Experimentica has now come to an end. These timely themes have inspired intriguing art for the past five days. This is a wrap up review, so expect more condensed reviews of the work.
This Is Live Art have the fantastic idea to get children involved with performance art. What better way to do this then to get them to act out famous work? The studio was alive with parents and children trying out all the props for the art and I found myself taking in what art games were own offer. It was heart stuff, featuring the work of Marcel Duchamp and Marina Abramović to name a few. Whilst I have no child of my own, I felt it was more for the kiddies, but I do think its a great way to get them into live art young.
I paired two lists to see veteran artist and his If my memory serves me well. Going for four hours (I doubt there were breaks), we went through his extraordinary life in theatre in sprawling details. Every time the photo slide moved on the Powerpoint, Mike would then go into the story of that performance, stopping short in the story he was telling. This was perhaps my favourite event at the whole festival and I found the insights and humour on performing very inspiring to a budding live artist like myself.
One last venture into the Common Room was for Fern Thomas and her Spring Tides Archipelago. This was very gentle viewing and had a lulling quality that would not be out consideration at children theatre. The simple puppetry, views on magic, myth and the tides, along with the charming simplicity to it all, is what made the event of worth. Fern might need to speak up slightly, as her delivery could not always be heard, since she took the time to write it, after all.
What better way to end than with a game of ping-pong? The Finnish athletes Dorian Nuskind-Oder and Simon Grenier-Poirier, gave us all the dynamics the playing the sport, without any of the competitive aspects. They both simply played until they ran out of balls, as they began to roll towards us. The speeds the ball goes becomes a blur of white and hard at time to actually keep up (and not feel sick in the process). The patters in which they exchange the ball back and forth become a sort of minimalist, metronome sounding exercise in endurance. It was also nice to have the last event on the Sunday to end easier and to allow people to get public transport.
Sad to see the festival go. It is now time for rest.
Till next year!