Mikiki
Emma-Kate Guimond

VIVA ! ART ACTION 2019
09.25–09.28.2019

From the 25th until the 28th of September , the 2019 edition of VIVA! Art Action  will present the work of more than 20 artists from here and abroad in a program that unites performances, interventions in public space, performative meals, participatory artworks, and a number of workshops and conferences. As always, to ensure that action art remains easily accessible to a wide audience, all of the events presented within the context of the festival, with the exception of professional workshops, are free.

The VIVA! headquarters will return once again to Ateliers Jean Brillant , a culturally dedicated industrial space located in the heart of Montréal’s St-Henri neighbourhood. Between the 25th and the 28th of September , four evening programs of action art will be presented at the headquarters, along with interventions in nearby public space, and infiltrations into the festival’s social network platforms. The seventh edition of VIVA! will include more than 20 established and emerging artists  from all four corners of the globe: Quebec and Canada, the United States, Argentina, Columbia, Europe, Japan, China, India, etc.  The various practices showcased within this diverse selection of performers provides an in-depth look at the vast interdisciplinary field of action art. The festival works in concert with its partners to create the circumstances necessary to provide artists with quasi-total artistic freedom, from which will invariably emerge moments of emotion, striking images, and unforgettable encounters. True to tradition, VIVA! will take audiences off the beaten path of contemporary art, offering singular experiences that sometimes unfold subtly, and sometimes occur in spectacular bursts.

This year, VIVA! shines a spotlight on a selection of pioneer performance artists. Among the much-anticipated moments is a performance marking the dissolution of WWKA (Women with Kitchen Appliances) , a collective whose unquestionably feminist manifestations have shaken up the Quebecois art scene periodically over the past two decades. Also performing is Seiji Shimoda , a Japanese artist who has presented over 400 performances throughout his lifetime and is a pillar of contemporary performance art in Asia. VIVA! will also welcome Alastair MacLennan , founding member of Belfast’s Art and Research Exchange and Bbeyond Performance Art, and Maria Evelia Marmolejo , a leading figure in political and feminist performance art in South America since the ‘70s.

Prior to the nightly programmes of action presented at the headquarters at 8pm, VIVA! invites the public to join the festival participants for a shared meal created by David Sebastian Lopez Restrepo , the artists-in-residence in the VIVA! Kitchen. As of 6:30pm (5:30pm on opening night), the Danish-Columbian artist and his team will serve, in a uniquely performative manner, a well-balanced and affordable meal that will nourish both the minds and bodies of guests, whether they are omnivores or vegetarians.

Finally, never one to shy away from unpredictability, VIVA! will give Ignacio Pérez Pérez  and Simon Brown its passwords and free reign of its social media platforms, which the artists will use to share performative posts created from their respective experiences of the intensive four-day celebration of action art. Their photos, videos, and writings will be disseminated on VIVA!’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts, and exist as infiltrations that will leak beyond framework of the festival.

ABOUT ACTION ART

Action art is a discipline that includes—but is not limited to—performance, public intervention, relational projects, body art, happenings, and furtive action. This rather “undisciplined” art form can be characterized by the essential—though not always visible—presence of the artist in a typically ephemeral artwork that unfolds in the “here and now.” Be it orchestrated or improvised, subtle or direct, action art is a thriving and sometimes provocative and uncomfortable aspect of contemporary visual arts culture. It encourages us to reflect on our bodies, behaviour, culture, and contemporary societies.