Due to ongoing Russian Invasion in Ukraine and current geopolitical situation in and around Belarus, a fourth edition of Performensk is relocating to Brussels in 2022. This year’s edition will continue its mission to create a space of gathering and dialogue between practices and cultures from different parts of Europe. Our collective reflection will seek to explore themes related to exile (in its broadest sense physical and spiritual) the boundaries and connections between artistic performing practices.

This circumstance reminded us of the words of the Cuban poet José Martí who referred to exile as a carving in clouds. Some of us feel that these times are asking us to lift up a misty chisel and sculpt the figures that inhabit the soul of those who flee and find the methods prescribed by scarcity and modesty. Performensk 2022 will focus on the works of artists who, with the mere boundaries of their bodies and little else, summon their memories, imagine unpredictable narratives and thus, go beyond the notion that artistic practice must be subjected to the arid precision of common technological tools. The context of exile of this edition sharpens a theme of borders, more than before. Borders are inhumanely expressed on the geographic limits between states, social classes, but also in the domain of our activities as artists. Are we performers, musicians, troubadours, producers or diletants? At what moment in space and time do we become one or the other? This year’s Performensk will strive  to make apparent  the silver thread existing between practices and present a series of events that will hopefully move our audiences to follow the tightrope walk of our activities.

Performensk 2022 artists: Aliens, Anna Khvyl, Bryozone, Catherine Hershey & Jonas Chereau, Cassé, Damien Leblois & Sylvie Bouteiller, Fornicio Rivera, Great Circus of Failure, Mariana Carvalho, Micha Goldberg, Nikolay Karabinovych, Papa pique et Maman Coud (aka C. de Trogoff et L.L. de Mars), Michal Kindernay, Viktoryia Hrabennikava.

PROGRAM