Looking forward to The III VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK ' FRAGILE BODY – MATERIAL BODY'

The III VENICE INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART WEEK

I’m really looking forward to furthering my exploration by experiencing the artwork at this event. And conversing with Venetian artists Chiara Enzo and Marta Naturale on the subject of how other artists approach the same, current and relevant thinking.

The text below, taken from the introduction on the website to Art Week, relates to my current work. Looking at  It’s not you, it’s the water thrower (2016), the result of a 16 month research and development project, the artwork involved public participation and looked at  receptiveness, humanity, sensibility and vulnerability. Presenting a wet-clay dolphin calf on a medical trolley, the work was to be watered, wrapped and unwrapped; and when drying on the last day the visitors and gallery volunteers influenced the final piece.

Towards creating this piece I considered the dolphin, studying and analysing links in mythology and symbolism, ‘the pod’ they swim in, questioning humanities hierarchy of needs and care in group mentality.

​It's not you, it's the water thrower
Leila Houston
Installation: wet clay, photography, metal trolley, water
Funded by Arts Council England
Image 1: Photograph by Andrea Jaeger www.jaegerimages.com

...For this third edition with the focus Fragile Body – Material Body, the works present physical, mental and spiritual bodies as primary material of artistic expression, aiming to investigate a wide range of concepts pertinent to the art forms of performance art, Live art and Body Art, such as: authenticity, living entities and their relations towards one another; fragility and vulnerability of the individual and of the social relationships; mental and spiritual states rendered through liminal physical and corporeal manifestation; as well as encouraging questions around the post-organic transformations and mutations to which we subject the human body.

The presence of human beings in this world is always more than a temporary condition: the communication that can be triggered between artists and the audience is an essential element. The topics addressed during the week will relate to the need to look at social relations and the lives of individuals with greater care...

FRA•GILE

The word "fragile" is often associated with the locution "handle with care"...

...It is a call to action – to practice a more mindful, careful and respectful behaviour towards the Other, in the words we say, thoughts we think, and things we do. Toying with the paradox of the strength and fragility of our physical bodies, the first requirement here is to step beyond mere appearances and limitations...

...Proposing de-construction as a necessary tool for development, the word "care" implies real engagement in dealing with an emergency, or to possibly evaluate a given situation from all sides, therefore also reflecting on its potentials and value. Eventually, depending on the conclusions of these evaluations, to "handle with care" can either mean to protect that which is fragile or to courageously engage in transformation, to the point that the only way "to deal with a world so evidently and increasingly unfree, it is to become so absolutely free that our very existence is an act of rebellion... for rebellion cannot exist without a strange form of love." (Albert Camus)...

MA•TE•RIAL

...The Thesaurus defines the term "material" as an alternative adjective for the body of a human being, and many historical references in literature indicate the material body as the door to reach the spiritual body, that which has to be transcended in one way or another to reach our spiritual matter.​..

...What does it mean for a being to be? What is existence? What can be said to exist?

...Everything we see could also be otherwise. Everything we can describe at all, could also be otherwise. - Venice International Performance Art Week.

At this event -

ARTISTS 2016 / Marina Abramović / Dimitris Alithinos / Marcel·lí Antúnez Roca / Marilyn / Arsem / John Baldessari / Janusz Bałdyga / Evangelia Basdekis / Nathalie Anguezomo Mba / Bikoro / Lisa Bufano / John Cage & Klaus vom Bruch / Sophie Calle / Kris Canavan / Cassils / Panos Charalambous / Thanassis Chondros & Alexandra Katsiani / Samanta / Cinquini & Luca Nava / Helen Cole / Alexander Del Re / Jeannette Ehlers / Giovanni / Fontana / Nicola Fornoni / Franko B / Coco Fusco & Guillermo Gómez-Peña / Paula Heredia / Christina Georgiou / Guillermo Gómez-Peña / Gim Gwang Cheol / gyrl grip (Llewyn Máire & Lisa Newman) / Ria Hartley / Mona Hatoum / Jeff Huckleberry / Irwin / Casey Jenkins / Maria Karavela / Maria Klonaris & Katerina Thomadaki / Anna Kosarewska / KörperSchafftKlang / Kyrahm + Julius Kaiser / jamie lewis hadley / Arrigo Lora Totino / Tran Luong / Ato Malinda / Antonio Manuel / Andrea Marcaccio / Noé Martínez & María Sosa / James McAllister / Paul / McCarthy / Ana Mendieta / Johann Merrich / Mladen Miljanovic / Linda Montano / Charlotte Moorman & Nam June Paik / Andrea Morucchio / Otto Mühl & Hermann Nitsch / Bruce / Nauman / Martin O'Brien / OHO Group / Yoko Ono / ORLAN / Leda Papaconstantinou / Mike Parr / Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich / Alexandros Plomaritis / Douglas Quin + Lorne Covington / Alicia Radage / Pipilotti Rist / Preach R Sun / Mauro Sambo / Lerato Shadi / Marcel Sparmann / Stelarc / Demetrio Stratos / Matej Stupica + Lenka Đorojević / Suka Off / Theodoros, sculptor / Bill Viola / Andy Warhol / Jørgen Leth / Lawrence Weiner / Susanne Weins & Sašo Vollmaier / Jud Yalkut / Mary Zygouri / Ejercicios Mosqueto/PerfoLink / EX NUNC / Fondazione Bonotto / Fragment 31 / Fundación Alumnos47 / Galerija G12 HUB / G.A.P. Gathering Around Performance / Galleria A plus A / Grace Exhibition Space / Gruppo 78 | DoubleRoom / Live Art Development Agency (LADA) / Louisiana Museum of Modern Art / Study Movie Room / ART WEEK | FRINGE PROGRAM 2016