Venice Biennale debuts performance art program

For the first time since it started, the Venice Biennale will have a Performance Art Program to Bring Art Outside the Arsenale, as part of its itinerary, this year. According to Ralph Rugoff, the artistic director of this year’s Biennale, titled ‘May You Live in Interesting Times,’ the program, produced by the Biennale and the […]

For the first time since it started, the Venice Biennale will have a Performance Art Program to Bring Art Outside the Arsenale, as part of its itinerary, this year.

According to Ralph Rugoff, the artistic director of this year’s Biennale, titled ‘May You Live in Interesting Times,’ the program, produced by the Biennale and the London-based nonprofit, Delfina Foundation, will feature alongside the main exhibition.

It will include 14 live works which bridge music, movement, and visual art and will run during the Biennale’s preview week in May and at the closing weekend in November. There will be performances at the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale and the gardens and galleries of the Giardini and Arsenale.

There will be performances by Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, Boychild, Paul Maheke & Nkisi, Nástio Mosquito, Florence Peake & Eve Stainton, Victoria Sin, and Zadie Xa

Coproduced with Aaron Cezar and backed by Arts Council England, the program, titled ‘Meetings on Art,’ was, partly inspired by the success of Anne Imhof’s performance Faust, which was staged in the German pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale. She won a Golden Lion for the piece.

The works will focus on themes like the concepts of identity, nationality, gender, and intersectionality.

At the 2017 edition, Nigeria’s Qudus Onikeku performed at the Nigerian pavilion.