Projects tagged "Performance"

Conquest
Practitioner:
Pope.L
Date:
Sep 21 2019
Conquest is a compelling new collective performance conceived by acclaimed artist Pope.L (b. Newark, 1955). It is inspired by his iconic solo crawls, where the artist dragged himself across a number of different urban landscapes. Navigating the streets and parks of Downtown Manhattan, Conquest extends this irreverent and provocative forty-year tradition of public performance with an ambitious group crawl involving over 140 volunteers.
Insane PR Circus Rocks Holland—But It's Not that Polar Bear Thing
Practitioner:
The Yes Men, Greenpeace
Date:
Aug 22 2013
What seemed to be a cruel and bizarre PR campaign took over Amsterdam yesterday as a barge with an apparently drugged polar bear, a Russian child superstar, and a colorful marching band wound through Amsterdam's canals to the city zoo. There, visitors and staff watched Gazprom and Shell reps officiously give the bear to Amsterdam—before being forcibly removed by zoo security and city police.
Lysistrata
Practitioner:
Aristophanes
Date:
Nov 30 0410
Lysistrata, by Aristophanes, was first performed in Athens in 411 BC. The play, while fictional, can be read as an early example of creative activism. It is about Lysistrata's quest to end the war between Athens and Sparta. She gathers the women of Athens and makes them swear an oath to deny their lovers and husband sex until they end the war.
Coco Fusco and Paula Heredia’s The Couple in the Cage: Guatinaui Odyssey
Practitioner:
Coco Fusco and MoMA
Date:
Jan 1 1993
The Couple in the Cage documents the travelling performance of Guillermo Gómez -Peña and Coco Fusco, in which they exhibited themselves as caged Amerindians from an imaginary island. While the artists’ intent was to create a satirical commentary on the notion of discovery, they soon realized that many of their viewers believed the fiction, and thought the artists were real “savages”.
One Billion Rising
Practitioner:
Eve Ensler
Date:
Feb 14 2013
The One Billion Rising campaign is a global movement that's using dance to combat gender violence worldwide. Initiated by "Vagina Monologues" creator and women's activist Eve Ensler, the campaign will see cities across the world hold dance parties on Valentine's Day to raise awareness about gender violence and rape.
Red Square Performance "Fixation"
Practitioner:
Petr Pavlensky
Date:
Nov 10 2013
Petr Pavlensky, a Russian performance artist, sent a nail through his scrotum to the cobblestones of Red Square in Moscow (on a holiday in celebration of law enforcement). He was later charged with hooliganism. Pavlensky, as quoted in the Guardian: "The performance can be seen as a metaphor for the apathy, political indifference and fatalism of contemporary Russian society."
BUFFALO BLOOD
Practitioner:
lila roo
Date:
May 15 2013
A series of performances orchestrated by Lila Roo, to bring awareness to the past, present and future issue of the physical and energetic violence against the First Nation of the native buffalo and peoples of the United Sates of America in the past few hundred years. Lila worked alongside activists, the buffalo and First Nation musicians and spiritual leaders to create multi-sensory blessings for the blood spilt.
Ice Watch
Practitioner:
Olafur Eliasson and Minik Rosing
Date:
Dec 14 2018
Does it vex you, the environmental impact of Olafur Eliasson’s Ice Watch? Do you hear about the transportation of 30 icebergs from the Nuup Kangerlua fjord in Greenland to be displayed in London as a memento mori for our inhabitable environment and judge the project a bit of an own-goal, sustainability-wise? You would not be alone – on personal evidence, this seems a popular response.
Becoming an Image
Practitioner:
Cassils
Date:
Jun 1 2012
Cassils' Becoming an Image confronts issues of queer and trans visibility, bodily violence, and the politics of witnessing. The performance uses a powerful blend of media—including live action in darkness, flash photography, clay sculpture, and sound—to explore how trauma and resilience are physically and symbolically inscribed onto the queer body.
Ge Yulu: Eye Contact
Practitioner:
Ge Yulu
Date:
May 1 2016
Ge Yulu’s artistic practice playfully pulls at the strings of a social system that, although seemingly all-encompassing, is in fact a malleable structure consisting of individual human beings. For his 2016 project Eye Contact, Ge positioned himself in front of a surveillance camera and stared directly into the lens for hours, then negotiated with a security guard to buy the footage.
Wyrd: Double, Double, Oil, and Trouble
Practitioner:
Reclaim Shakespeare Company
Date:
Jul 7 2012
"Twelve members of the 'Reclaim Shakespeare Company' staged an unexpected protest performance inside the 'Shakespeare: Staging the World' exhibition at the British Museum.
Rebranding European Muslims
Practitioner:
Public Movement
Date:
Sep 28 2012
Public Movement is a Tel Aviv based ‘performative research body’. Through large-scale performances in the public realm they construct alternative arenas for the consideration of communal identities – national, religious and cultural – revitalising debate around the distribution of power.
