“The Performance Biennial took place on 23 June to 4 July 2016. It begun in the occupied cultural space of Green Park, open out to embrace the park of Pedion tou Areos, and then depart via boat from Piraeus to the island of Cythera. Seeking to problematise the role of performance in the neoliberal narrative we collectively engaged in ongoing disruptions between the institution and the self-instituted, between buildings and parks, between the centre and the periphery, between urban and rural. Emerging from DIY self -organised cultural practices appearing during these past years in Athens, this event critically interrogated the role of performance, in relation to political and social materialities and imaginaries. Playfully subverting the term ‘biennial’ into a self-organised practice, the event tested self-instituted forms of culture and politics. Under the title “No Future” this guerrilla biennial operated through a practice of “self-curating” as assembling. Resisting hierarchies and categorisations the programme consisted of timezones of conflictual “fields” and practices that were co-curated with the participants in a changing here and now.”

Performed In August with Javon Bennett via telephone.

Bennett, an HCA at The Royal London Hospital, performed live from the second-floor public telephone in the Tate Modern before his late shift started.

Works installed:

Audience of sunflowers (1:1) 2016 - sunflowers sourced locally, glass bottles of coca cola, bin bags waiting to be collected, phone, portable speakers, hose with water access.

Read an extract from Performing the Commons by Andreea S. Micu here.