BREAK 21_DEAD OR ALIVE
6th International Festival of Emerging Artists
18th June-7th July / Ljubljana / Slovenija


REVIEW of the first week 18th - 22nd June 2002



>>>LIVE ART
Following the theme Dead or Alive, the Festival dealt with 'dead' in
the first week. The opening was powerful indeed as it started with the
performance 'Shattered dreams' by NIKO RAES (BE) - the only body artist
in Belgium, whose work is strongly connected with the radical art of
Ron Athey or Franko B.
This physically extremely demanding performance culminated with the
artist going beyond his limits, and doing so stretching his muscle.
After Raes, DIETMAR BRUCKMAYR (AT) turned his body into an instrument
by biting and beating the microphone, while singing a Teutonic aria, an
ode to the power of life. The audience also had a chance to experience
the feeling of drowning in the performance of MARIJAN CRTALIC (HR), one
of the few young performance artists in Croatia.
The highlights of the week was the performance of KIRA O'REILLY (GB), a
live artist from London. In her blood letting performance, where she
deals with imprisonment of the body, its fragility and vulnerability,
she created sublime beauty and poetry.



>>>VISUAL ARTISTS PRESENTED AT THE GALLERY
The black and unitary space of the gallery was inhabited by a huge
object, with two video-chambers for two persons only at both ends, so
the intimacy of space could strike you almost physically. That feeling
was intensified by the theme of both videos - suicide and murder. The
skeleton between the two video chambers was occupied by three lit glass
cases containing three esthetical objects - leftovers of death: the
modified human skull, porcelain made of human ashes and chocolate casts
of wounds, taken at the morgue.
Both video works which dealt with autopsy were unified in a TV-cinema
for one person, by a construction that looked like a flesh-machine. The
video about spotting the suicides on the Golden Gate bridge was set in
the void of the black gallery end.



>>>SYMPOSIUM
The Symposium lasted for three days with three lectures per day. It
culminated in a discussion with almost all participants being
confronted. Some very important questions were raised, for example is
there a suicide gene? What are the possible forms of new life when one
is engaged in wet biology practices? What are the repercussions of a
necrophilic act as an art performance and what is it like to have a sex
with a dead body? Where does psychoanalysis stand on the issue of death
and life? What are the obscure sexual practises that we get to know
only when the people who practice them are dead? … and many more.



>>>NET ART
Net art works at the festival:
- Innergirl: Suicide Journal
http://suicidejournal.com

- Jimpunk: jimpunk visits mouchette at the m.org.ue
http://www.jimpunk.com/www/m.org.ue/

- Melinda Rackham: Carrier
http://www.subtle.net/carrier/

- Mouchette
http://www.mouchette.org




We proudly announce next week events of the festival (25th till 29th of
June) starting with the radical stitching performance of Havve Fjell
(NO) and the works in the exhibition that cover 'or' part of 'Dead or
Alive'.
Stay tuned.

http://www.break21.org