UndocuNation gathers artists at International House
Practitioner:
UndocuNation
Date:
Feb 18 2013
UndocuNation, a performance and visual art conglomeration, took place this past Friday at International House. The Center for Race and Gender at Berkeley, CultureStr/ke, and the Theater and Dance Performance Studies department here at UC Berkeley helped put on the show specifically for Berkeley students. The show’s main focus was on the complex issues of undocumented immigration, and what that can mean for students especially.
Chlamydia dell’Arte: A Sex-Ed Burlesque
Practitioner:
Written and performed by Gigi Naglak (left) and Meghann Williams (right)
Date:
May 10 2012
Chlamydia dell’Arte: A Sex-Ed BurlesqueYou’ve never taken a sex-ed class like this one!
Rundberg's 'Running Man' Looks to Take His Message Beyond Austin
Practitioner:
Broderick James
Date:
Feb 18 2014
He's everyone's favorite cardio-loving community activist — a relatively new emissary of Austin weird.
Joseph Beuys, Coyote: I like America and America Likes Me, May 1974
Practitioner:
Joseph Beuys
Date:
Mar 1 1974
It was 1974 when Beuys arrived in New York City, ready to tackle a whole new challenge and create what was to become one of the most famous works of art of the time. Upon arrival, his assistants wrapped him in a large piece of felt and transported him, by ambulance, to the René Block Gallery in SoHo. There, awaiting the artist, was a live coyote. Beuys spent three consecutive days, eight hours at a time, locked up with the wild animal.
Ana Mendieta and Earth Art
Practitioner:
Ana Mendieta
Date:
Apr 20 2018
The works of Ana Mendieta tells a story of the power of the body and the earth, and methods of activism. ----
FESPACO
Practitioner:
The Pan-African Festival of Cinema and Television
Date:
Dec 2 2017
Fespaco is a meeting place put to good use to promote the development of black cinematography. From 1973, topics of discussion are introduced at each edition.
The Freedom Trail on Trial
Practitioner:
Urbano Project
Date:
Nov 20 2011
In the fall of 2011, Urbano’s teen artists and artist-in-residence Neil Horsky partnered with professional artists, educators, librarians, and historians to undertake a critical investigation of Boston’s Freedom Trail.  During the investigative process teen artists questioned the assumptions, accuracy, comprehensiveness, and impartiality of public presentations of the city’s
The Dark Side: O'Keefe
Practitioner:
James O'Keefe, Hannah Giles
Date:
Sep 3 2009
Trickery and disguise, usually followed by revealing the truth, are often tactics used by liberal activism, like the Yes Men for example. When used by the right, however, it can have different implications. Pretending to be a CEO or billionaire in order to expose corporate greed and corruption is clearly different then pretending to be a minority. The use of disguise can manipulate and shed light on hierarchies of power.
Beautiful Women's Rights Walk
Practitioner:
Meili Xiao
Date:
Sep 15 2012
In 2012, the 24-year-old feminist activist Xiao Meili launched the "Beautiful Women's Rights Walk" anti-sexual assault activity. She set off from Beijing in mid-September and passed through Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Changsha and other cities along the way to reach the destination Guangzhou. She took 114 days and reaches more than 2500 kilometers in this tour.
The Art And Activism of Nobuko Miyamoto: How She Became One Of LA's Most Enduring Performers
Practitioner:
Nobuko Miyamoto
Date:
May 3 2023
In 1972, something unheard of happened on national television. An Asian American singer-songwriter duo was invited to perform on the widely-watched The Mike Douglas Show by guest hosts John Lennon and Yoko Ono. “They’re beautiful singers,” Lennon said in his introduction. “And they have a story to tell.”
Joey Skaggs: novelty silliness and well-packaged rebellion
Practitioner:
Joey Skaggs
Date:
May 9 2013
In July 1976, prankster and satirist Joey Skaggs, calling himself Giuseppe Scaggoli, appeared before a rabid crowd, dressed in sharp-lapeled finery. He had some unfortunate news: that day’s planned auction of rock star sperm was cancelled due to a mysterious theft. All he could offer in the way of comfort were his assurances that more donations were to be sought as soon as possible.
The Yes Men - Bhopal Hoax
Practitioner:
The Yes Men
Date:
Dec 3 2004
“I am very, very happy to announce that for the first time, Dow is accepting full responsibility for the Bhopal catastrophe. We have a $12 billion plan to finally, at long last, fully compensate the victims, including the 120,000 who may need medical care for their entire lives, and to fully and swiftly remediate the Bhopal plant site,” said the supposed Dow Chemical spokesman, Jude Finisterra, on Dec. 3, 2004, during an appearance on BBC World.
Transparency on R&D Costs
Practitioner:
Irene Romero & Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) Europe
Date:
Nov 27 2017
A set of strategies to highlight the high cost of medicine and lack of transparency in the pharmaceutical industry including a funny and disturbing satirical website, video, and press conference to promote their fake organization, the Association of Honest Pharmaceutical Representatives.

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