15. PERFORMANCE REIHE NEU-OERLIKON 2024 – EN –

Let’s celebrate! The last edition of the PERFORMANCE REIHE NEU-OERLIKON will take place on 24 August 2024, starting at 2 pm.

The PERFORMANCE REIHE NEU-OERLIKON has had a lasting impact on the performance art scene in Zurich and beyond. Over the past fourteen years, the festival has invited and presented national and international, individual and collective positions from many countries and more than three hundred artists.

The PERFORMANCE REIHE NEU-OERLIKON was always primarily about the delight of engaging with performance art and, at the same time, having new experiences. This approach is still an important part of the festival, including this last edition.

The promotion of dialogue between artists and audiences is of central importance. Inviting the ‚uninitiated audience‘, passers-by and visitors to the park, to participate or ask questions has always been an important aspect.

The invited performance artists engaged with the public space, using Oerlikon Park and the neighbouring Wahlenpark as a backdrop for their wide-ranging artistic explorations. And this year will be no exception.

The festival programme has also included lectures by art historians, curators and guests from abroad, as well as artist talks. These have been great for inspiring an exchange between the artists and the audience. The Red Pavilion in Oerlikon Park was the focal point of the festival venue. The artists and the audience transformed the pavilion into a stage, an information desk, a kiosk and a meeting point for discussion and conversation. This year, the pavilion will be the temporary meeting place for the last time.

Themes included gender and identity, activism and feminism, beauty aesthetics and the body as a social subject and political territory. Nature and the environment, proximity and distance were also explored. The performances included both long and short pieces, as well as installations and participatory works. Dance and music, language and text, canto and narrative also featured. The use of different materials and the historical background of the Neu-Oerlikon neighbourhood were also significant elements in the performances during this years.

In 2019, the PERFORMANCE REIHE NEU-OERLIKON travelled to Mexico as part of an exchange with the EXTRA Festival: EXTRA! Festival Internacional de Performance. Encuentro Binacional Mexico / Suiza. We not only presented both festivals to the Mexican audience, but also invited performance artists from both countries to present their performances in Ex-Teresa Arte Actual, ARTSPACEMEXICO and at the Biosfera Experimental Arte de Acción.

As an extension of the festival, the event was held at the Kaskadenkondensator in Basel in 2020, as a follow-up to the festival in Neu-Oerlikon. Local and international artists presented their works, while video performances by Spanish artists were also exhibited. Additionally, interviews with curators from Spain were conducted via Zoom.

As the founder, organiser and curator, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the founders, all the cantons, in particular the Canton of Zurich and the City of Zurich, the Oerlikon neighbourhood association and the many foundations that have contributed financially to the realisation of the festival over the years and made it possible. A big thank you also goes to the institutions from abroad that have supported their artists and made it possible for them to travel to Zurich.

Special thanks also go to all the artists who have been engaged in Oerliker Park and Wahlenpark with their artworks and their engagement. I would also like to thank the many assistants who stood by my side with their valuable support, as well as the videographers and photographers and everyone who was involved in any way and helped to make the festival great.

I am pleased to announce that Elsbeth Carolin Iten and Kerstin Wittenberger are part of the organising and curatorial team for this last edition. I would like to thank Elsbeth and Kerstin for their commitment and support, which will contribute to the success of this year’s festival.

This year we are presenting twenty-seven performances by over thirty artists: all the artists who have performed in the last fourteen years have been invited to perform one last time in Oerliker Park. Six new positions have been invited to the festival. Artists from Bern, Basel, Lucerne, Appenzell AR, Aargau, London, Oslo and Zurich are taking part.

Long live performance art and let’s celebrate!

I’m excited to move on to the next challenge and focus on other projects.

Maricruz Peñaloza

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