EVAMARIA SCHALLER

Combat Zone
IN / BETWEEN
Performancefestival @ Kunsthalle Gießen
curated by Dr. Nadia Ismail

The performance festival focuses on a central facet of contemporary art.
The English word performance is defined as the act of presenting or demonstrating something in front of an audience. Performers, however, consciously turn against theatricality and drama, against fixed texts and played actions, against the fixed space of the stage and against possible repetition. Performance art replaces permanent works with ephemeral, transient and unrepeatable actions and is thus conceived as a critique of the art market, which orientates itself around the sale of products. Performances artistically generate different realities, they create situations for new experiences and negotiate the present.

In order to trace the performative in an interdisciplinary manner, the Kunsthalle Gießen presents the performance festival IN/BETWEEN in cooperation with the Neuer Kunstverein Gießen e.V. and the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies at the Justus-Liebig-Universität. Over a period of two days, various artists will perform live in the Kunsthalle and the Kunstverein, while the students of Applied Theatre Studies will use their works in urban spaces to connect the two locations. The title IN/BETWEEN refers to the geographical location of the festival both within the institutions and in the urban space outside. Many of the featured artists work in a participatory manner, involving the audience directly in the performative action. Several works act as installations and activate a setting within the framework of their performances that is also accessible to visitors irrespective of the artist’s presence.

Artists
Kunsthalle: Akademie (Ben Kaufmann, René Stessl), Baby of Control, Magdalena Kita, Evamaria Schaller, Thomas Zipp
Neuer Kunstverein: Institut Avaroid

24.08. - 25.08.2019

Fotos Rolf K. Wegst