This 8th–14th June will see the inaugural edition of Block Universe, an exciting and ambitious new annual festival for performance art in London.
The festival will launch at the opening of Fig-2 at the ICA Studio with Joe Moran + Eva Rothschild’s installation on the 8th June, 6–8pm, with their performance collaboration to follow later in the week at the ICA Theatre. Entrance from Carlton House Terrace on the opening night.
Further programme details will be announced at blockuniverse.co.uk.
Block Universe brings together a new wave of cutting edge performance art at the cross-section of visual art, dance and music. It will activate major institutions and off-site venues throughout London over the course of a week, creating transformative experiences with local and international impact.
Block Universe’s goal is to create a long-term, sustained engagement with performance art by commissioning artists based in the UK, as well as inviting exciting artists from abroad, some showing here for the first time. We will deliver this international content in part through an ongoing collaborative programme exchange with The Kitchen, New York’s historic venue for experimental performance. In pioneering this groundbreaking platform for performance art in the city, Block Universe aims to position London at the forefront of the dialogue surrounding performance art internationally.
Theme
Each edition of the festival will be themed and for this inaugural year there is a focus on legacies of performance. Looking at how we sustain an engagement with performance art, whether through archival documentation or through memory embedded in the body, we will explore how the acts of rehearsal, choreography and storytelling operate as a means of keeping performance alive. Performances reference the ways in which personal, social and cultural memories are reinforced and shared with audiences through dance, oral histories and song.
Programme
Artists include Alex Baczynski Jenkins, Brittany Bailey, Cecilia Bengolea + Francois Chaignaud, Nicola Conibere, Ellie Ga, Lina Lapelyte, Ieva Misevi?i?t?, Jenny Moore, Joe Moran + Eva Rothschild and Florence Peake.
6 new commissions are included in the programme from Alex Baczynski Jenkins, Brittany Bailey, Cecilia Bengolea + Francois Chaignaud, Jenny Moore, Joe Moran + Eva Rothschild and Florence Peake, whilst Block Universe will also provide the first UK solo presentations from Brittany Bailey, Ellie Ga and Ieva Misevi?i?t?. A public seminar will also be held by curatorial research group Consonants, a branch of Vision Forum.
@_blockuniverse
Instagram @blockuniverse
