This weekend sees the return of the Live Collision International Festival, a curated programme of work which prioritises the artistic rigour and trajectory of artists and their work over time (days, months, years and decades) while celebrating the moments that live performance becomes realised in various shapes and forms. With an inter-generational approach and continuous investigation around how and why they make live work, The organisers are keen for audiences to witness and meet live performance from a number of points across time, proximity and art-form. Once again this year’s Live Collision Festival presents seminal national and international artists with works never before shown in Ireland.
Festival-goers can also enjoy live performances and provocations from Megan Kennedy (of Junk Ensemble), Dick Walsh, and Hester Chillingworth. From seismic questions on race, gender and identity, with gentle agitations and rip roaring energy in equal measure, each work boldly asks the festival audience to consider their place in culture, society, the world and the whole grand scheme of things.
Highlights include RETRO(PER)SPECTIVE, as legendary artists Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw present a medley of Split Britches performances that have made the politics of gender and sexuality and the humour of human relations accessible to all ages and persuasions over the past 36 years.
Ireland based artist Amanda Coogan returns with Cowards; a new work made for public space, as part of her series of work Performing the Urban, traversing language from Shakespeare to ISL to the performative gesture, while Ultimate Dancer (aka Louise Ahl) also makes a welcome return to the festival. Audiences who were suspended in rapture as a result of her insistent sensory wild ride YAYAYA AYAYAYA, presented in 2016’s festival, can see the next stage of this work which is almost fully formed.
The 360° archive involves a full-bodied immersive experience whereby audiences can virtually drop into the centre of the festival’s previous programme. With a full 360° optic, the viewer will have the autonomy to peep behind the scenes and see live performance work as it has never been seen before. Be. There. Now. breathes live-ness back into work that has happened, taking present and future audiences on a journey towards the moments that have been lived and through interactivity will be lived again.
The Festival also features a series of BITE SIZE/ SCRATCH performances where artists articulate and present a germ of an idea, asking audiences to critically engage with the proposition of the work to build further works that will grow and develop through 2017 and beyond.
Live Art Salons and initiatives, Why Live Art, Why Now and TRANS LIVE ART SALON & Residency, generate the space for dialogue, exploration and discussion while being indicative of the value the festival holds in live practice and the spaces live performance carves for activism, consciousness-raising and visibility, with a view to writing back against the conventional narrative and coming together around our individual and collective selves.
Live Collision International
Wednesday April 19th to Sunday April 23rd
Project Arts Centre, Dublin
Full programme and booking available on www.livecollision.com
Follow the event online here
