, and the logistics in-kind support of donors, philanthropists and Venetian enterprises such as ConCAVe and Riviera.