East European Performing Arts Platform (EEPAP) supports the
development of contemporary performing arts (dance and theatre)
in 18 countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Anthology: Month of Performance Art in Berlin

MP

The Month of Performance Art-Berlin (MPA-B) is a 31-day, city-wide,  non-profit and non-funded collaborative platform devoted to supporting and advancing independent performance art practices in Berlin, and from around the world. 

Established in 2011, and running annually in May, MPA–B connects and brings together hundreds of artists, spaces, networks and initiatives, who collaboratively contribute to the development of a unique and radical month-long cultural programme, featuring: indoor and outdoor performances, site-specific interventions, talks, workshops, screenings, exhibitions, public encounters and interactions, durational and days-long actions, food gatherings, public tryouts and many other formats and projects which do not have, or reject, any definition.

As a non-institutionalised platform, running on the voluntary work of a handful of performance art makers cum organisers/producers, and with its non-hierarchical and jointly assembled performance art programme, co-organised by hundreds of participating artists, curators, venues and networks, MPA–B sets itself apart from most festivals and gives life to a unique project reflecting on, and celebrating the particularity, experience  and creative force of the local, national and international independent performance art community.

THE 2015 EDITION OF THE MONTH OF PERFORMANCE ART-BERLIN IS ENTITLED ANTHOLOGY. 

It showcases new work of artists, curators and organisers who have been involved in the incredible story called MPA–B at different junctions over the past five years. This edition marks the completion of the platform and the five year inquiry that stood at its outset back in January 2011: mapping, connecting and supporting the independent performance art scene in Berlin. 

From the organisers

 

As a performance art platform, MPA-B embraces the task to imagine an infinite number of possible natures and to respect the integrity of all artists and their belief in what they do – that their art is a necessity. To see these performances is to witness them, and witnessing them over the years we develop a vocabulary to communicate and share our own thoughts and emotions with our fellow witnesses. We are thrilled to once again be initiators and participants in this  process of building a language or, rather, many languages. 

This year will, more than ever, challenge the participating venues throughout the city to confront their different views on the complex relations between economics, social context, and aesthetics. Our central location provides an example for this kind of discourse: the HUB or Second Temporary House of Performance Art chooses as its home the contested space of a White Cube. We are grateful to the artists running Meinblau, an independent gallery and shared studio space in Berlin Mitte, for hosting MPA–B. We hope that the physical proximity of the works and the exchange between the makers at the HUB will help to dissolve borders and limits of individual performance projects and encourage them to merge into one overarching process that will develop and accumulate throughout the entire month of May. 

Even though this coming one might be the last edition of the Month of Performance Art–Berlin in its present format, we look to the future optimistically, committed to focus even more on what makes performance art so compelling: No one, more often than not including the artist, knows exactly what is going to happen during these shared moments of present. 

We will continue to share feelings of blissful uncertainty with anyone who is willing to take the risks involved in this journey. Under the auspices of the APAB e.V., the Association of Performance Art in Berlin, we will continue to collaborate, conspire and converse to promote and facilitate performance art in Berlin.

Organisers: 
Francesca Romana Ciardi, Tristan Deschamps
Participants: 

Adria Chilcote, Adi Liraz, Adrian Brun, Agnieszka Szablikowska, Łukasz Trusewicz, Aleks Slota, Alexa Wilson, Amelie Hensel, Anja Ibsch, Anne Wodtcke, Anya Liftig, Association for Performance Art in Berlin, Boris Azemar, Brina Stinehelfer, Camilla Graff Junior, Dagmar I. Glausnitzer-Smith, Luisa Catucci (Cell63), Dirk Thorwarth, Emanuelle Nedelcu, Esther Neff, Brian McCorkle, Eva Giannakopoulou,  Rilène Markopoulou, 
Francesca Romana Ciardi, Gaby Bila-Günther, Gustavo Solar, Karina Villavicencio, Hector Canonge, Hélène Lefebvre., Henry MacWilliams, Ilya Noe, Adam Young, Joel Verwimp, John G. Boehme, Joy Harder, Marie Alice Schultz, Joern Burmester, Florian Feigl, Katie Dunbar, Anaïs Héraud, Lala Nomada, Lan Hungh, Delphine Marinier, Peter Krilles, Leen Horsford, Lise Mignon aka La Poulette, Ellen & Henrik Vestergaards Friis, Michael Steger, Philip Kevin Brehse, Open Space Performunion, Nathalie Fari, Pepe, Poul R. Weile, Rachel Rits-Volloch, Rebecca Weeks, Ian Whitford, Richard Rabensaat, Sanija Kulenovic, Steve Slater, Tamara Rettenmund, Teena Lange, Dolanby, Thomas Bacon, Tristan Deschamps, Verónica Peña Martínez, Sara Zaltash, Shelley Etkin, Hanae Utamura, Nabi from SOMA Gallery.

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