Event documentation

Performance & Participation round-table
Tuesday 22nd May

Four major artists came together to discuss performance and participation at Queen Mary, University of London. Each artist made a short presentation about their work in relation to the theme of participation, then the discussion was opened to the floor.

Ron Athey began performing in galleries with Rozz Williams in 1981. In 1992 he commenced his legendary torture trilogy - Martyrs and Saints, Deliverance and Four Scenes in a Harsh Life - which have all toured internationally. At the 10th Fierce Festival he performed Incorruptible Flesh (Perpetual Wound) with Dominic Johnson and his sex-art performance party Re-Visions of Excess, co-curated with Lee Adams; and a new solo piece Ecstatic, which premiered at Arnolfini in Bristol at the beginning of June.
Marisa Carnesky is a modern-day showwoman and theatre-based live art practitioner. A performer, director and producer of grand spectacles, she regularly presents work in the UK and internationally. Recent projects include Carnesky's Ghost Train, a vast fully-functioning fairground ride involving live performance, projection and illusion; Phenomena and her Charms, which recently opened at the BAC Burst Festival; and her recent touring production, Magic War, which was presented at Fierce Festival 2007.
Fakir Musafar is known worldwide for his sixty years of body-first research into histories of body decoration, transformation and ritual. In the late 70s Fakir was the founder of the Modern Primitives, and has since had his work profiled in the 1985 film Dances Sacred and Profane, and in the Re/Search publication Modern Primitives the following year. A collection of Fakir's images, called Spirit + Flesh, was published by Arena Editions in 2002, and a 2nd book is currently being published in Germany.
Kira O'Reilly has recently presented work at the National Review of Live Art in Glasgow, Baltic in Gateshead, Arnolfini in Bristol, Home in London, at festivals throughout Europe and as a British Council representative in China. In 2003-4 she undertook a bio-art residency with Symbiotica's Tissue Culture and Art project at the University of Western Australia. Her most recent performance Untitled (Syncope) was presented last month at Spill, London's newest festival of live art and experimental theatre.
Lois Keidan (chair) is co-founder and director of the Live Art Development Agency, which offers resources, professional development projects and initiatives for the support and development of Live Art in London, the UK and internationally. She has previously worked as director of live art at the ICA, in its heyday in the 1990s, and as National Officer for Performance Art at Arts Council England.

(Descriptions are adapted from Dominic Johnson's opening address)

Performance and Participation was co-curated by Justin Allen (Switch Theatre) and Dominic Johnson (Lecturer in Drama at Queen Mary, University of London)

Audio clips

To hear audio clips of each artist talking about their work, click on the links below (they will open in a separate window).

Marisa Carnesky | Fakir Musafar | Kira O'Reilly | Ron Athey

A full recording of the round-table is available in the documentation pack, which can be viewed at the Live Art Development Agency's study room in London

To arrange a time to view it please contact Andrew Mitchelson by email or call 020 7033 0275.

To find out more about any of the artists mentioned, please get in touch.

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